Before coming to Taiwan, I was worried about being able to find a job that was meaningful to my engineering career. I knew that for someone who doesn’t speak the language, this can be difficult in Taiwan. However, I knew connections were key. Soon after meeting arriving to Taiwan, I was fortunate enough to meet professor Sung and find out about the TEEP summer consulting program. I thought this would be the perfect first step in the door I needed to get the job I wanted.

    I interviewed with professor Sung and was accepted into the program. We then went together to visit a couple prospective companies for the program. One of them was Sheh Fung Screws Company, which ended up being the company I worked with.

      I was a team leader for one of the four groups for last summer. In my team were another American, a Nicaraguan, and two German students. We had different areas of expertise and experience which gave us different perspectives to share and add to the project. Soon after meeting each other, we were introduced to our professional consultant, Dr. Wang, who would guide us throughout the summer. He would not only teach us real world tools we could use, but make sure we were going to deliver a final product that Sheh Fung Screws Company would be happy with.

      We then met with our company to discuss what our project would be. Most of their sales come from outside of Taiwan and is done in English. English is obviously crucial for their success and while the entire sales staff speaks English, they felt it could be improved. This is where we came in for our project. We were to develop a sales training program to guide them to have a more mastered proficiency of English, especially in a professional setting.

     We came up with schedule and got to work. We conducted interviews with various members of the sales team and obtained email transactions with customers. This provided us valuable information as it let us know their different levels of English proficiency as well as find ways to improve their interactions with their customers. After analyzing all this information, we developed a training program for them to use that consisted of seven complete lessons ranging from mastering grammar to performing professional sales calls to customers and everything in between.

      Of course, the TEEP program wasn’t all work. We went on fun excursions to learn about Taiwanese culture. We went on a hike in the mountain near campus where there are lots of macaques running around. If you’re lucky enough, they will even climb on you and groom your head! That was quite the experience. We also went to an aboriginal Taiwanese village to learn some of the history of Taiwan’s people. There were even more adventures that really exposed us to what Taiwan has to offer - a lot!

     In the end, Sheh Fung was very impressed and satisfied with what we were able to accomplish. In fact, they were so impressed that they let us know we could work for them. That was exactly what I was hoping for when I started the program and I took them up on the offer. Soon after that, I started working full time in the R&D department as a project engineer, which is exactly what I wanted.

      I have now been working at Sheh Fung Screws Company for six months and have really enjoyed it. I have learned a lot about screws (there is more than it might seem) and have been given great opportunities to have a real impact on the company. They have been great to me and I couldn’t be happier with how things happened.

     I really have the TEEP program to thank for allowing me to continue my career how I wanted to while here in Taiwan. It was a great experience getting to know people from all over the world, learn about Taiwanese culture and even some Mandarin, and get a great job. Thank you TEEP!