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January 26, 2007 Vol. 77, no.
3S
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| PHOTO COUTESY OF
TSE-SUNG WU |
Career Corner with ME alum Tse-Sung Wu
Career Corner features interviews with alumni about their career choices.
For the last eight years, Tse-Sung Wu (B.S.’89 ME) has been an
environmental health and safety engineer at Genentech, where he’s
responsible for environmental and employee well-being in the company’s
research labs and helping to ensure a timely drug development process.
He has earned a Ph.D. in CEE and engineering and public policy from
Carnegie Mellon and did a post doc at Berkeley before working at Genentech.
How did you go about finding your interest or passion?
I was involved with Student Pugwash in college and the Society for
Women Engineers. I also had an epiphany. The things I wanted to learn
about had to do with the confluence (and often conflict) of science,
engineering and technology with society, public policy and management.
Around the same time, I also came to the realization that, above all,
the most important thing for our physical well-being is a healthy natural
environment.
What do you recommend students do during school to prepare for a career?
Don’t let the major box you in. You definitely can be curious
and good at other things such as art, history, Buddhist philosophy,
etc. The technical person who’s also effective at influencing
without authority will go far. Trust your intuition on important decisions:
Your purpose in life, whether you should take that job, whom and what
you decide to love. Lastly, make it a habit to travel and have fun.
What are some things to think about while considering a potential job?
Figure out what you want. Money? An opportunity to pursue a technology?
Or certain skills? Then ask: How might this job give these to me now
and in the near future?
What advice do you give for making the transition from student to career
employee?
Adopt the ways, just a tad, of your new environment. This helps build
trust among your new colleagues. Be punctual, follow through and communicate
well (that includes listening), even erring on the side of communicating
too much at first. Keep your life balanced and stay physically active.
Have
additional questions? E-mail tsesung@cal.berkeley.edu.
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