Elliot Zhou

Biotechnology Specialist

“SY will offer you a very different and interesting life compared to your Lecture Theater or Laboratory. Be prepared for a professional and challenging career, and SY is a place that can unlock your maximal potential.”

 

What was the most difficult aspect of adjusting to work and life in Japan initially?

If you think perfect spoken English can work for you through anywhere in the world, you are wrong. Japan is one of a few countries where it does not help. Try to pick up a few Japanese phrases and vocabulary and it will certainly help at the beginning of your new life. At least, it helps you order the right sushi or ramen that you want at the restaurant.

How would you describe co-workers when you arrived?

The members in my team are smart, diligent, and knowledgeable. Most importantly, they are willing to offer helping hands when I encounter any difficulties.

What have been your three fondest leisure experiences in Japan?

I like to go sightseeing around Japan in my leisure time. What attracts me most are
紅葉 (Momiji in November); 桜吹雪 (Sakura in April); and ラベンダー (Lavender in July in Hokkaido).

What are the challenging or difficult aspects of your work?

The workload is usually high and requires you to maintain a high level of adrenaline. If you do not want to work to the midnight on an extremely crazy day, you must know how to adequately adjust and prioritize your work. In spite of that, you can learn a lot and really enrich the life from the challenging work.

Do you feel like you're having an impact directly on the clients that you work for?

Definitely. Every letter we write will potentially impact the client's thinking. I even encountered several instances that the inventors or clients of the matters that I was handling happened to be the professors I knew very well back at university. Although these professors are high-profile elites in their respective academic fields, they may not be knowledgeable in IP-related problems. It is really a rewarding feeling when I eventually managed to impact their thinking and help them obtain a patent.

What work skills and habits have you learned or improved?

It happens quite often that you will receive very urgent cases, or be interrupted by someone, in daily work. It would be a highly useful skill if you are able to multi-task even under frequent interruptions. Multi-tasking is one of the abilities that I have greatly improved at SY, and it is still improving.

What is the most important thing that working at SY has taught you about yourself?

As a scientist, I've been used to solving the problem always from a scientific approach. My experience at SY taught me that intellectual property is a blend of science, law, and business. If you can shift the way of thinking a problem, say, from the angle of law, rather than from the science, those seemingly entangled problem may be easily solved.

I would tell someone just starting their career here at SY that ...

SY will offer you a very different and interesting life compared to your Lecture Theater or Laboratory. Be prepared for a professional and challenging career, and SY is a place that can unlock your maximal potential.

What three words describe the Firm best? First in English, then in your mother tongue.

Professional, Challenging, integrity - 专业, 挑战,诚信.