ADAPTING TO A CHANGING WORLD
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: DEVELOPING CAREER RESILIENCE 2005 – 2011 Various Roles, Singapore Airlines
2018 onwards Vice President, APAC Junior Talent Marketing, Bank of America
Alan Chua
Vice President, APAC Junior Talent Marketing Bank of America
Challenges of the present and future The most recent batch of graduates had to commence their employment in a completely new environment, which was new for both graduates and their employers. This means both parties had to immediately adapt to this situation, and meant that we needed to be agile and resilient. Here, tapping on your EQ becomes highly important. You need to learn how to be proactive but not be overly demanding; be collaborative, anticipate what’s next and respond promptly; and communicate clearly and effectively but not be afraid to ask questions when you are in doubt. All this while most of us are still working remotely and face-to-face interaction is a luxury. There is also an ongoing fatigue with conference/video calls. In order to become more effective, some teams have taken to organising such calls regularly. But the questions I would ask are: “Does it really improve productivity? Or has it merely become another way to clock in “face time” at work?” Let us ask ourselves if a call is really needed, or if can it simply be summarised in an email with clear action points?
14 | THE SMU CAREER GUIDE 2021
2011 – 2014 Marketing Manager (MBA Programme), National University of Singapore Business School 2017 – 2018 ASEAN Recruitment Marketing Lead, Accenture
2014 – 2016 APAC Marketing Manager, Korn Ferry
2016 – 2017 Recruitment Marketing Manager, ASEAN Pacific and Japan, Philips
“Things will not always be smooth sailing and you will encounter things that you may not enjoy doing or be good at. However, as long as you persevere, you will see the light at the end of the tunnel.” I am not against such calls but sometimes, a virtual lunch, or drinks over a video call, where the team spends an hour just chatting about anything but work might actually be more productive, and can help to bring the team closer together.
Staying resilient and relevant I graduated with a degree in Computing but during my second year in university, I knew that this was not for me. This was a different time, and I gave in to societal pressure and decided not to change courses but instead stick it out in a course that I had no interest in and graduate. Thankfully, I managed to do so, but I think this was my first lesson in resilience. Things will not always be smooth sailing and you will encounter things that you may not enjoy doing or be good at. However, as long as you persevere, you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. I ended up not starting work in information technology (IT), but after six or seven years of working, I decided that I needed to accelerate my career and pick up new skills. That was when I decided to pursue my Masters in Communication Management at SMU part-time.
Although I really enjoyed myself during the programme and found plenty of learning opportunities, doing this course part-time while still having my full-time job was also extremely challenging. I had to learn how to effectively manage my time and also be agile in learning. We had plenty of readings to complete, and I remember downloading an app which would read out the readings to me while I drove to and from work.
Advice to graduates Be creative and do not be afraid to put your hand up. Always be on the lookout for stretch assignments or projects that can help you to network or add on to your repertoire of skills. You will become more confident of yourself as you start to acquire more skills and get to know more people. Most importantly, make sure that you always (over)deliver on what you have promised as that is extremely important to build up your credibility especially in a new work environment.
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