NYCU Global MBA alumni interview series
#dualdegree #taiwan #france #mba #nycu #nycugmba
Alumni:
– Alice Kuo (Class 2023, #taiwan), financial analyst -https://www.linkedin.com/in/ming-chieh-kuo-053bb7175/
– Thibault Gueho (Class 2022, #france), -https://www.linkedin.com/in/thibault-gueho-38014b148/
00:00 Intro
00:45 Introduction of Bella Hsu (host), Thibault Gueho, and Alice Kuo
03:52 Alice’s internship in Luxembourg
05:36 Alice’: Why to choose Rennes School of Business for the dual degree program destination
07:25 Jin-Su’s introduction of NYCU Global MBA (GMBA)
08:54 Thibault: Why to choose NYCU GMBA for the dual degree program destination
11:36 Thibault: Any challenge in Taiwan? Food?
14:15 Alice’s difficulty in France?
14:57 Alice’s challenge in France besides food
17:38 Challenges of studying in other countries, France vs. Taiwan
20:10 How to manage language barriers? France vs. Taiwan
23:15 Benefits of joining the overseas dual degree program
29:23 Recommendation for students who are interested in this dual-degree program
31:20 Wrap up, contact information
gmba@nycu.edu.tw
Hello everyone! Welcome to GMBA Universe. This channel is dedicated to sharing the experiences and career development and stories of NYCU GMBA alumni. My name is Bella and I’m really honored to be the host today and we are thrilled to have Thibault and Alice join us today, today to share
Their experience of pursuing a duel degree program in another country and also a warm welcome to our beloved Professor Jin Su. So welcome everyone. All right so before we dive into the interview today uh please allow me to briefly introduce myself as well. I’m also a GMBA alumni class of 2016 and I
Had the opportunity to participate the exchange program in the Netherlands and also the dual degree program in the United States so I probably had some similar experience as you guys but however today is not about me it’s about you guys. So welcome Thibault and Alice. Okay so uh could
You please briefly introduce yourself? Maybe let’s start from Thibault. Yes perfect thank you Bella, thank you for the introduction. Yes my name is Thibault. I was at NYCU GMBA between 2021 and 2022 uh and my dual degree is with the school in France Rennes School of Business. Uh so I’m French and
Polish so it was a very nice experience for me to to come to NYCU GMBA. And right now I am in Paris and I am a um development and members coordinator for FEDORA platform, an association that promote
Innovation in opera and dance and we are, right now in in Paris. Okay thank you Thibault. Now you are working, you say that it’s a platform to support uh future opera and dance in Europe. Is that correct? Yes, so FEDORA is um the purpose of FEDORA it is to really promote innovation
Uh in opera and dance so either projects or you know ideas or in initiatives. And so it’s, we are focused mostly on Europe but you know we also want to, to go to other countries at one point. So yeah
That’s the purpose is really promote innovation so that more people can also enjoy and op then you know younger audiences people who don’t really have the access to to see this kind of uh of you know performances so that’s kind of the purpose of Fedora. Very nice. So before landing on this job,
You pursued a dual degree at NYCU GMBA in Taiwan right? Yes. So we are eager to hear about your experience but I will get back to you in a moment. Alice, could you please also introduce yourself?
Yeah sure thank you Bella for introduction. Okay I’m Alice. I have been at GMBA since 2019 and I took dual master degree program in Rennes Business School in France in 2021 and uh I currently I work
In Luxembourg as a financial analyst for a private equity fund. We are focusing on investing in space industry. So I have been working here for roughly one and a half years. Good to meet you guys. Yeah
All right, thank you for uh both of you join us and also uh I would like to know that, Alice, is that, uh what motivated you to work in Luxembourg instead of staying in Taiwan? Uh actually when I start searching for my internship because both in Rennes School of Business and GMBA,
You need to fulfill the uh internship um threshold I would say. When I was searching the uh internship position I was just looking in Europe and as well as Taiwan but I have, think, I have been telling myself that I have to get an opportunity to explore the world,
The world. So I was just searching some position with English only, you don’t have to speak French or Netherlands or you know other Germany language. So I just seized this opportunity and stayed here. And I think this position itself is quite uh relevant to my previous experience. So I was
An auditor with Deloitte for three years, I was a financial analyst in Taiwan as well, so I’m familiar with FPNA which is financial planning and analysis stuff so that’s the reason why I can kind of have an opportunity to stay here. And for the atmosphere in Luxembourg, is that they can, they
Have a lot of people speak English only, you don’t have to speak French Germany or other European language. And to be honest with you, the salary here is quite good so that’s another motivation that I want to stay here. Yeah yeah fair enough. So uh let’s get back to the program. Actually uh
Alice, could you tell us about why did you choose a dual degree program with Rennes, right? You said School in the uh in France? As for the reason why I choose to a master program is because I have a
Dream to study abroad but I just cannot afford it when I was a college student. So I think in one day if I got a chance, I better try. I just give a shot so um I join the dual master program and
Especially for Rennes School of Business, we can be free of the tuition. So it’s it’s quite like is a economic choice compared to others, compared to United State or even UK schools. Yeah and also for the Rennes School of Business itself is really international school, and, and is really inclusive
And diversified. For example, the 90 percent of the faculty come from outside of France and they have like 100 plus nationality students and teachers in that school. So I would say as a foreigner it is a good choice to participants in this program. Okay so the uh the lecture were
In English, right? Yeah it’s fully in English. But actually they provide like French lessons um maybe one and a half per week, so if you want to dive into some French environments you can take, uh you, you have to take the lecture something like Thibault in Taiwan, you have to take the
Chinese lessons. So yeah if you want to improve French you still have a chance to learn this. Okay so speaking of NYCU GMBA I think Jin-Su, could you add on some uh introduction about this program? Exactly. I want to add some more details. So NYCU is the leading University in Taiwan which is
Actually located in Hsinchu Science Park. Hsinchu Science Park is the hub of world semiconductor industry so if you just go to the back gate then you will see bunch of technology companies which are the leaders of world technology. And based on that, our MBA program really focuses on the
Combination of innovation and entrepreneurship so that students can be really global leaders in this uh world technology industry. Yeah that I, I should add some more details. Yeah sure sure sure. And and I believe that many of our alumni are like even is in a manager level right like exclusive
Levels or even honor of some business right they have their business as well. Exactly. So actually our alum network is really vast and a lot of them are CEOs and top level managers in technology industry in Taiwan, not only Taiwan, actually in the world. Yeah in the world. Yeah exactly. So if
Anyone want to be the CEO, go come to GMBA first. Exactly. So Thibault, the same question for you. Please tell us about Rennes and why did you choose a dual degree program to uh NYCU GMBA? So I think
My choice, my choice started because I’m also like French and Polish, so I was looking, first of all, for a school very International and, like kind of Alice said, Rennes School of Business is really one of the most international business school in France you can find. And so I was like, okay I
Need this, because I like to move, I want to, you know, go to other countries, learn their their culture, and also maybe how they work, certain skills of knowledge that I can then bring back to
Poland or France. So I went to a Rennes School of Business and I think luckily it was the first time in their, it was the first time they had this dual degree program, uh that I participated. So that’s
Why I was also like, okay two years abroad, like kind of freely, then of course, I will take it, you know two different countries. So first one was Lisbon six month very nice but then I had to
Make the important choice to my major. So I was, okay, I want to be in Asia for sure because it’s a continent I always wanted to live in and so I was deciding where to go, and then I saw the the GMBA,
The program. And so first of all I really like the campus it was nice it was big the country also I wanted to to be there for to visit. And as for the GMBA as Alice said I think the skills and
Knowledge that you receive from GMBA are very important and nice if you want to build your own business or have a very high position in a big company. And that’s actually was the the the good choice because, after like when all the courses I did all the different project, group project,
You can see it was pretty diverse you got a lot of knowledge and skills about different topic that for sure are going to be helpful once you want to be, you know, like own business maker
Or have a very high position. So I think yeah the international side, the the the campus, the the courses and also I did some a lot of researches about the GMBA campus. If you’re, for example, someone who also really like sport you have a lot of teams to which you can, you know,
Go in and participate and that was also like an incredible experience just to join the football team of NYCU. We moved to different cities in, in Taiwan and that was like I think the best decision
I could ever make to to to join NYCU in Taiwan. Wow thank you, Thibault, thank you Thibault. I think you know more about GMBA or NYCU than me, you know a lot of of it. I really enjoyed it. Yeah
Yeah yeah I can tell I can tell. Yeah I tried to do as much activities as I could in GMBA. Yeah yeah so I have another question for you. So when you arrive in another country like France and Taiwan uh what was the most challenging thing for you both? Either one can start.
First strangely the most challenging thing was not even the language barrier because when I join, you know like Vanessa and the other people who work at GMBA, they were like super helpful and super fast when it comes to make, for example, make a bank account or the housing. It was really like I
Came to Taiwan I already had a taxi waiting for me to, you know, bring me where I was supposed to go, like per perfectly, like really, like everything was planned ahead and then you just go and you
Know it’s like a boat on the river, just go with the flow. And so that’s what happened. So maybe the most challenging one at first in Hsinchu, maybe the weather like the rain, like it was
For me. It was a lot of rain. For the rain not wind? Wind? It’s a wind city. Yeah I think that the rain, but you know otherwise like maybe yeah the weather at first, because I was not accustomed
And maybe also because me I came during Covid. You know, just to follow the different rules that you, you had to, to go through like uh have the mask or the the card to show everyone. Uh but to be honest
There was no much challenges because first of all GMBA like did very great work to just, you know, put you in the school and just, you know, learn and go visit and that’s all you have to do. And
All the Taiwanese I’ve met like the from school or around the school or from the football club, they all very were very helpful when I needed let’s say something so there was no much. Ah yes transportation in Hsinchu. I did everything by bike every day. We don’t have mass transportation,
That’s true. How about the food, the food in Hsinchu or in Taiwan? Did you like it? I, I can see your smile. Wait wait wait it’s half half like. I enjoyed the like night market food.
I loved it, you know. When I could go to night market I would go and there was other foods like maybe it’s like not the my favorite one but there’s one I loved it so much. I was going
There so much that the the lady who was selling this, when she saw me, she already knew what I was going to order. So she just tell her friend okay three of this for him even if I was the 10th
In the row to buy for it. She knew what I wanted so the food was, there’s some I really enjoyed a lot and some it was just not for my, let’s say European taste I would say. Yeah yeah yeah for
Us as well right? Alice? Some food and not for, European food are not for Taiwanese? Especially cheese. I don’t know why people add cheese on every dishes. You cannot avoid it like in the sea. Yeah but if you are cheese lover you can explore any kind of cheese you never exposed
To in Taiwan, everything I cannot name them, is something cheese from Italy, from Italy, from France, and even from Spain, I think. But it’s too totally complicated for me, too much. Yeah so so, uh besides food do you have any other challenging thing for you? Alice? Living in another country?
Yeah I will say, compared to Taiwan, everything here is challenging. For example, in Taiwan it is fully thoughtful for school or for any, you know, ecosystem that say we are all really like have a helping mind to help others. But in in France, you have to be very independent, from
Searching the house, to find out your um let’s say your school, your uh social security card, your residency card, for example, you have to do all the searching on your own, do your homework
By your own. And especially I think I took like one month to get my student card. I was, kind of, back and forth with the school associates very often, every day, I just asking, can I get my student card? So it’s really challenging for me as beginning and so it’s quite different
From Taiwan because when you choose a class, you know from 8 to 12 you have to stay in campus and you can use your time more flexible. But here is that they will change the schedule quite often,
You have to pay attention to the schedule and also sometimes I will take like eight hours of classes from 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for one lesson time. Wow yeah because maybe I will spend like three days
Or a week to just finish one subject so it’s like crazily intensive compared to Taiwan. Yeah yeah yeah it’s different education system. Yeah yeah so I’m glad that you guys overcome it including food or cheese or or this class. How about Jin-Su? Jin-Su, you are from Korea right? So probably you
Have some experience to share as well. Actually in my case I could relate myself to, you know, both Alice and Thibault because my husband is Polish. So in Taiwan he complains about bread. He
Always said there is no bread. We have a bunch of bakeries but for him it’s not bread. But then when I go to Poland my in-law family wants to be nice to me so they try to cook rice. But for me that’s
Not rice, they mix rice with salt. You know you cannot eat such rice. So yeah yeah we always have this, you know, cultural, you know, difference in terms of food. So personally actually I also have the, you know, study aboard or exchange uh experience in other country. But I found the
Culture difference enjoyable to myself, to myself but I recall the course being very intense during my dual degree program in New York. You know I study for uh global finance and we have to finish seven subjects within two weeks, two, two months sorry two months uh including the
Lecture presentations reports and also exams so it was pretty intense. So Thibault, did you feel the same, like there’s a little bit different between France and Taiwan? Um I would say, yes, in France it’s a little bit more chill maybe in term of life balance. Yeah yeah but at NYCU like
At GMBA, the first few months, I think, were the most challenging because, you know, new country, new culture plus the new lectures, all together. And I, in one year, I was, kind of, supposed to
Do two years of the GMBA. So I had also kind of more lessons but the few yeah the first few months were the most challenging you know just to learn everything and also had Chinese. Wow, it was so complicated at first, like just to learn everything. But, you know, so all of this
Together at the same time I had to kind of try to find the balance but after some sometimes yeah I, I found the balance. And also I had my thesis then at the same time coming together so there
Was a lot at first but I think after a few months I found the the balance that, you know, helped me to to, to pass through. And I think that the best like kind of thing I did is also
Like just travel around Taiwan at the same time, you know, to just take my time. So study at some time then take my time to travel go to Taiwan, go with some friends, go to Taipei because it’s like
Very close and it’s a pretty nice city to hang out. So yeah I would say at the beginning you just need to hang on and then after it’s uh it’s going pretty smoothly and well. When you fit in,
Then you can, you know, relax. Exactly yeah yeah yeah true true. And you mentioned Chinese. Do you still remember any of it? No no. May I ask you to use Chinese to introduce yourself?
No if I maybe if I read some lessons, but now I have decided to go with Korean so now I’m learning Korean not Chinese but Korean yeah. Since you both didn’t speak Chinese or French yeah French, so how
Did you manage to survive in Taiwan and in France? So me personally I would say um it was thanks to Taiwanese people, like the students and other like friends they would met along the way even
You know the the the people like the person from the football club you know. So they, I remember, like the captain of the football club came with me to like this um to get to buy like the the phone,
The phone thing lik,e can have a phone in Taiwan. He came with me he did all the speech and I just had to pay and know everything was was good. So now I would say that the students were the the the
How I overcame the the language barrier because, otherwise, it would have been a little bit more complicated and that’s when I saw like okay Taiwan is like so nice so cool like they help me all the
Time when I was struggling. Even when I wanted to speak Chinese they they were kind of helping me, you know, say the good word in a way that they they want to help you. You could see that they
Wanted to help as much as possible so yeah I would say the the just the people Taiwanese and students. Yeah yeah a lot of foreign people are saying that Taiwanese are really friendly. That’s
True, right? Yeah yeah yeah for sure. Okay so how about Alice? Is it tough for you to live in France without speaking French? Yeah I would say in the campus no because as I mentioned earlier like it’s very International. A lot of of students come from different nationality so our common language is
English best. So you can always speak in English in the campus no matter to professor to student or to the faculty. So it’s super convenient and easy to just use English only. But outside of the campus it is a little bit complicated. So, for example, if I want to get my parcel as
La poost which is a delivery system it’s really hard because they don’t speak English at all. So I always have to use Google translates to show my ID or my passport or my uh password number and so
On but eventually I make some good friends and I will say overall if you don’t speak French at all in France it’s not a big issue. But if you really want to make some friend from local, you can start
From like beginner French as least to show that you are interested in French, in their culture and language, you want to really want to connect with them. So it’s just you have to show your interest and people will start uh connect with you, to exchange their life with you, so that’s the
Friendship starts. Yeah yeah I agree with you. All right so I’m glad that you all survive and overcome, again. So uh back to this program, so what do you think there’s uh any greatest benefit for you, two, in taking a dual degree program in another country? Alice? For me, for me is like,
Like I realize my dream. Right I mentioned earlier that I wanted to study abroad. I wanted to explore the world, I wanted to get the international experience so that’s the big gift from this dual master degree uh program let’s say. And I make a lot of friends from from worldwide it’s
Not just from French people, from Germany people, from it’s basically I have friends worldwide which is really good gift for me as well. And I learn how to work with others from different culture, discipline even so over all I like the dual-degree program so much because it actually open my uh
View in terms of the world, in terms how people work together. Okay nice and how about you, Thibault? Yeah I think also like many many different things. First of all the international experience uh to be able to go to another country to live there but also I’ve met a lot of people
That I still see sometimes. A month ago I saw one of the the classmate I’ve met in GMBA because he’s in Rennes so we just met in Paris. But also like I had a chance to do a lot of nice events in Taiwan,
Meet a lot of interesting people and people you are still talking to. So yeah actually the the friendship and the people I have met, they’re like really strong and I know there’s still something going on even after practically two years I’ve left Taiwan. And also on the CV when I did my,
For example, you know, interviews with different companies the fact that they see a Taiwanese University, they are like oh wow that’s something rare in a way for a European I would say. So it’s something very nice because it shows that you know you’re not afraid to go abroad, new adventures
You’re open-minded so that’s a was a big help just you have the name, you know, NYCU GMBA on your CV, it already gives you a lot of chances to have a nice work nice job. So yeah the friendship,
On the CV, the the the experience International experience and just the yeah a lot of things. Yeah. Okay cool, so people you just mentioned that uh because of the dual degree program overseas then showing on your CV for the employer seeing you are open to the uh new challenges or different
Culture. And how about other thoughts? Do you believe that studying in a program and also a dual degree program overseas that would provide you a transformative experience that significantly uh accelerated to your career goal? Um so yeah that’s how to explain that I think the experience that
I had abroad it’s it’s going to help me for the career okay, open mindness because you’re ready to go to the chapters but I think the different knowledge that I so like look for example the little bit pieces of culture of Taiwanese how they work, what kind of market they have it’s something
It’s good knowledge to have to bring back for example in Europe to saym oh in Taiwan they do this like this like this like this maybe we can kind of combine you know make a mix of it and
Can be helpful. Or for example let’s say the the sport industry I think okay was there, sport for example football industry in Taiwan is less than in France, maybe there’s something to do in Taiwan
So I think there’s a lot of everything everything you see every day you can kind of think okay this, they are here, we are here, we are here, they are here, in term of business and you can kind
Of think how to maybe improve or take knowledge to bring to my, let’s say, country France or Poland so I think that’s also a good experience to have. Yeah very nice very nice. And how about you Alice?
You want to add something on this if do degree program can bring you you know closer or faster to what you want to do? Yeah uh I think the reason why I can stay in Europe is because I participated
In this dual master degree program so because if you have no linkage to European education system or working experience here it’s really hard to start with yeah. So it’s actually embarked me the journey the journey here is because do a master degree program and I met different people
I have different exchange with worldwide people so it’s quite valuable experience to me. Nice nice I think there’s a lot of benefits including dual degree program and also exchange to another country like so you can have different kind of culture experience and open your uh mind and also
Get the chance to uh have the job opportunities as well right? Something need to add one is you have to really um build a different network no matter from Linkedin from your alumni from your professor even to explore the job opportunity as much as possible because here um let’s say the
European employment market is really big right? But you are here you are just alone you. If you don’t know anyone you don’t have a networking yeah it’s really hard to get a chance even for interview. So it’s just you have to build your own networking and and you have to explore different
Activity you have to just go to Linkedin and check if there is any event any uh opening job then you can have a try. So just don’t give up. I think I have uh applied for more than 100 jobs before
I got this one so it’s really challenging but just never give up. Yeah yeah so finally uh is there any recommendations that you can give to the students who are interested into the dual degree program? Um me I mean one thing that I hoped I, I did but I did not do and
Professor Kang told me to do it but to do an internship in Taiwan. She told me do it I was, no I want to know to go back just to go to Europe for vacation. And then I think that’s
The the biggest regret I have because if I had the professional experience in Taiwan it would have been you know 10 times even better for for in my resume and my all like proper experience. So to anyone who take the GMBA like NYCU GMBA degree, if you have the chance do an internship
At the end and also if uh people who want international experience you know being a country where you can visit a lot of things and you want to meet a lot of very interesting people
And people who who can help you also in the future uh I believe GMBA is the is the degree to take. Okay thank you Thibault. How about you Alice? Yeah I think I have a similar uh thoughts than with Thibault that you have to accumulate some internship or working experience as much
As much as you can. Yeah some uh take me for example the reason why I can get this job is because I have a previous experience with an auditor and financial analyst. So compared to other student from Taiwan they have no experience they don’t even have let’s say internship in their
Previous experience that’s really um how can I say the weakness of them when they searching a job. All right I think uh that’s all of my questions today thank you guys for joining us and also thank you Jin-Su. So if anyone has the question about the programs or any question
For Thibault and Alice just feel free to leave your message. So I think that’s all for today thank you guys and see you hopefully to see you guys soon maybe in Taiwan or in Europe somewhere.
Thank you thank you thank you for your for your time and question thank you thank you thank you. Bye Bye.