As Jiangsu University welcomed its international graduates home for the 2nd International Alumni Forum — held under the theme “Building a Resilient Global Alumni Network for Sustainable Career Growth” — the School of Management’s lecture auditorium hosted a frank, question-driven session with one of its own graduates.

Dr. Muhammad Umair Wattoo, who earned his PhD in Management Science and Engineering in 2025 and now works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the College of Economics and Management, Northeast Forestry University, set aside any formal address and handed the afternoon over to the audience. Mr. Liangze Zhi, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Overseas Education College, attended, and Prof. Zhiwen Li, Assistant Dean and Director of International Education Center, School of Management, chaired the session.

On the question most doctoral students share about how to work with their supervisors, Dr. Wattoo argued that the responsibility belongs to the student. A supervisor’s attention is finite, he said, so routine work should be handled by seniors and colleagues, or through personal effort, while the supervisor’s time is reserved for direction. “I come with results from our discussions,” he said, “not with questions about where to find literature.”

He was equally direct about publishing. He shared that each student in his cohort met with rejection along the way; he kept submitting and graduated with five papers to his name. “It all narrows down to hard work,” he said, adding that students who build a strong academic ecosystem of supervisors, seniors and peers carry a lighter load.

Describing the postdoctoral years, he noted that fellows are largely on their own, working towards institutional targets from a perspective that may differ from the supervisor’s. The fellowship, he said, offers autonomy and room for multidisciplinary collaboration, and how far fellows progress depends largely on the effort made during the doctorate.

Students left with practical resolutions: to approach supervisors with progress rather than problems, to plan their publication strategy early, and to treat a postdoctoral fellowship as a deliberate next step. The session was also a working example of the Homecoming’s theme — the network Dr. Wattoo urged students to build is the same one that brought him back to the School.