▎PEOPLE

On March 7, National Taiwan University opened the doors to what is now the largest campus recruitment fair in Taiwan—an event that runs less like a typical job market and more like a preview of the future of work.

Branded “VISION 2026,” this year’s expo theme-- “GenCareer: Lead Beyond A.I.”—reflected a world where artificial intelligence is no longer a distant force but an everyday collaborator. The scale was striking: more than 347 companies, domestic and international, occupied 450 booths, offering upwards of 40,000 job opportunities. More telling, however, was the shift in demand. Over 70 percent of participating employers were recruiting for interdisciplinary positions, reflecting a labor market increasingly defined not by the applicants’ having a single expertise, but by their experience and ability at bridging fields.

Where Technology Meets Culture

The opening ceremony delivered a symbolic response to that shift.

To perform, “Rhythms Without Boundaries, Careers in Motion,” a traditional percussion ensemble—with roots in Malaysia’s cultural heritage of the 24 Festive Drums—mounted the stage together with a team of students from NTU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Together, they performed with robotic arms, blending human rhythms and machine precision into a single choreography.

The message was clear: the future will not be shaped by technology alone, but by how successfully it intersects with human culture, creativity, and expression.

Lessons From Those Who Have Built It

Beyond the exhibition floor, the university’s Career Talks series attracted students eager to understand how that future might unfold in jobs and professions.

Three prominent alumni—construction entrepreneur Chieh-Yeh Hsieh, telecom executive Chih-Chen Lin, and business leader Yun-Fan Hsieh—shared their journeys from campus to industry, offering insights that moved beyond conventional career advice. Their conversations focused on adaptability, cross-disciplinary thinking, and the necessity of anticipating change rather than reacting to it.

In one of the most anticipated sessions, Lin discussed “the ten things to do before launching your career,” urging students to expand their horizons early and position themselves not just for their first job, but for a lifetime of reinvention.

A Platform for What Comes Next

For NTU, the event is more than a job recruitment fair. It is an evolving platform—one that reflects how the university sees its role in a rapidly shifting world.

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries, the expo has become a space where technology and the humanities are not treated as opposing forces, but as complementary ones. It is here that students encounter not just employers, but ideas about what it means to build a meaningful career in an age of uncertainty.

With its centennial rapidly approaching in 2028, NTU has framed this gathering as part of a broader commitment: to cultivate talent that is not only technically capable, but globally aware, ethically grounded, and able to navigate complexity.

In that sense, the fair is less about filling positions than about preparing people—for a future that, like the performance that opened the day, will require ingenuity, precision, and imagination.