How to Write a Profile for OKCupid

In my previous post, I shared a message I received on OKCupid. For those of you who are interested in who the author of this totally-not-creepy (he can give you a list of 5 references to attest to this within 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays) mass proposal. Interested? Take a look at his "Self Summary" section on his profile. This is exactly as it appears, paragraphed to enhance readability, and even though this is a public profile, I took out information that would easily make him identifiable:

My self-summary
https://www.facebook.com/[removed]
http://www.linkedin.com/in/[removed]
Old Autobio from Grad School Apps:
[Actual first and last name]: AUTOBIOGRAPHY
On a characteristically chilly day in March, I was born near the Brigham Young University in the city of Provo, Utah, a proverbial empty canvas. There was no fanfare to herald my birth, but it was still a day that has great relevance in my life. After all, it was the humble beginning of my life and my journey. A few years later in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my sister became a welcome addition to the [last name] household. My father was very content with his first job in the United States upon successful completion of his Masters in Civil Engineering at Brigham Young University.

Unfortunately, the economy began to dip not long after he began work and after a couple of months my father was laid off. Heeding the advice from family and friends, my father decided that our family was going to move out to California in search of new opportunities. It was not long before we made Southern California our home. I completed all of my schooling in Southern Californian public schools which are collectively known for their emphasis on academic excellence. 

Leaving Villa Park High School marked the beginning of my adult life. The first major decision I made in my adult life was choosing to attend the University of California, San Diego majoring in Structural Engineering. Four years later, I successfully completed my degree and immediately began to work for Dale Christian Structural Engineer, Inc. where I grew to become proficient in technical areas and business practices.

My academic and work experiences have prepared me well for a future in international business. At the cusp of a new era, I am ready to take a bold step forward in managing both Asian and European markets.

Education has always been heavily emphasized in my family. After all, my parents were the quintessential immigrant dream chasers and I was brought up to be accustomed to viewing the world through lenses laced with rampant curiosity. They were born in the Republic of China and grew up in that fine country, but chose to leave it in order to pursue the American dream. With hard work and determination, the dream flowered and blossomed into their version of the “cute little house with a white picket fence.” At the tender age of four, my parents enrolled me in a preschool and thus began my formal schooling. In addition to formal schooling, my parents had the foresight to teach me the Chinese language. My grandmother sent elementary school Chinese language textbooks from Taiwan. Following these textbooks to a tee, my mother was able to teach me Chinese up to a sixth grade level. At that point, formal schooling became more rigorous and I was forced to take a hiatus from learning Chinese. Luckily, our family communicated primarily in Mandarin and I was able to maintain my verbal skills. During high school, I was able to attend a Chinese language class and a Chinese culture class on Saturdays. This resulted in my perfect score of 800 on the SAT II: Chinese. That achievement combined with my score of 1400 on the SAT I and my strong marks in high school in all subjects helped secure admissions to top engineering schools.

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) proved to be the most compelling school to accept me and I decided that I would sharpen and hone my technical skills at that university. In between many late nights spent in infamous Room #409, the structural engineering laboratory and computing area, I was able to make time to become involved with the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) and its subsidiary student chapter at UCSD, the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers (SCSE). It was a wonderful opportunity for hands-on experience through engineering design competitions. In addition, I had always maintained a keen interest in business, but in order to graduate from the rigorous engineering program in four years, I was only able to fit one introductory economics class into my schedule during college.

During my sophomore year in college, I joined the Future Business Leaders of America - Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL) student chapter board when there was an opening for a webmaster. In the spring quarter, I attended the National Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida which included competition and workshops spanning over the course of a few days. I became intrigued with the business world and chose to find a summer job in sales.

I ended up taking a job at Founder's Mortgage as a telemarketer selling mortgages and reverse mortgages. Though, the job was simple enough, I was constantly innovating and experimenting with the script. By the end of the summer, I had developed four separate scripts which were adapted from the official script and used them to market to different types of potential clients. In my junior and senior year, I had completed most of my general education and began to take upper division courses. I interned for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for the spring quarter of my junior year and followed with an internship in the summer at Dale Christian Structural Engineers, Inc. (DCSE). As my senior year drew to an end, I had to make a choice between pursuing a Masters degree versus finding employment. After careful deliberation, I opted to venture forth into the business world and began to work full-time under the direct supervision of Richard Suzuki, the Office Manager of DCSE.
Working for Dale Christian helped me learn many life lessons, as well as business lessons. Even though my formal education concluded upon my graduation from UCSD, I realized, within the first month of being gainfully employed, just how little I knew about the business world. Of course, the engineering theory imparted by my bookish professors at UCSD were invaluable in providing a firm academic basis for furthering my learning at DCSE, but the greatest skill that I had acquired from formal schooling was the ability to learn quickly and adapt to new situations.

My engineering knowledge and judgment began to mature with every diaphragm or foundation I designed, but I was also able to see the bigger picture and have a hand in marketing as Dale began to notice that I have the capacity to connect with people and build rapport with clients. After a few months at DCSE, I was encouraged by my coworkers to take on a more active role in the structural engineering community.

For the past two and a half years, I have been served on the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California Young Members (SEAOSC YM) committee. My position within that organization as a student liaison for the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) gave me the opportunity to instill a strong work ethic and other cornerstone values on the next generation of engineers. From the start, I devoted a couple of hours every week to generate general interest in the creation of a student chapter of SEAOSC YM. In Spring 2008, a colleague of mine, [removed], founded the Structural Engineering Association at University of California, Irvine (SEA@UCI). Through this process, I learned the value of effective public speaking and perseverance. I proceeded to join a few of the local Toastmasters International clubs in order to build upon my public speaking abilities. In addition, I began to become involved with other young professional networking groups such as Asian Professional Exchange (APEX) and Taiwanese American Professionals (TAP).

As a prodigious end user of such social networking tools as Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and various instant messaging applications, I was able to be very efficient with the expansion of my social circles. In fact, not long after I began to network aggressively, I was able to help my friends with job placement and, even, bring in new clients for DCSE. Within a few months, the worsening US economy has finally taken its toll on our company. The “good times” have long since gone the way of the dodo. I am determined to continue my personal and professional development even in these hard times. Channeling the passion and vigor of my parents in their pursuit of happiness in bygone decades, I have decided to make a career change and take my endeavors onto a global scale by pursuing an International Business Masters in Business Administration (IBMBA) at National Sun-Yat Sen University (NSYSU).


In many ways, pursuing an MBA overseas is a risky proposition. While some may prefer to see a future filled with certainty and security, I prefer to see a future that is as capricious as any wind that may choose to take me to port. There is a certain degree of excitement in the very nature of uncertainty and the only thing certain about pursuing the IBMBA degree is that there will be a far greater uncertainty than if I followed my current course as a structural engineer. Upon reading the IBMBA mission statement, I was immediately drawn to the program because the program objectives and how the program seeks to empower an individual was very much in line with what I consider to be important skill sets for a future in working for multinational firms. I believe that the IBMBA program will help me achieve my goals because, as the global economy recovers, there will be a high demand for globalized talent.

NSYSU also has strong Chinese language programs which will further my personal as well as professional growth. The option for a dual degree program in France is also why NSYSU tops my list for an MBA program. This is coupled with the fact that a great number of students will be from various regions in the world contributing to the diversity of the program. Regardless of what the future holds for me, I am prepared to put my best foot forward and continue to tread onward, steadily, in my pursuit of happiness.

So what did the future hold for me?? (My Top 10 highlights from the past year in Taiwan)
1. Opted NOT to exchange to another country because I wanted to fulfill residency requirements for R.O.C. citizenship. Obtained my citizenship 11/17/2011.
2. Elected Vice President of the International Business MBA program and conducted various administrative duties to ensure its success. Planned a variety of networking events. Hosted the End of the Year party to express gratitude to professors and graduating students. Currently hosting the “Thailand Flood Relief Charity and Networking Mixer,” with NTU, NCCU, and other MBA students.
3. Became an active board member (Volunteer Chair) in the International Student Association working directly with the Office of International Affairs. Organized and hosted Cultural exchanges with Kaohsiung elementary and middle schools and hosted a school-wide Karaoke competition.
4. Employed as an English tutor in the NSYSU Foreign Language and Literature department for the first year. In addition, I taught the course, English Club Spring 2011, offered by the Political Science Department of NSYSU. The class was composed of master’s and doctoral students from that department.
5. Took on additional units in the first year of the MBA in order to graduate early (expected to finish all coursework and thesis by the end of Fall 2011.
6. Started my own company I Speak Cali (給力美語). More info can be found on the official websites: http://www.ispeakcali.com | http://www.facebook.com/ispeakcali
“I Speak Cali was founded on June 24th, 2011 by Shiuh-Wuu (Victor) Liu who is an American expatriate pursuing his MBA in the International Business MBA program at National Sun-yat Sen University. The company was founded on several core values and with a singular mission as follows: I Speak Cali strives to contribute to the internationalization of Taiwan by offering the lowest cost 1-on-1 native Californian English language and culture tutoring to Taiwanese students through the use of online distance learning. I Speak Cali core values include: Integrity, Pursuit of Knowledge, Global Perspective, and Equality of Opportunity.”
7. Enrolled in a Business Chinese class and a Conversational Taiwanese class at National Taiwan Normal University as a full-time student while working on I Speak Cali.
8. Created my own “exchange” by moving from Kaohsiung to Taipei to study at National Chengchi University. Currently enrolled in the International Investment course and the Investment Decisions and Management course.
9. Continued to work on language skill sets by enrolling in the Taiwanese Conversation course at Songshan Community College and attending a Conversational Spanish course at NCCU to refresh my memory (I had previously taken 6 years of Spanish from middle school through high school).
10. Worked with Professor Jason Huang of NSYSU on completing my thesis on, “A Study on Promoting Ethics Awareness for Graduating Civil Engineering Students in Taiwan.” Conducting qualitative interviews at the moment.
Arguably, the most important things that I have done since moving to Taiwan were spending a great deal of time traveling around the island, meeting and exchanging with Taiwanese students and professionals, and staying abreast of the latest social, economical, and political developments in the Asia area. In essence, trying to condense the “Taiwanese experience” into the two short years of my MBA studies has been my secondary focus.


So...ladies?