Connecting the Dots
Relying on natural curiosity as his guide, Christian Kim is on a path that, by all indications, is leading in the direction of a promising future.
by Leila Grant
Christian Kim’s curious nature has opened many doors in his college career. Through a chain reaction of impactful relationships and experiential opportunities, Kim is realizing his career interests and potential.
Christian Kim
Marketing
Waco, Texas
This sequence of events started when he met Cindy Wu, professor of Management and associate dean for Diversity and Inclusion. Wu was researching job application biases and Kim was immediately drawn to the study. Kim joined Wu on the research project through the Undergraduate Research Assistant (UGRA) Program.
“I always want to learn new things and keep myself busy,” Kim said. “The opportunity to work in this position and increase my knowledge of the business world came up, and I jumped at it.”
Working with Wu on this research, Kim creates personas that he uses to apply for jobs in the workforce. He then monitors the outcome of each application and records data for analysis, which they hope will uncover any job interview biases that play out in the application process.
Kim’s involvement with Wu’s research sparked his interest in analyzing data. This translated to his summer internship at Publicis Sapient, a business consulting company in Chicago, Illinois. As a marketing intern in the travel and hospitality industry, Kim gathered information from case studies, briefs and meetings to create a calendar that informed the team’s campaign strategy.
“Through my internship, I got an understanding of the scope of campaigns across travel and hospitality and learned how the team produced issue-specific content,” Kim said. “From the calendar I created, I learned who stakeholders were across the team and what it takes to execute a campaign.”
Drawing from his industry experience and knowledge gained in the classroom, Kim discovered the need for an innovative app. Though Kim is keeping quiet on the app’s concept until it is complete, he hopes to launch it in 2023.
“We are currently in the prototype stage where we are using software like Figma to design our mobile app interfaces,” Kim said. “This comes with a lot of challenges because we want to make sure our demos are perfect before we proceed to the next steps.”
Kim said his internship connected him with engineers and product managers with whom he has collaborated on this app creation. He draws inspiration from everyone he associates with, giving him a unique perspective and willingness to learn.
“I think it is cool how I got the exposure at Baylor which helped me get my internship, and through my internship, I got to network with people who helped me start my own business,” Kim said.
While Kim is a naturally driven individual, he said the people he surrounds himself with inspire him to be the best version of himself. Looking forward to his career, Kim said he hopes his future workplace pushes him to be the most well-rounded person, just as his current community has done.
“I made some good friends here at Baylor who inspire me to work hard, and my family has invested a lot in me,” Kim said. “I appreciate the support they have given me, leading to the confidence to look at myself and see what I can do.”
Baylor Business Review, Spring 2023