Reaching My Full Potential at Work
From internships in different departments to becoming a full-time worker, I have been in iKala for more than three years. In the first two years, I sometimes felt that I had to try different jobs since I was still a university student, but whenever the idea appeared, there would be new opportunities that convinced me of staying in the company. There was a time when I was facing career stagnation in my previous department and was eager to explore more possibilities in the workplace. Meanwhile, the company was growing rapidly that the team should be expanded. Our COO Keynes arranged a meeting with some interns with outstanding work performance and asked about our career plan. Even at such a high position, Keynes cares about every team member. When asked what I wanted to do after graduation, I replied that I would like to enter the media industry. Keynes soon associated my job expectation to the job function in the company, and asked if I was interested in content production. After that, I was transferred internally to the marketing team. Soon, I discovered that content marketing was what I was interested in and regained my enthusiasm for work. It was at that time that I deeply felt that in this company, as long as one is willing to try, there must be a stage for you to shine.
Always Keeping a Young Mentality and a Habit of Learning
"Cross-generational communication" is a problem faced by many organizations today. In some companies, there is no common topic among colleagues due to the large age gap. It will be difficult for people to communicate under such circumstances, not to mention work well as a team.
On the contrary, the work environment here at iKala is very open, and you can communicate transparently when you have any words. At KOL Radar, no matter what your actual age is, everyone has a very young mentality and a high degree of acceptance of new things. Generational differences are natural phenomena. Take social media usage as an example, the previous generation may be used to Facebook, our generation is on Instagram, and the next generation prefers TikTok, but for me, whether I am familiar with it, working in this industry, we all have to be more tolerant, accepting, and constantly learn new things. In particular, when compiling materials for our weekly newsletter, it is necessary for us to read a lot of domestic and foreign news, not only to ensure that we can provide readers with the latest information, but it is very helpful for our personal professional development.
How I Create a Sense of Accomplishment from Data
The job at iKala has brought me a very different life experience. I have been very bad at math since I was a child, and I never thought that I would have to face this problem one day. However, the work at KOL Radar is highly connected with data, so I must find a way to live with it.
Producing the "2021 Influencer Marketing Trend Report" is one of my most fulfilling things in this job. This is the first time I am responsible for designing report structure, defining data, drafting specifications, providing insights, and finally reviewing the report. Among them, I consider working on data with engineers the most frustrating. As a communications-major student, I am not familiar with programming languages; on the other hand, engineers may not understand what our readers need, so we must clarify "Why do we need this data" and define the formula clearly. Although the process is challenging, I feel like I have become mentally and professionally stronger after that. Knowing nothing at the beginning, I can now express my opinions precisely, even identify more problems during the discussion, which gives me a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, when the report is gaining favor with industry thought leaders, it represents people's recognition of iKala and KOL Radar and I feel that I am a cog in the machine.
What I learned in the Department of Communication is mostly about telling stories. How to make this story attractive and understandable by others is where our professionality lies. Every time when writing articles and trend reports, I always think about how I can better interpret the data, and link it to market trends. Seeing that many people take the initiative to learn about KOL Radar's services after reading our articles makes me realize that these contents are really valuable. Now I can proudly say that I am a data storyteller that brings data to life, and math is no longer scary to me.