On March 10, 2026, SFS held its 37th session of Career Planning Lecture Series, focusing on career choice and development. Lü Ye, a 2014 graduate of Japanese Department at XJTU and an MA holder in Foreign Languages and Literatures from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was invited as the guest speaker. Shi Yuxuan, Assistant to the Dean of SFS, and Cao Hongquan, Director of the Japanese Department, attended the lecture.
Lü opened the talk by sharing her shifts in mindset during her academic journey. She once felt confused about her Japanese major and originally aimed to engage in academic research, yet she later repositioned her career goals and eventually stepped into the workplace. She recounted her career path, which covered education consulting, elderly care operations in Japan, entrepreneurship in the elderly care industry, and brand management.
Lü emphasized the importance of self-awareness and market awareness in career planning. She advised students to identify personal strengths, interests, and limitations through internships, hands-on practice, and assessment tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and career anchors. According to Lü, effective career development requires aligning personal competencies with actual industry demands.
She stressed that different professional skills can be integrated to form one's core competitiveness. Taking her own experience as an example, she noted that her achievements stem from a combination of Japanese language proficiency, industry experience in education and elderly care, visual communication skills, and brand marketing expertise. She also highlighted the necessity of fostering good professional habits, broader social perspectives, and basic capabilities including time management and interpersonal communication.
Based on her firsthand experience, Lü further explained how she applied visual thinking to create user-friendly visual materials for the elderly care sector, and the advantages of running self-media accounts for resource accumulation and personal brand building.
During the Q&A session, students raised questions regarding career prospects in China's elderly care industry, entry channels for new graduates, and internship opportunities at Japanese companies. Lü shared her insights on the growing silver economy, encouraged students to explore career paths compatible with their individual strengths and interests, and offered practical suggestions on overseas internships.
In the closing remarks, Shi Yuxuan highly recognized Lü Ye's cross-industry career choices and development experience. He encouraged students to expand their career horizons, make rational choices for their first job, and develop capabilities including self-evaluation and self-marketing through learning and practice. Cao Hongquan expressed her gratitude to Lü Ye for her sharing and remarked that Lü's rich academic and career experiences offer valuable inspiration for foreign language majors.
This lecture broadened students' career horizons and demonstrated the diverse career possibilities available to foreign language majors. Going forward, SFS will continue organizing targeted career planning lectures to help students explore career options and get well-prepared for their future professional development.
