The ECC Career Lounge, also known as “Nae:il Lounge” translates into both words, “tomorrow” and “my job,” which shows the purpose of the lounge; being prepared for tomorrow and finding one’s career.
The Center for Entrepreneurship and Career Development Center started the project last September, after acknowledging the need for a support system of students seeking for employment and startups. In the hopes to help provide the students with diverse networks and more job opportunities, the Center for Entrepreneurship organized the lounge into three parts: Nae:il Box, Nae:il Café, and Nae:il Consulting.
Nae:il Box is a creative cube equipped with high-tech facilities such as the digital signage and, an electronic display where students can check on job information and reservation status of the school’s job consultation. On each side, there are several booths and tables that plan to be used during job fairs or company presentations. The tables are also opened to school startup clubs when holding mentoring events regarding entrepreneurship. For the Nae:il Consulting section, one-on-one job consultations, seminars, and open spaces for small groups are provided.
While the Nae:il Café is more of an interacting space, it also offers students with useful advices and key information of the job market through a huge multi- vision and upcoming gatherings. The videos that appear in the multi-vision are stories behind successful startups and contents dealing with the trends of the industry. The center plans to showcase videos on unique business ideas made by students after thorough examination.
“We are planning to keep the multi-vision silent, as there might be noise issues,” said the manager of the Center for Entrepreneurship. “We will caption videos and utilize the visual side as much as we can.”
Although the center ambitiously set up a career lounge for job-seeking students, there are some complaints regarding the location selection and concerns of confusion among students.
“I’m not happy with how the Career Lounge is located at gate 1 as it is one of the busiest gates of ECC,” said Kim Ji-won, a student majoring in Division of Molecular Life & Chemical Science. “As there will be a lot of people going in and out of that small confined space, the lounge will have difficulty in carrying out fairs and it will only evoke more confusion and inconvenience to students.”
Also, a junior majoring in English Language & Literature, pointed out that the ECC gate 1 used to be an autonomous space for students, especially an essential venue for carrying out team projects and a meeting spot for most students. But with the new lounge, there are now less space for students to meet up and work for group projects.
For this issue, the manager of the Center for Entrepreneurship explained that the gate 1 was chosen for ECC Career Lounge due to high accessibility.
“Previously, we had several studios for student startups at the University-Industry Cooperation Building, but students rarely even came near the building,” the manager said. “Since we wanted to reach out to help as many students as possible, the ECC gate 1 was the appropriate place for the purpose.”
The center lastly commented on the prospects of the Career Lounge and how it will support students looking for help.
“We are fully aware of the concerns about the location and the decrease in students’ autonomous space, but we hope students will be able to actively seek help to reach their goals by utilizing this highly accessible space, students will be able to actively seek help to reach their goals. Meantime, we’ll keep on working to make students to participate more in job consultations and job fairs.”
Lee Young-in
younginlee@ewhain.net