So, I had notes taken in August 2017.
I am going to share you my story: experiences I went through during my very first work in Jakarta in 2016. I took notes last time –just so you know, I am no longer working there but I think it might still be worth telling. Whether later you’ll get inspired or fall asleep, here you go.
My very first job after graduation
Here I am landed in one media agency in the capital city of Indonesia. In the world that I’m living in, I was not familiar with the existence of ‘media agency’. And now I am working as a media planner. It started last September in 2016 when I came to one of this job-opening event held in Kuala Lumpur. I entered the room with my head full of thoughts of which table and company should I first come to. So I decided and came to this table. I then handed my CV as the person in charge during that day started to conduct the short interview session. It went well, except that I didn’t know how to answer what that company was about back then. But days after that, I got a call and informed that I got accepted to do the three-months internship with this agency.
What an experience! I didn’t fear anything back then as soon as I introduced myself to everyone in the room. Everyone seemed pretty busy and still, I didn’t get any single clues of what might happen to me after that. Days passed by as I went through all the responsibilities and job desk, I realized I didn’t prepare myself enough to enter this job. I never actually majored in marketing or advertising, and it had been ages since I use Ms. Excel. I thought I will learn a lot about digital marketing but what I did back then was nothing more than technical works such as chopping the newspaper every morning (that was how one the colleagues kept teasing me about to describe the ads tracking activity). Another thing was to bring the wasted paper into the paper shredder machines or sometimes just typing out the notes that I wrote down during the meeting session with random vendors.
Aside from that, the job was pretty much related to media studies I learned at Universities. From all the confusion of those new things and deadline, works thrown with instruction but no guidance –I held myself back, inhaling, exhaling, and I came to the realization: Life before AND after University? They are two different things. I had no choice than to learn it by myself or ask people around whenever they’re not busy with work. Three months passed and slowly, it started to make sense to me, how the company evolves and how the work flows, and each of everyone’s responsibilities in the room.
In my last day, I got this empty feeling of not learning much about digital marketing and advertising, but I must admit, it’s a new world to me and such a short of time to get to know it makes me feel like losing.
Living in Jakarta for the first time
As I was still craving for the experiences, I decided to move out from Kuala Lumpur and apply to the same company, with its branch located in Jakarta. The feelings were still going on and off inside me, my brain couldn’t function enough the day I went to the office and met everyone. At that moment when I shake hands with them, I wasn’t so sure if this is what I actually want to do forever. But I know that I really want to learn and this company gives what I expect it from the start: transfer of knowledge and connection. And it is something priceless and valuable. I mean, I could have just read all those books about advertising or any online references of media planning, but it never makes sense to me. I had to actually learn it by doing it.
In my case right this time, I am currently not only experiencing my very first workplace after graduation, but also am trying on living in the new environment. New city: Living in Jakarta alone for the first time. Aside from the traffic jam that keeps giving me headache day by day, adjusting myself to surroundings never felt this exciting. With the friendly people around –greet and guided me in between their little free time of the works, I could feel the warmth around this new family of mine. I feel grateful.
Working in beauty industry nowadays and #SocialMediaUse
I used to think makeup is just one thing for women that need to cover their flaws, nothing more beyond that. I used to think we shouldn’t be bothered to talk much about it since beauty comes from the inside, remember? I was like: I bet there will not be much of things to say about makeup other than the variety of its colors and its function to colored the lips and cover the pimples. The thing that I didn’t know back then is, the beauty industry covers a lot of different topics. During the meeting, we always came up with the whole plan of how we promote and create awareness of the product existence to the market in so many ways I could never think of. It never occurred to me at first on how women think red lipstick can brighten their day, until I got involved in the team to create the idea itself and come up with a plan and strategy on how to plant it in the audience mind, by utilizing the social media and the influencers.
The role of social media influencers are so much important for the industry, with their communication to their own audience is so impactful and beneficial. For some of them, especially the makeup artists and the beauticians, I think they have the potential to create their own economy in a world where improving your appearance never seems to hit a recession. Interesting, right? What comes to your mind when you watch those beauty gurus on You Tube? Was it simply just because they look pretty -it entertained you? That’s one enough reason where the makeup and beauty industry fill in that confusing gap and get something out of this phenomenon. Well, this is not breaking news, but I guess not many people out there are aware of this fact, especially when the outcome is: they eventually go to the department store and buy the product.
The beauty field is filled with many chances to meet and work with fascinating people. I can see that from the past month I experiencing working with client and all agencies, most of them that choose a career in beauty come from a creative and artistic background. Makeup, skincare, hair, nails, are all areas that promote the creative process, and sharing my ideas during the meeting with all of them, it really takes my creativity to a whole new level. Or at least I could say that, I get inspired –in so many ways.
I used to judge people that involves within the beauty industry and how insignificant are those things in life. When it actually takes such long time and big efforts to come up with one plan just to launch one single product. It takes more than one creative ways to use the social media as the platform to influence the target audience in the market. As it is bad enough to know that a lot of people nowadays spend most of their days going on Instagram and browsing random things on You Tube, it is a good opportunity for them to do business, even great to advertise themselves with the free platform provided online. This reminds me of the topic of final year project that I did last year, to get to know how young adult female perceive the content of those video blogs. Whether the industry wins the heart of the audience and succeed to make them buy the product, the very important fact is that how media platform becomes a powerful thing to influence and control the decision of the market. Powerful enough to create the perception and control the decision of the market. Again, this is not new information.
In the other words, I learnt social media at this company. I learnt digital marketing and how good I am with pptx + Ms Excel at this company. I learnt how to get work done at this company. And most importantly, I learnt how not to judge a book by its cover here.
After a long day at work I stayed up late into the night pondering the question ‘what would I like to do in life?’ The concept of Key Opinion Leader (KOLs), those who performed online and attracting lots of viewers has been around for a while. It brought my attention since long time ago by seeing those influencers that promoting the best beauty product to the audience. I embraced the idea immediately and since this plan has always been in my bucket list –to be someone that can inspire others, I decided that I want to be an influencer too. One of the near future resolutions this year is one to build my own channel on YouTube. I’ve always wanted to be on the camera and telling story to others, so that people in anywhere and anytime get informed and inspired by the stories that I tell. The other things I need to do before I die is to publish my own book, and to travel around the world and completing my mission to visit all continents.
And evidently, as Indonesian internet advertising market is showing the stronger growth from time to time, I think it is very smart for all of us to actually produce something instead of only consuming, by using the free online platforms to express yourself, creating awareness and positive impact on those potential audiences, and better –to make money out of it. Coz, why not?
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