By Mason He
Junior Editor, Yonsei GSIS Newsletter 

We had the honor to interview one of ODAR Career Fair’s speakers, Paul Hussey, a former Yonsei GSIS Alumni who graduated from Yonsei in 2008. He is now working at Samsung Electronics as a Principal Professional, Global Learning & Different. In this interview, we dive deep into getting to know him more personally and professionally.

-Please briefly introduce yourself and share your academic background and current work.

-Hi, this is Paul. I’m originally from Canada. I've been in Korea for over 20 years. I've been in Korea for 22 years, so it's been a long time. I majored in chemistry back when I was an undergraduate in Canada. Then, I came to Korea just after working in Canada for one year. I was an English teacher for three years, and then I came to Yonsei GSIS in 2005 and graduated in 2008. Since then, I've worked in a couple of different places. One is I worked at the Itaewon Global Village Center, where I was the first head at Itaewon Global Village Center. After that, I went to Samsung, and I've been at Samsung for 11 years now.

-Looking back, how do you think your time at Yonsei GSIS prepared you for your career?

-I majored in PIC. I didn't end up doing something directly related to PIC, as most people would go into security or sustainability, like an NGO or government organization. But even though I didn't go that direct route, it was really good because it gave me a very broad knowledge of Korea and Korea's place in the world. That helped me a lot. The other part was the network I got from being at Yonsei GSIS and the friends I made. 

-What are some of the major milestones or achievements in your career you are particularly proud of?

-I would say surviving the first two years at Samsung was a milestone. It was tough for me because when I first joined Samsung, I had zero experience working in a corporate environment. And so, working in a corporate environment for the first time and then on top of that, I was already in Korea for a long time, but it's(environment) still quite new, the Korean corporate culture and stuff. So, getting through all of that for the first couple of years is a big thing for me. After that, I have been improving a lot over the years. I don't know if you can call that a milestone, but that's what I would say. I'm kind of going through a mini one of that(milestone) again because I switched my role from recruiting to corporate training. So I'm relearning a bunch of new stuff. I switched to this role cause it had just been a really long time doing the same kind of work, so I wanted something new.

-What advice would you give current students about to enter the workforce?

-Well, looking at my own experience, I would think that people have to be prepared to have some perseverance and stick with it. And there's a chance that you will not get the job of your dreams right off the bat. But I think the people that are successful are the ones that keep working at it and don't give up too early. That would be some advice I would give.