12. My Career Journey So Far - 3 Transition Chapters (the last one was painful 😔 )

Hi everyone, this is a solo episode where I will share my career journey thus far. I will tell you why and focus on the 3 career transition chapters:

1. From banking 🏦 to laser tag 🔫
2. From employer to startup employee
3. From untimely departure to ecommerce industry in Covid19

Let me know what you think / contact me directly at johnlimcy@gmail.com. Do kindly let me know your thoughts of such solo episodes - and what other topics you'd like me to cover.
 
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:47) Why I am sharing my career journey
(02:10) My 3 career transition chapters
(03:15) Chapter 1
(07:22) Chapter 2
(09:36) Put Numbers on your CV
(14:18) Chapter 3
(15:14) One of the lowest points of my life
(20:13) Motivation behind this podcast

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Chapters

• 0:47 Why I am sharing my career journey
• 2:10 My 3 Career Transition Chapters
• 3:15 Chapter 1: From Banking 🏦 to laser tag 🔫
• 7:22 Chapter 2: From employer to startup employee
• 9:36 Put Numbers on your CV
• 14:18 Chapter 3: From untimely departure to ecommerce industry in Covid19
• 15:14 One of the lowest points of my life
• 20:13 Motivation behind this podcast

Transcript

0:36

Hi everyone. Welcome to the latest episode of On My Own Terms podcast. In this solar episode, I'll be sharing my career journey task file, and I'm recording this in January of 2023. Three reasons. One, I'm doing this. Number one, it is for you. To know and understand me a little better. If you're gonna listen to the podcast host I e me, talk about career switch and career change, then maybe it's helpful to know what I've controlled myself, which leads to reason number two. I believe that knowing my career journey will provide some background and context to some of the topics and questions that discuss here with my podcast guests. And reason number three, for you to ask me questions directly. I set up this podcast with the purpose to help you on career change and growth through the podcast content. I would also wanna be able to help you directly, so feel free to reach out via email, which is listed on the episode. And I wanna caveat that my opinions expressed here are entirely my own. They do not express the views of the past, current, and future organizations that I'm part of. Hi, hope you're enjoying the episode so far. I'm interrupting my own episode to tell you that this podcast has launched a newsletter. If you'd like to receive bonus content from this podcast and topics on career change and growth, consider subscribing to our email newsletter. Link is in the episode description. Now back to the episode. So what I'm gonna tell you next will be my career journey. This will not be me reading off my CV or my LinkedIn profile. You can find out more details on my LinkedIn profile, but what I will focus here are three transition chapters in my career so far. Transition chapter number one, from banking to laser tech, chapter two, from employer to startup. Chapter three, from untimely departure to E-commerce industry and Covid 19. So here goes maybe some pretexts. I graduated from Singapore Management University in 2009 with a bachelor in economics and second major in corporate communications for contacts. Um, 2009 was one of the worst years to graduate from business school coming off a global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in late 20 oh. Uh, regardless, I joined a local bank in Singapore as a personal financial consultant. Uh, it's basically a retail banking sales role where I was based at a bank branch and sold bank products to individual customers. I was there for nearly one and a half years before I quit and co-founded a laser tech events business full-time. So here we are at my transition chapter number one from banking to laser tank. So a big question that I've always received was, uh, why the drastic move? Um, and as usual they were push and pull factors, uh, for push factors. Well, the role, and to a certain extent, um, to a certain large extent, the industry was heavily incentivized toward its selling and joint link products, something that I didn't see a good fit for my own long-term aspirations and career growth, which leads me to push reason number two, the work culture also didn't quite sit right with me. Um, lemme explain. Colleagues and I had to come back to the brunch at night after banking hours, including Friday nights for retraining. Um, just because we didn't sell enough certain bank products despite heating the targets, despite hitting the sales target. I was verified with earning no commercial as long as I was introducing the right suitable banking product to the customer based on the needs, even if that man not heating my sales target. Of certain favorite bank products, um, but I just didn't think that it was right for me to be punished for doing the right thing. I have to also add that my colleagues were great and it was a great first job to hone your sales skills and also to meet interesting people. Uh, pool reasons. Uh, there are few pool reasons. Number one, it's timing. I've always wanted to try my hands on entrepreneurship and this opportunity came. There were also a number of business specific, um, laser tech specific reasons, which I won't go into. Uh, but with that I also saw compatibility of my skillsets, which I thought would, uh, make sense and would be needed to make it work. Uh, and this two would be like sales or business development and also maybe creativity. Uh, another poor reason was that I thought there was nothing to lose. I, I give myself two years and it doesn't work out my degree and the banks will always. right. Um, but the biggest reason of all is that I did not want, have regrets of me not trying. I don't want to be that guy who is grumpy at 50 or 60 years old when, um, opportunity has, has have dried up or have gone by and me regretting not being able to, to try or me regretting that I didn't take the opportunity. Uh, I just don't want that to. Um, so how the transition happened, um, and I think research, right? I did not quit and jump into the idea full-time right away. I actually spent a few months doing a whole lot of research. I studied competitors. I studied the entire industry landscape. I even paid for a laser tech session with my future competitor just to them out and to experience their. Um, second thing was due diligence. Um, only when I was sure that there were gaps in the market, uh, and that I had the ideas to address these gaps, then I'll be confident to quit my banking job and jump into this full or this new entrepreneurial gig a hundred percent full-time. Uh, this was to largely answer to myself and maybe to others. If anyone ask, um, how it felt like, um, It felt like it was a big, big leap of faith into the unknown. Um, it was exciting because it was like a big blank canvas. You just don't know what's gonna happen out there. It could go very, very well. It could go very, very badly. Um, but I, like I said, there was that plan B, that backup plan. If it doesn't work out in two years, I'll come back, uh, to do or to, to full-time. So, yeah, but it was a big leap of faith into the unknown. And, um, what happened next? Um, in, in total, I spent about six and a half years at this entrepreneurial st. Uh, during this time, a whole lot happened. Uh, the business, the team, uh, grew. From no fixed locations to having two, uh, business also evolved from events, uh, to manufacturing laser tech equipment. And during this time I also dabbled with e-commerce businesses and, uh, legal media startup, which brings us to transition chapter two from employer to startup employee. I left the company, which I co-founded and built for six and a half years to join an early stage, uh, tech startup in 2017 as Singapore general manager. Um, a, a psych story. It was a little serendipitous how I came upon this, uh, startup and the opportunity I was representing my previous company at a two day tech startup event. Uh, this was in the days when the company started to manufacture laser tech equipment. So I got to know the tech startup, uh, when I heard the CEO e Anthony, uh, pitch his startup on day one. It was a really cool product, in my opinion, a smart lock, which solves the problem of a Airbnb host and guests exchanging physical keys. And on day two lunchtime, I was looking for a spot to end my quick lunch and I found a empty spot next to guess what Anthony? I asked if it was available and, and I sat down. We end up chatting and started talk about his. and the smart lot about Tangi customers, potential product bundling, et cetera, for the next one and a half hours. Uh, we exchanged contacts and, and said goodbye. Uh, about two months later, when I was looking at opportunities, I saw Anthony's startup was hiring. I sent my cv, I DM him on LinkedIn. He invited me for coffee together with one of his co-founders, and the rest was. Um, but maybe a mini lesson here is you, you never know who you talk to or connect with today, even when you're not looking for opportunities. Um, these people could be the one ending up being someone that could ref give you a referral, uh, giving you insight, information about industry or a company or even be your future boss. Um, so this is what happened to me. And, um, okay, back to my career transition chapter two, and let me now zoom in. on some of the consideration factors and lessons during this transition period. I knew that many next step of my career had to involve tech Somehow. The advancement of technology was rapid, tremendous and was covering more and more parts of our lives. Um, numbers on cv. Uh, I knew firsthand the importance of putting quantitative numbers on my CV in my applications. So some contacts here. I had applied to a few places and I received no, um, callbacks, um, no contact thereafter. Um, things magically change when I put. Uh, this number, number of, uh, amount revenue. They have grown my own company from X year to one year. And immediately on the day, I've got two calls, uh, on the same data. I submitted my cv so I knew firsthand that, um, it's very important to put quantitative numbers on your CV, in your job applications. Okay, that was a site note. Now, back to my job, uh, transition, um, more than one offer I needed to make sure. Joining another company after I was leaving the company that I set up, and then I built, I need to make sure that joining another company was a well considered decision. Um, that was, uh, well taught through and had merits on its own. Um, Nick's pointer was, um, letting opportunity, um, one, the reasons why I, I factor in the fact that this tech. Have both tech software and hardware elements. And I figured that this would be a good learning opportunity for me by joining, uh, Anthony's startup. And, uh, last but not least, uh, do the nce. Uh, again, I think as a recurring team, uh, I did my research. I even tested the smart lock in the retail stores in Singapore. Um, I, I saw the potential, uh, I got excited. Eventually chose this tech startup despite, uh, 50% more basic salary, uh, which the other offer, uh, provided. And how did it feel then in this transition? Um, at this point in time, I was, uh, 34 years old. I was a little scared about joining a company after being an employer. And, um, there were also other, at this point in time, I also felt that there were a lot more variable factors about joining, uh, another company where I was the employee, for example, the company culture. uh, the sense of control, or rather the lack of sense of control that I may have joining another company. And, uh, when I did my own, um, company, I oversaw much wider aspects of the company. But when I joined this tech startup, I was, uh, my main KPI was sales. So there was that white control versus narrow focus. Of course this were, um, good and bad, uh, but these are some of the factors that I considered when I left my own company and then joined this tech startup. But at the same time, um, besides having this, uh, the apprehension that I told you earlier, I was also excited to be part of something larger. I mean, this was a startup that was, uh, backed by venture capital and with the. And the technology I thought he had, he had a much larger audience globally, uh, versus what I had before. Right? It was a laser tech mini based in Singapore. So what happened next? Um, there was a steep learning curve for me. Every industry comes with its list of regulations. Practices, uh, ecosystem of players and partners. Um, I first joined as the Singapore general Manager and later on, the startup gave me more regions to, to manage, and then I became business development director for Service Asia. And I, I had a. I was traveling a lot. I represented the startup at tech conferences and events across the region. Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, uh, Hong Kong, Germany, Las Vegas for ces. Uh, consumer Electronic Show. Uh, and of course this, all this happened in pre covid times. Of course. I, I was really in the midst of the startups, um, rapid growth in terms of team size, product development, and market expansion. Um, I, I truly learn a lot and I had a really, really awesome two years, but like most good things, they all come to an end, Which brings us to transition chapter three from untimely departure to e-commerce industry in Covid 19. I like my transition chapters one and two. This transition was not quite on my own terms. Let me explain, uh, the c e o of the tech startup and also my boss, uh, Anthony, uh, and I have had, um, different thoughts of. How the company processors should be. And we had the amicable parting in early October, 2019. Uh, the timing was also not the best for a career transition. At this time, I was a man away from my wedding and my damn fiance was five months into a pregnancy. Um, my income was also the only source of income for us as my damn fiancee had already quit a flight attendant job due to a p. I negotiated for two months notice period to give myself more time to learn my next job. So you can probably imagine the stress I was in. Uh, what came next was one of my lowest period in my life. I was practically looking to learn something. I brushed up my cv, my LinkedIn profile. I signed up for numerous. Uh, portals, I type in keywords. I sign up for job alerts. Uh, I was modifying my cover letters to attach for different job applications. I remember applying for different roles, um, even roles in the government, and I had to fill up insanely long application forms and even submitting my primary school living examination, P S L E scores. Um, there I was applying for a job at 36 years old and needed to submit my score for an exam I took when I was 12 years old. I remember it got a little depressing at one point, um, but I kept myself busy to keep my chin up and kept going because at this point in time I knew that it was not just my morale, but also the morale of my damn fiancee as well, that I had to keep going. And so in late November, 2019, I took a level of faith and ended a career switch to the e-commerce industry to join a service Asia e-commerce marketplace company. um, I said, leave of faith because, uh, remember the contexts here, this was 2019, uh, before Covid 19 happened, um, before all the offline world was brought to a hot. And, um, below just some of the, uh, factors that I, I thought about doing this transition. Um, in all honesty, I was not the most excited about the e-commerce industry. Um, I mean, like I said, Pre Covid. Uh, but when I was, uh, managing sales at the tech startup, a significant portion of sales came from e-commerce, and I thought that if I were to sharpen my tools in business development and sales, I really needed to figure out e-commerce. I also told myself that at least this was also a scale up in terms of company size, maturity and capital funding. And capital funding means this one thing, resources. Um, I also wanted to learn how bigger companies organize resources and execute strategies because at startups, especially early stage ones, your strategies and execution constantly depend on how much money is left in the bank, which sometimes can be super short-term and limiting. And two quick points about my transition. Um, number one, experience brings pressure, being a relatively senior hire in a generally young working environment, I, I felt some pressure to prove myself quickly while also needing to pick up things up quickly in the new industry. And the second one was, at this point in time, this e-commerce company was the biggest company I was working in, uh, with the exception of the bank. And, uh, in inevitably it felt very copper. which make me assume that I should also be a bit more cautious about stepping on, uh, other people's toes. On hindsight, this was, uh, this was an unnecessary and silly basis assumption. And also I was paid to be effective at work, not to be Mr. Popular. And then in the march April of 2020, COVID 19 brought Singapore and the world to east needs, uh, except for medical services, food delivery, e-commerce, and a few other industries. Most other industries were having, uh, were facing job cart or loss of jobs. Uh, and yet, uh, I was, uh, having a little pay bump, uh, and a tiny bonus 80 in a financial year. And, um, I realized I was at the right place at the right. And then my LinkedIn can exploded. The demand for folks and e-commerce shut up due to the pandemic and again, right place, right time. So of course, hindsight is 2020. It turned out that the untimely departure from the tech startup, which led to my initial level of faith into the e-commerce industry, turned out to be a huge, huge blessing in dis. I'll be the first to acknowledge that, um, luck and timing play a huge role in all of this. Uh, I didn't work any harder than anyone else, but I was just at the again, right place, right time. And having said all that and looking back now, will I still have wanted to leave the tech startup on my own terms and avoided all the stress of landing something else in a short timeframe? Yes, absolutely. What I had gone through was super terrible and no one should ever go through what I went through. I absolutely hate the fact that I had no control and I felt utterly helpless. And it was also these feelings that formed my motivation to start this podcast and to help others in similar shoes, um, and also open up and share all these about my career transitions with you. So to sum up the three transition chapters in my career, uh, number one, from banking to laser tech. Number two, from employer to startup employee, and number three, from untimely departure to e-commerce industry in Covid 19. So I hope you enjoyed this solo episode. Um, tell me to let me know a, you want more of such sold episodes, um, cuz it does feel like I'm babbling to the. um, or my microphone, uh, to myself, um, can be super awkward. Regardless. I hope you enjoyed it and, I hope this has provided you more context, to my motivations and starting the podcast and also some of the questions that I have and will ask my guests down. Thank you and I look forward to having you in the next episode. And don't forget to sign up for the newsletter. Bye.