After the first day as the freshman class teacher in September, we began to arrange the first class meeting in the new semester. The first class meeting started at 12:30 on September 27. Firstly, the class monitor reported the class work plan for this semester, then each class committee reported the specific work plan for the work he or she was responsible for, and finally the class teacher spoke. My speech mainly focused on strengthening the understanding of the major, postgraduate entrance examination and job search. The detailed speech is as follows:

For a professional course teacher with rich experience in class teacher work, I know what is the most important advice for freshmen. Of course, I will complete the most basic class teacher responsibilities in accordance with the basic work requirements of the class teacher stipulated by the school. Many college educators have overlooked the most critical aspect of student professional thought and consciousness education, which is the core content I want to emphasize. Because for college students who have just entered school, timely guidance is necessary. On the one hand, guiding students to quickly change from the learning state of high school to the learning state of university, and actively adapt to the short-term and high-intensity course arrangement of the university. On the other hand, actively guiding students to determine their university learning and life goals as soon as possible and plan their university life. As a class teacher, I should let everyone recognize the characteristics, importance and significance of university life at the first time. First of all, you need to correct your ideological understanding, especially your understanding of the major.

At the opening ceremony when I enrolled as a doctoral student, the president quoted two questions raised by the old president Zhu Kezhen at the opening ceremony of freshmen in 1936: First, what do you do at Zhejiang University? Second, what kind of person do you want to be after graduation? At the first class meeting today, my advice is that I hope every student who comes to study at the university should carefully think about a core question: “What is your purpose of studying at the university?” In order to answer this question, you need to clearly understand the importance of professional learning. At the end of four years of university study, you will face the pressure of job search or further study, and all of these require you to have a solid professional foundation and professional qualities to be able to face various challenges calmly.

Therefore, starting from the first year of university, you need to have a very clear understanding of your major, what this major does, what kind of professional work you will do after graduation, what knowledge you need to learn around this major during the four years of university, and what professional skills you need to cultivate. This is especially true for Industrial Engineering, which is a typical multidisciplinary major with many professional directions. For a college freshman who is about to learn and prepare for his future, it is particularly important to clarify the professional direction and have a deep understanding. Only on the basis of being familiar with the major can you further choose the main direction that suits your own characteristics, rather than mass-producing “products” without personality like most current university education. The diversity and personalization of the current society determine that the individual needs of future jobs will become the new normal, and people without personality will not be competitive. Establishing such advanced thinking and enhancing crisis awareness is also a way to change the traditional university education model of passive learning into a new self-education method of active attack, which will have a profound impact on students’ future personal development.

Everyone must be very concerned about the future where they will go after graduation: job search, postgraduate entrance examination, guaranteed postgraduate entrance examination, civil service examination, studying abroad, joining the army, etc. Postgraduate entrance examination and job search should be the main ways for everyone to graduate in the future. Next, I will talk about some suggestions for you in these two aspects.

(1) Prepare for a rainy day, starting now. Combined with job search and postgraduate entrance examination of Industrial Engineering in recent years, I will talk about what I know.

Industrial Engineering has several major directions for postgraduate entrance examinations, such as academic master and professional master, with a focus on machine, design, management science and management. Students can choose according to their own interests and advantages, and try to avoid unnecessary internal competition. Students who meet the conditions for recommendation can apply for postgraduate entrance examinations in their own school or other schools according to their own wishes.

Class 201 had a very good overall performance, but there was a deviation in the registration for the postgraduate entrance examination. The academic master’s score line of 985 and 211 schools was high, and the professional master’s degree is a unified examination of management, which was less difficult and had a higher score line. Taking our school as an example, the academic master’s degree was not full, and 100 of the professional master’s degree applicants were admitted. There was serious internal competition, and there were several students in the class who applied for the same major in Hefei University of Technology. The two recommended students in the class, Shan Xianzheng and Chen Yuqing, have clarified their goals and directions since the freshman year, actively participated in the tutor’s scientific research training projects, applied for and participated in various subject competitions, and improved their professional comprehensive quality and experimental experience.

The employment rate is generally very good, but there is still a big gap with the ideal job that everyone expects. In previous years, employment was mainly in small and medium-sized enterprises in the machinery manufacturing industry, and the employment scope was relatively narrow. There were not many people who worked in the industry for a long time after graduation, but as long as they persisted, they would have accumulated a lot of experience.

(2) The cross-border road, plan as early as possible. Based on my own experience and the experience of other students in the past, talk about the cross-border road in postgraduate entrance examination and job search.

A) Cross-disciplinary postgraduate entrance examination and doctoral entrance examination

Several majors of the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering took cross-disciplinary postgraduate entrance examinations and master’s degrees in law, such as Wang Xinyong, Li Chao, Ning Ning, and myself.

B) Employment and job search, cross-disciplinary employment

Pay attention to the employer’s requirements for professional skills and personal qualities of the major in advance, and you can go to the campus recruitment meeting every year to learn more. Two students of the mechanical major started to study computer online game industry by themselves in their freshman year.