Explore the possibilities

I studied Accounting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As It turns out, I like the way accounting describes how business works, and to reveal more of the business world, I also double majored in Finance, and further studied Taxation during my Masters.
 

From Chicago O’Hare Airport to the school, you can see the endless cornfield along the way. There is also a small cornfield on the central axis of the school, and even the nickname of the school is “The Cornfield”. To learn a bit more about the common crop, I took a few public classes and visited the working labs at the agricultural college of the school.
 

Looking back on my experience, I can’t help but think of Steve Jobs’s commencement speech at Stanford University about “Connecting the Dots”. He took a calligraphy class at Reed College and later inspired Apple’s beautiful typography. Things you did at your younger age may seem random, but you will find that the dots will be connected at some point when you look backward.
 

In April 2019, I took a job at Sunjoy Agro, a leading crop protection company located in my hometown. I was born and raised in Ningbo, so I know the good reputation of this company and how lucky I am to get the job. From an employee point of view, Sunjoy Agro has a high retention rate, meaning the company has a very good working environment and warfare system. From an industry perspective, the company is one of the Top 20 agrochemical exporters in China and has been growing at a double-digit rate since 2000.
 

Anyway, I started out as a sales specialist with little knowledge of agrochemicals. Agus Huang was the director of the Overseas Sales Department. He speaks fluent Spanish and often acts as an interpreter for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs when visiting Spanish-speaking countries. Agus arranged for Derek Huang to help me adapt to work. Derek holds a Ph.D. degree from Nanjing University. He is the ideal mentor, friendly, knowledgeable, patient, and supportive. In the beginning, Derek took me to industry exhibition to learn the main advantages and production capacities of different factories. He cc’d me on the client's emails and let me observe how he handled different situations. He also let me follow the sales orders to understand the whole process. After a period of study, I can handle the sales process independently, including quoting, making contracts, following up the production process, and ensuring the timely delivery of goods.
 

In January 2021, Sunjoy Agro established a new department called Overseas Marketing Department and appointed Derek to be the department head. As new people joined in, now the department has 7 members all with graduate degrees or above. The goal of the department is to discover the real needs of the market, self-register competitive products in local markets, promote product features, and find new growth points. So I started a completely different career experience than I’ve had in sales for the past year or so. Derek and other senior management have a clear view of the company's future. Under their guidance, I started to set up overseas subsidiary companies and coordinate with lawyers, accounting firms, and registration consultants. It really gives me a sense of entrepreneurial spirit of how business works from the very beginning. Additionally, I do content marketing and brand promotion jobs. For example, I manage the company's social media profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, write articles and post on company's official website, and arrange company trade shows in China and abroad. I feel that what I learned in college, all the business classes, and the taste of crop science, are all connected together, being very relevant to my everyday job.
 

This year, our team conducted market research in Southeast Asian countries. This is very important, because during the pandemic, we could only conduct limited market research based on information available online. During the visit, we interviewed local farmers, retailers, and agricultural consultants to gather and interpret first-hand data on market size, business environment, and most popular products.
 

“Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. You need to know everything about your business inside out”, says Mr. Dongsheng He, President of Sunjoy Agro.
 

In addition to market investigation, we also carry out various research activities on crop cultivation. For example, our team rents a small farmland, and each team member chooses one crop to take care of. We grow corn, peppers, and tomatoes from seedling to harvest. Planting is hard in the hot summer, but nothing can compare to the joy of harvesting. Regular farming activities not only give us a deep understanding of the crop growth stage and field management but also exercise our bodies and willpower.
 

Working at Sunjoy Agro is happy and meaningful to me- a changing and exciting workload, positive and supportive work relationships, and a sense of purpose and belonging. If you ask me to share my career advice, well, keep an open mind, adapt to changes, and constantly explore new possibilities. This is what I’ve learned during my past few years of experience in Sunjoy Agro.