"I just got my degree, I have no real-world experience, and I'm competing against locals
who know the market better than I do."

Every young person, regardless of whether they graduate, faces the terrifying
transition of leaving the safe structure of school and entering the unstructured real
world. By focusing on my highly specific, messy experience in Taiwan, I am actually
creating a mirror for any fresh graduate who feels lost. The message of the podcast is
that discomfort is a metric of growth. I chose this topic to tell my peers—and remind
myself—that feeling small is just the first step to going big.

Christine Lim is a student at the Department of Radio and TV at National Chengchi University (NCCU).

“Speak Up” is a podcast program by College of Communication students at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. Season 1 features student work from the class, “Podcasting: Audio Journalism & Branded Podcasts” in Spring 2026. Supervising teacher is adjunct associate professor Emily Y. Wu.

Music credit: Beethoven by Gregor Quendel, Sonatensatz by Viviane Hagner and Avner Arad, and Ocean chill by Snoozy beats from Free Music Archive dot org.