In this blog post, I’ll share strategies for how to effectively incorporate your competition winning experience into your R&D cover letter and how to translate it into tangible job skills.

 

Growing up

“It’s not hard work, it’s fun!”
I was a little girl who liked to play with robots when everyone else was playing with dolls. My mother says she knew I was going to be a “gongshun” from then on. I had a great interest in building robots, taking them apart, and putting them back together again in my own style. The robots I built were invincible, and as I was building them, I vaguely thought that I wanted to be a scientist who developed robots. Being that kind of kid, you can imagine that I didn’t have an easy life as a child. I had a very exploratory spirit, and once I tore my knee playing in the field, and once I broke my arm when I climbed up to look at a bug that was high up and fell down. In high school, I went to a design institute on a whim to study design, and there were times when I only got two hours of sleep a night because I was juggling school and design. But I know that all of those experiences have shaped me, that they have nourished me. I think the reason I’ve been able to live so passionately is because of my habit of thinking of things as enjoyable, not hard work, and therefore I’m the kind of person who sees things that others don’t see and knows things that others don’t know. I think this proactive and exploratory spirit has helped me to get into a good university with good grades and, most importantly, to enjoy my university life.

 

Personal Qualities

“The youngest daughter with a lot of ambition!”
The best thing about my personality is “ambition. I thought that as an engineering student, I should win a prize in an invention competition, so I applied to the invention competition from my freshman year. However, there were many people in the world who were more creative and technical than me, and I was not able to compete with them. There were times when I would go and come home without getting a single vote from the judges, but I don’t let that discourage me, it just makes me work harder, so I kept going for five years in a row and eventually won first place, because I knew what skills I had that were most valued in the competition, and I honed those skills and invented a great product. That’s why I’ve always been an energetic person, but also someone who has a macho spirit inside of her, because I’m a sweet youngest daughter who is not afraid of failure and keeps pushing forward. With that spirit, I’m ready to take on anything.
“You can’t beat someone who has fun more than anything else”
I enjoy creating. I enjoy what I do, so when I had a huge lab to build a TV, I didn’t get bored of the countless processes of designing and drawing, but I enjoyed it so much that I was able to finish my own TV in the end. When building a TV, it’s not just about connecting circuits, it’s also about having a good antenna to catch a good frequency. In internet lingo, there’s a saying that the three most infuriating things in the world are cursing at your father, cursing at your mother, and when your computer’s internet drops out. Trying to reconnect to a dropped frequency is not something that usually requires patience, but I had fun doing it, and that’s why I was able to make a finished product faster than others and get good marks.

 

An example of a time when you went out of your way to develop a lacking knowledge, competency, or new skill

“Earning an A+ in three tries”
I know where I’m weak. It’s programming languages, specifically C. I’m very weak in C++. The way I realized this was a weakness was through a class. I did all the assignments and attended all the classes, but I couldn’t understand why I got this score, and later, when I saw the exam results, I realized that I didn’t understand the subject at all. I was strong in drawing and connecting real circuits and creating mechanical drawings, but I was very weak in programming languages. My friends told me to just drop the subject because I still had other grades, but my ego wouldn’t let me do that. So, from that day on, I challenged myself every time for three years. I constantly asked questions when I didn’t understand something, and I stuck to this subject even when people made fun of me for being stupid. When I finally mastered it and got an A+, the feeling was indescribable. Based on that experience, I learned how to challenge myself and see it through to the end, and I was able to have a good result of mastering a programming language.

 

An experience in which you helped someone else’s difficulties without looking past them (through your academic life, social experiences, etc.)

“In the convenience store in the morning and at the examination center at night”
The university I attend is famous for its high tuition fees. My family was not a wealthy family, so of course I couldn’t cover the tuition with my family’s money alone. However, I didn’t think it was fair to take out a student loan when I didn’t know what the future would bring. Therefore, I thought, “I will earn my own money,” and I worked a lot of part-time jobs during my college years. I tried many part-time jobs, but I felt that the best part-time job was working while studying near the school. I worked at a convenience store near my school in the morning, took classes in the middle of the day, and lived and studied at night while working as the secretary of a high school board. The money I earned was a little over 1 million won a month, and I had to save it to pay for my next tuition, but I think that experience helped me develop my persistence.
I was also constantly challenged by competitions while taking classes and working. As I developed a deep friendship with my friends who were preparing for the competitions together, I met some good friends and won various competitions. I think it was an activity that built my confidence.

 

Motivation and Aspirations

“Creative people will eventually drive the market”
The current market is saturated. The market already has a lot of products. But if you don’t want your company to go out of business, you need to catch people’s eyes with more groundbreaking products. Therefore, companies need technicians, and they need technicians with very creative and young eyes. They need technicians who have the brains to come up with new products and the persistence to complete them through constant imagination. With such people, companies can live.
If I were to join your company, I would be just such a person. I have studied diligently, so I know the theoretical aspects perfectly, I am young, so I am sensitive to new trends, and I have developed my creativity by preparing for various competitions. If I join your company, I dare to say, I will be a creative talent who can push the company forward. If you believe in me, I will show it with my skills. Thank you.