Heejun Goo

Heejun Goo, South Korea
Full-Time MBA Class of 2022
LinkedIn

Professional Roles, Achievements and Activities

From a young age, through my teenage years, my only focus was Taekwondo as a junior professional player, and my childhood dream was to become a member of the Korean National Taekwondo Team. However, the first dream was shattered when I got herniated disc in my back, and after recovering my body and my mind through a horrible and long rehabilitation process, I started thinking about another future plan. My only real interest outside of Taekwondo was the content, media, and entertainment, so I decided to pursue a career in that field and went to study in the UK. I enjoyed my university life with various and dynamic experiences. After graduation, I finally achieved my second dream. I joined CJ ENM, which is a leading media company in Korea and producer & distributor of the great movie, Parasite. Amongst those challenging and dynamic time in my life, I would like to talk more about my work experiences.

I started my career as an intern in 2012 and by 2016, I had gained a variety of experience across the media and entertainment industry. In 2017, when I felt I was reaching a crossroads in my career over whether to focus on becoming a specialist or take a managerial path, my own line manager helped me take the decision to focus on the managerial track. After working hard on developing my leadership skills, in 2018, I was ranked first in my division and was selected for the ‘potential leader’ development program, operated by the Human Resource Management team. In addition, I was also selected as an employee representative at a commemoration ceremony in 2019 and received a citation from the CEO. The fact that my hard work and achievements were recognized early by my manager and the company and I was given the opportunity to develop my skills as a leader, is something that I am very proud of.

What is invisible but essential about YOU? or ESADE? or Barcelona?

As said, I was a junior Taekwondo professional player. When I was in middle and high school, I typically spent at least ten hours a day practicing, and I built a reputation as a promising player. However, I could not make the dream due to a severe herniated disc in my back. The horrible accident suddenly and unexpectedly hit me, and I was afraid of losing the thing that was most important to me. In addition, my doctor warned me that there was a chance that I would not walk again. The first three months of rehabilitation were the toughest, I continually fell over, had bruises all over my body, and had trouble sleeping due to the pain. Thanks to my family, but I could overcome the toughest moment in my life so far and came back to a normal life without any pains.

Through this process, I started to realize that I was a naturally positive and strong-willed person, which has given me the added confidence that I can achieve anything I set my mind to in the future. Also, I realized that I am very systematically planned, structured, and self-disciplined person through the rehabilitation. I built the habit of setting goals, making plans, and implementing them on every single day during the rehabilitation. Lastly, but most importantly, I learnt the lesson that “too much is as bad as too little & to always be humble for both physically and mentally” as I tried to understand what caused my herniated disc. These three lessons have become ESSENTIAL factors in my life. 

For me, ESADE is a representative of diversity, equality, and harmony. As a child I was strongly influenced by my mother, who was a social worker helping senior citizens and immigrants, and the lessons she taught me about treating everyone equally, has meant that I am able to get along with everyone, irrespective of their background. I hope this another essential but invisible of me will be aligned with ESADE SPIRIT. Now, I am enjoying ESADE MBA life and trying to improve and hone myself to start on the path to becoming an industry leader who can positively influence the people around me.