My Virgin Ad

It’s amazing how doing things you like or love can make such a vast difference, even though if it’s tough or difficult. I’m comparing it against my previous job of course. Perhaps, the experience I had prior to what I’m doing now attribute to this as well. Job satisfaction arrives at a higher frequency. Typically, it’s not an easy job, to put it simply, no job out there is easy. But behind what I’m doing now, there lies a truth totally opposite of the appearance. A lot of people think marketing is such a cool job, some even say it’s glamorous. I see and understand why this is so. You get to attend functions, you get hosted, you get to meet people, you make decisions, you impress (that is if you had a job well done)..and the list goes on. Basically, the business is on you, largely on you to be specific. The mechanics of sales lies in the way you garner the necessary response, reaction and most importantly impression.

I must insist that money makes the business go round, without that, business could significantly drop. Marketing to me is rolling gold into a gold mountain. Few weeks into my job now, I wouldn’t say I’m good at it. In fact, I’m far from good. I still have much to learn (yea, like young Padawan). I thank myself for being at the very least, positive about things, followed by the support I get from a lot of people. It is still a very tough period – being all alone in the marketing department with no one to guide you, instruct you or even correct you. Literally, I’m left on a No Man’s Land. But I accepted this long and steep learning curve and I must say it has been serving me well so far. People I’ve met so far are very helpful, suppliers and colleagues alike. Most importantly, I could never do it without the support and encouragement by girl. I’m being put in a spot similar to hers few months back. Therefore, it’s much easier to self talk as well.

I’ve learnt two important things in what I’m doing now – being meticulous as well as being pro-active. Without these two essential traits, you wouldn't succeed as a marketer I realize. Creativity is one, but failing to take caution in what you do could literally bust up your own project, campaign or advertising so to speak. Being pro-active is part of being creative I realized and it take a lot for me to jump out of my previous job shadow. Frankly speaking, I’m underpaid. But I believe by compromising now, I’m taking a decisive step to step forth my future career path and plan.

Slowly and slowly, my interests and love in what I’m doing increase, along with the workload as well as stress. Come what may, I’ll take it one step at a time for nothing comes easy, it’s how you deal with it basically. Proudly, I would like to share the very first advertisement I did on Straits Times Classified, 11 May. It just feel different having your work to be seen by public. To some, it may mean peanuts, but to me, it means the world.