Dear mom and dad, you never ask but I know inside your heart you have got these questions that how I am dealing with my life, why I am still unemployed at this point of time after taking on so much education and investment both in time and money. Dear aunt and uncle, thank you for having supported me, I know you are being impatient too and have wondered why I am not so good in earning money to pay back or why I am not so lucky, possibly. But what can I say, the world is big, the more I am exposed to things, the more I am curious and yes, it takes time for me to reach to what I truly want. Till this point, you will definitely follow up by asking myself so what is that something you truly want to do right, do not rush, I will get there. I did my undergrad in business, yes, why, of course because business was very hot back then, I just wanted to get into top school and I enjoyed being in that environment more than studying there. During that time, I got to interact and learn from so many amazing people from different backgrounds, we did projects together. What are those projects, oh, we organized competitions, we led teams to approach companies, we tried sales, marketing, and event. That was a fun time as well. Yes, while other young people focused on studying, I was just doing a bunch of activities, it’s me.
Then did I stop there, no, I graduated and worked for advertising agencies because I was curious about this industry. It turned out that I loved my job so much, I really enjoyed digging for customer insights and building brand strategies. I have been crazy about doing focus groups or individual interviews too. There at the agencies, I learnt a lot about structuring my thoughts, empowering my creativity and putting all of them into Power point to present to others. That’s how I moved from Strategic planning intern to Strategic planner to Senior Strategic planner. I am grateful for all of my bosses so far, they helped me to build a strong foundation. My first boss is very good at thinking, he can think very fast and write them down very well. My second boss is very decisive. My third boss is very good in walking into people mind. My fourth boss is very good with logic, I remember defending her point is very tough J My fifth boss is the ideal one that I thought I never ever have a similar one again, he is extremely good with logic, communication, presentation, he is always empowering me and he can spark people’s potential very well, that’s how he helped me grow so much, he kept throwing to me challenges and watching I conquer them. If I have a chance to see him again, I definitely want to work with him again. Yes, while my peers were being so happy with multinational companies and with fancy Management trainee program, I chose to work at marketing agencies.
What’s next? Well, of course I did not stop there. I got to know more about MBA program and my dream of coming to the U.S is always on fire. So I took GMAT (I enjoyed learning it so much too) and then I applied to MBA program. I always believe I can be a good leader but I failed in applying since schools require more than 3 years of experience to get into MBA. Ask me am I convinced with that fact? No, of course, it’s me, I am confident that I’ve got enough experiences, they just do not look good in being presented by numbers :3. Fortunately, I found Babson, a good school for entrepreneurship. I started researching more about it and trust me, I love it so much. I remembered I googled traits of entrepreneur and counted that I got most of them. And yes, no matter how hard it is financially (besides scholarship) and how tough it is to leave a boss I thought I can never meet someone similar again, I chose Babson and I never regret. I got a great time there. I got to know every MBA student, I love exchanging thoughts with them, I love master classes in which we are empowered to raise opinion and embrace different perspective. I love how practical Babson is and the entrepreneurship as well as creative environment here. If you ask me about a course I love the most, it will be Design thinking and if you ask me about lessons I learnt there about leadership and starting a business, I can tell you a ton from my hands-on experiences. Yeah, while my peers are working very hard and being in love, I chose to go abroad and take debt to learn more and be more from the world.
Enough then? No, come on. It’s Hong. Graduation was approaching and while I came to work part time for a kitchen, I realized how much I enjoyed working with Susie there and how much I love food visual, it sparks my creativity and by interacting with food, I could apply problem solving skill as well. Therefore, I ended up getting an offer from this food startup to be an intern here during the summer. So what did I do there? Haha good question, it was undefined and then surprisingly defined very perfectly. I started noticing problems in the kitchen that affect productivity and efficiency. And yah, the founder told me to take those problems and solve them. That’s how I started working on Operations and it was a great opportunity for me to apply the fine operations knowledge I got at a well-known professor at Babson as well. What a life right? I did not expect that I am a great fit for that position, I thrived in my job no matter how challenging it is when the kitchen manager did not trust me. Not to mention, during the summer, I got to work with great college folks from various universities in Boston too. We worked together, from smallest task such as labelling to bigger one such as planning and dealing with people, it was lots of laugh and tear (good tear ;)). Yes, while my peers are busy applying for well-paid jobs or taking fancy internship in big companies, I was just working at a startup, but I learnt so many things and even understood very well about early stage startup, what are challenges, and got to work super closely with the founder to understand the big picture, these are invaluable to me for what I want in the future.
Alright, are you settling down now? No, I am sorry, it’s a no. Yeah during the internship in Boston, I was taking Summer Hacker Program at Lambda at the same time. Oooh, what’s that. Well Jessica Livingston from Y combinator decided to sponsor 40 women to learn coding to at least be able to judge the code later when they become founders of their own business. I saw a post on Twitter and just got very interested in it. I applied and got into. Surprisingly, no matter how hard it was for me at the beginning, I enjoy coding so much and can pick up the concepts very fast. The more I learn, the more I am curious how to build this particular thing, for example “oh, how Facebook built this feature, how can I do this myself”. As I started working with consumers in advertising, I know in tech I also want to work very closely with users. I thought I love building user interface since it seems similar but more powerful with stuff I put into power point before but turned out when I know to make things functional on web I enjoy more, then when it comes to Backend stuff such as designing database, writing end points and test, I cannot stop my excitement. I know while I am learning these stuffs, other engineers have built amazing software, but what’s wrong if I get a late exposure. And yah, I decided to stop right after my internship in the summer even though the founder and people there really wanted to keep me stay. I decided to move to CA — a hub of technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, people here seems crazy and always work on something, something either impactful or interesting. Yup, while my peers are focusing on building their careers, I keep following my curiosity, my heart and my ambition to learning more.
So how is it going? Not easy. Definitely, I have tried so hard to apply for a job, I still continue with Lambda for sure. I always appreciate resources I got from Lambda and the support here. Doing projects with Lambda students, I got to work with from a 18 y.o young guy to a mom or dad with several kids, I love how they are leading their lives. Applying for a job is definitely not something I am good at, I tried so hard for software engineering positions, the stuff I am so curious about but as many applications out there, as many rejections I’ve got. Why? Mainly people don’t consider I have Computer science background or enough experience to enter, oh that’s not good, since I have time pressure. And of course, I could have gone for business positions, but they don’t capture my interest right now anymore, in fact, I do not like what’s obvious and easy. If someone asks me about how do you like being an engineer, I would say, I am just curious about this stuff and think that I can do very well, above that, it aligns with my long-term goal, I want to be able to create and understand deeply how to make a good product. So while my peers are busy travelling and enjoying life, I am floating in CA, staying in a cozy home full of love, dating a man who really cares about me, about to work for a startup in which the founder has a problem with respecting, appreciating and empowering people but very decisive and knows how to get a good deal, always go forward despite all the disrespect. Having said that, this opens a door for me to get into tech, to understand how a technical product is built from scratch, to work closely with engineers and talk technical, good opportunity! At the same time, I will be a code coach to gain deeper understanding about technical stuff over time, awesome opportunities to interact with kids too. I might be doing something relating to either food or education in the future.
That’s life and my life. Life is not a straight line from A to B. But I live my days, I enjoyed all of them. I just want to be myself and do what I want. Till this point, you may have got some ideas what I want to do right, I want to be an entrepreneur and be good at whatever I become. I am willing to do what it takes to become a good entrepreneur, even just having a street vendor or giving away flyers, anything. Entrepreneurship is a very humbling but rewarding journey. I remember my finance professor used to tell us in a class: these were my first jobs: dishwashing, bartender, landscaping…you guys should start with these, it will teach you something important. Yes, definitely.
Nov 18 2019.
