Meet Kaikai Zhuang

Imagine you are now four years into your undergraduate degree, one year left before you graduate. Before stepping out into the job market, you thought it would be a good idea to go on co-op and get some work experience. Full of expectation and anticipation, you finally landed a co-op position in your desired field, only to come to the sobering realization that this field isn’t actually a good match for you.

This is exactly what our next featured alumnus Kaikai went through. In 2013, having completed two years of studies at Nanjing Forestry University, Kaikai transferred to UBC in his third year under the 2+2/3+2 program. While completing his degree here at UBC Forestry, Kaikai had the opportunity to volunteer at Go Global in 2014. He also worked briefly for the Student Service Centre and the Vancouver Summer Program. In 2015, Kaikai successfully landed his first co-op job as a Junior Forest Technician at Forsite Consultants Ltd. Little did he know, this co-op job would play a huge role in his later career, but not in the way he expected.

“This co-op helped me make the decision to leave the field of forest industry”, said Kaikai.

Ouch, this has got to be every student’s nightmare! As a student myself, I sometimes worry that I might one day lose interest in the field I’m working towards and wondered how that might affect my future career. I can’t imagine how lost Kaikai must be feeling at that moment.

But then Kaikai went on to say, “It was better earlier than later to find out my incompatibility with this line of work”. To my surprise, looking back, he was actually really grateful for this sobering realization. If anything, this co-op helped redirect his career path, and he began to find interest in other fields. This time, it’s politics and international relations.

With this in mind, in 2016, after Kaikai graduated from our 2+2/3+2 program, he decided not to further pursue a career in forestry. That same year, Kaikai started his JD program at Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC. After graduating from law school in 2019 and finishing a year of articling, he was called to the bar of British Columbia in July 2020 and became a lawyer. And now he is working at Clark Woods LLP as an associate lawyer.

When asked what advice he would give to students interested in our 2+2/3+2 program, Kaikai said, “If your family has the financial means to comfortably send you abroad, give it a try!”.

But Kaikai was quick to warn us about the potential challenges students might face, “You should be prepared to endure solidarity among other mental, emotional challenges such as those brought out by being away from your familiar environment”. I appreciate his realistic advice here. So often on social media, all we see are the glamour and snapshots from exchange students. But what we don’t see, are the struggles they/we go through with all the transition.

As for advice to students planning to go to law school, Kaikai had this to say, “Think about why you want to go to law school and talk to someone about your reasons and visions. There are many obstacles for this path…This decision should not be made lightly”.

What I find admirable about Kaikai, is how intentional he is about each decision he makes. While on co-op, he reflected on his career goals and aspiration and came to realize that a career in forestry wasn’t the best for him. While deciding to go to law school, he made sure he had good reasons and goals before embarking on this challenging journey. Now giving advice to future 2+2/2+3 students, he urged students to set realistic expectations of what’s to come.

But once we have made the decision, Kaikai says, we are to be fully committed and try our best in all things.

Author/Editor: Tiffany Ma
Photos from: Kaikai Zhuang