SC Spotlight: Sydney Liu

By Judy Lee ‘17

Last semester, I had a realization:

We are in a very rare situation in which we are in the midst of people who will shape the future of this world. Seems dramatic, right? Not so far-fetched, though. Our professors have already had huge parts in shaping entire industries . Is it really a surprise that we’ll join them in the ranks soon enough? 

Here’s the punch: despite this, we will never meet most of the people on this campus. What could we have learned and who could we have known had we not been so busy? This is where SC Spotlight will bring just a bit more light. 

I’m on a mission to acquire as much of the wisdom and knowledge of this campus as I can and share it. As an ongoing series, I (Judy) will be interviewing awesome Trojans for their insight and advice to you!

Now, I am elated to introduce my first SC Spotlight Trojan: Sydney Liu!

Sydney is majoring in Computer Science and Business Administration. He is in the class of 2017, likes brownies for treats, and is one of the founders of TalentTrail - an internship matching startup that believes that:

“You’re more than a resume.”

In your own words, what is TalentTrail and how did the idea come about?

TalentTrail streamlines the recruiting process. The first idea we started out with was supposed to be a matching platform for career fairs. If you wanted to talk to a company, you’d have to walk in a long line. By the end, the recruiters are tired because they talk to candidates that they don’t care about just to meet one they get excited about. We noticed this huge inefficiency of the career fair and wanted to create better, more efficient opportunities.

TalentTrail’s birthday was about a month ago. How did that feel?

To be honest, it was more insane than expected. My cofounder and I did have a chance to briefly celebrate, but that day was the highest traffic we ever had. Naturally, we were very heavily worked with fixing bugs, promoting, and trying to ride the momentum. It was exciting, but definitely very busy and chaotic.

What would you say is a common mistake made by college students when it comes to internships? Have you made any of them?

The biggest misconception is that if you send in your information, that people are going to respond and like it. When I first started to apply, I’d just send it all in. I’d hope they’d respond, not knowing that tons and tons of other students are also applying—some who have better resumes—putting me at a disadvantage. 

That’s also why you need to think about your differential factor. It’s something we really tried to build into TalentTrail. We ask a lot of questions to better hone in our understanding of someone. And because we deal with largely startups, people are very open-minded to various skill sets. 

I think the bigger mistakes are less about syntax (resume format) and more about leaving things out that should be on your resume. Recruiters love when you have project experience. For example, school projects and extracurricular activities, things that are unconventional and give you experience. Passion projects are often tossed aside as insignificant and left out, but can prove to be the most valuable.

How would you describe your relationship with failure?

I hate it. I absolutely hate it. I will do what I can so what I’m passionate about will never fail. But it’s one of those things where you have to take ownership and learn from it. That’s just a mentality you have to have. You have to push forward and can’t spend your time getting pissed. You have to find a way to get around it.

What would you say is something you’ve always been told to do to be successful that you’ve found wasn’t so true after all?

Advice is really cheap. It’s always up to you to distill what you want to use. There have been a lot of people who told me not to work on TalentTrail and startups, but I don’t think that’s something that fits me very well because this is where I find my passion. This is what makes sparks fly—it’s what drives me in the morning and what I dream of at night. This is the mission I want to chase. 

How do you feel about the millennial stereotype of being lazy and entitled? Do you think it’s justified?

I don’t think it’s a completely unfair characterization since people did work longer hours before. It used to be unconventional to leave before your boss does. Our generation does not uphold that. I don’t know if that means we’re harder working, but we aren’t lazy. 

It’s because we have different values, like wanting a happier life and understanding our lives. We want to have fun; we want to work in a place where we have a good time. We want to do things that are interesting. We’re simply productive in other ways.

Of course, it’s difficult to generalize an entire generation, but that’s just what I think of as our generational trend.

What would you say to summer-before-freshman-year Sydney from where you are currently in life ?

Take risks. Capture and enjoy every moment. There are lots of amazing memories that I don’t think will happen in my life again and will ever have a chance to do again. I would tell myself to be a little more experimental with learning, enjoying, and absorbing what’s around me. 

What are your plans for the TalentTrail? Where do you see it at its second birthday?

Definitely very fast growth. Next year, we want to be a much fuller company and more heavily adopted in schools around the nation. We’re already a part of many universities, but we want to triple that number by next year and start to establish ourselves as a standard.

Any more startups during college?

I think it’s unfair to be doing multiple projects at once. If anything, I need to be 100% on it and making sure that it would be pumping life into TalentTrail. Anything else that doesn’t move that forward is unfair to TalentTrail. But that’s not to say I won’t go to hackathons and do things here and there, but it’s definitely not the focus.

What do you do to let off steam/unwind?

Call up a buddy or do something with people I haven’t seen in awhile. I like to see my friends. Startups can be very lonely because you’re working very hard and you’re meeting with business contacts all the time. You definitely miss the people you love. 

Freshman year, I met wonderful friends and I felt like I was being a terrible friend since I’ve been working. It’s just makes it very difficult to hang out with everyone who I care about. Seeing them is definitely something I do if I have free time. 

Do you have a favorite startup currently?

Weave is an app for business networking. I meet clients and mentors there. We’ve met investors there. It’s a great place where I can have meetings with people without actually taking a lot of time running around trying to find them. 

Just curious—what’s your take on Linked In?

I love it. I use it every day and it’s one of my most used sites. It’s powerful on so many levels and it’s such a strong tool. I don’t think there is a better one. 

In my opinion, It’s worth it to have a strong Linked In profile. It’s tricky since there’s no tried and true way to go about it, which is part of the beauty of it. It’s important to keep it somewhat filled with updated information. Use it as a tool to find and reach out to people.

General life advice? Do you have a motto?

Understand your values and understand what motivates you. With those in line, everything else falls place. Getting to that point’s the hard part, but figure out what matters to you and it can change a lot. 

Look for that element of yourself. Test your boundaries. Push yourself and find that driving factor, that engine that will keep you going no matter what.