Five years of professional journey: A reflection

Marking this April 14th 2019 I have been exactly 5 years for my professional tenure, today. It is awesome and awe inspiring.

Learning highlights I acquired so far:

• Compassionate: To be honest, I have never set any spectrum goals on career progression in a timely manner. For instance, there never comes to my concern that at 2016 I had to sit in a manager level or achieved a certain set of broader responsibilities. I have been just in place to do whatever my capability is able to (equals to prior knowledge & skills + acquired knowledge, skills, and how-to’s + logic). At the end of the day, I became the manager earlier than I already envisioned. What’s the core lesson here? Be compassionate of what you do, no matter what the fortune teller tells about your future. How do I know whether I become compassionate enough? Here is how it works: You do your own work; you don’t feel like the time running out while you are working on it; you do whatever it takes to accomplish, and pain or tiredness are never on your radar; you scale your mission and be in control of your expectation; you win. 

• Detail-oriented: A lot of toxic I found in those multiple workforce said “I cannot be that detailed-oriented (like you)” or “I am too old for that detailed-oriented thing” or “Why would I bother with such a detail perspective?” I was just “oh.” My brain power would start to react belligerently and subliminally judge such toxic as “you are downgraded.” I hate discussing this. Bye.

• Resilience: I am skeptical on what Spiderman;’s film quote: with great power comes great responsibility. I am a true holder of the otherwise principle: More responsibilities come greater power.

• Never decide any causes (hereby becoming the decision) when you totally have no clue about. I mean, informed decision is a highlight I want to emphasize here. How do I get there? A/B test! That might seem hard for you to do but actually it is practically strategic and tactical. A/B test is looted from data science conducted during which you are designing a product (hereby called variant A) then clone that new lookalike with some changes to be obviously different. Remember, just one variable of difference you need to test and keep the rest of the variables exactly similar to the original (hereby called variant B). I do the experiment with it, I see it, and I figure out the result of which one perform better relative to the other. Flashing back to how such culture is cultivated, I establish this approach when I was composing my final undergraduate thesis (3 terms before graduation). You may find the abstract in my earlier post in this page. It was indeed challenging and explorative at first, but once I came across a point of settlement and grasped that out, A/B test is no longer a rocket science to me. I started to develop, improvise, and adjust to my professional tenure. The result from A/B test is the main catalyst to make my confidence level stronger and thus allow me to make a bold move and be progressive. I engage with such character in today’s version of me, and it was totally otherwise back when I started to steep afoot into my very first McKinsey and Company. That’s the key to my growth thus far.

• Personal budget management = another skill we need to have in this environment stage. I am aware that I come into a stage where I can make my own decision and manage my cashflow. I have been doing this since my junior high years, during which I had to be acquainted with bookkeeping, profit and loss statement (PnL), and balance sheet. In my family, it is a must for every family member to get this skill mastered no matter what field you are concentrating on. Here are how it works: I have a certain cash on a given month to spend (hereby called Waterfall Cash); you need to define the bigger clause of your spending or how are you going to structure your spending (I have that Spending Contribution (SC) 1, SC2, SC3, Operating Income, and finally Disposable Income); you need to break them down upon your average monthly spending calculation; I submit that to my mama for approval (if in the case your Waterfall Cash comes in full from your parents, but I still ask for my mama’s approval even if the majority of my Waterfall Cash is of my own); my mama will then give feedback of the healthiness of my spending projection (by healthiness I mean whether I am going to suffer if I am underspending for my daily needs or whether I am going too much for indulgence); the memo of cash issuance is then created then the money becomes liquid then issued to my respective banks; after, I collect all proofs and exhibits of my actual spending during that month to be calculated as my balance sheet by end of month; It is very wise to track every single cash that comes into and out of yours. I will put the breakdown here of how my Budget Planning looks like.

• I used to personify (political) countries as my model framework when it comes to relations with others, where power and influence put a greater mask. That was when I issued that mindset when I was a fresh graduate. Now it is expanding. While I still keep that personification frame, I am progressing myself as an enterprise: financial, operational, branding & marketing, research & development, customer relations, and even board of shareholders.

• An office farewell feels significantly intense when the leaver says goodbye in the office group chat, not oral.

• Getting enough sleep is way more important than getting outside my bedroom. I have tried and try to minimize any make-out appointment unless it is definitely necessary to go. As extreme case as of my example, getting out is defined by going to a mall for window shopping, trivia coffee talks, wasting time in Starbucks just to gossip or listen to somebody’s gossip or indulgence of their life, watching movies with those mall’s crowds, eating out for stuffed restaurants during which you have to be a prolonged waiting list, you name it. On the contrary, Sleep is kind of commodity that needs effort to allocate unless you do a high-quality set of outside activities that I can put sleep as a second priority. Those could be in the form of investable activities like hunting for books in a book fair (Big Bad Wolf, to be direct), education fair or skill-enhancing seminars (stock workshop, personal finance, any other kinds), hunting for favorite toys and models (trains, Hot Wheels), or anything that involves crowdedness (remember that I am 94% INTJ), intermingled-ness, or physically draining jobs. Now that I have clear criteria on what to dos and don’ts, I make priority on getting (enough) sleep. This is what adulthood definition comes into effect.

• In college, my arguments were un-rebuttable, here with investors, I learn to be patient.

• I really hate people, thus far, who do not commit to what s/he said. Why? I see that this person is not fair to me, to anyone, to whoever s/he ever interacts to while I tried and do try to do my own commitment as to how I respect people and maintain a healthy relationship. Internally I have my own constitution (see personification of countries).

• Most and foremost people learn how to achieve their goals, which is good. A very existence of how to manage the post-momentum i.e you have achieved the goals you set in, however, is really poor. Now that you have check-listed your mission (congratulation, by any way), so what’s next? I see that majority is fed up with it, feeling totally complacent of what has been done, yet I did not see them doing what to do next with that achieved goal, how they manage it, and, most importantly, how to make sustain the effect of that mission-accomplished. If you look at one of quora thread on “what is the greatest paradox of becoming wealthy?” you start to get the sense of my point here. What I have reflected, and I believe that makes me stand out, forms a question: “then what’s the point of you working hard to attain your goal for an ultimate nothingness?” Yes you might have been poor a decade ago, yes you are now working hard to be a wealthy, yes you then live and build your own family, and yes you feel contented of all the achievement you have. Unfortunately for you, you then get divorced and your downs are now harvested, cuz you don’t feel like you are now in a mission to achieve something and you don’t have to use any energy to live up your life. That means you have an ultimate nothingness (a.k.a ultimate failure). Simply say, the hard work you did in the past brings an ultimate failure, period. What I take note here is the poor management of post-momentum I aforementioned. I learned not only how I accomplish my missions but also how to manage the success I am and will be achieving.

• I am a true believer of the third law of Newton: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the law I had learned during my first year of high school in a quarantine room for the national science Olympiad. I did not take for granted this law, so I am more into curious about how Newton came up with this law. I am not trying to sound text-book here, but what my point is about to address is that for every action you do to me, I would always give back more. I add “more” here cuz I appreciate gratuity. If someone that I know do me a favor, which is supportive, my mind would perceive it as to how they have sacrificed their time, energy, or other resources. In this capitalistic facet, this is outstanding. As something in return, I would do whatever it takes to payback their kindness, even if I know sometimes a good deed is invaluable by material perspective. The same goes otherwise. If somebody is doing me unfavorable, which is destructive, my mind would perceive it as to how they have sacrificed their time, energy, or other resources. IOW, if you messed up with me, I am going to mess up you more. Sorry not sorry.

When it comes to interpersonal spectrum, I am currently developing People Science. You read that right. How we study them, how we give them an intervention and treatment in a diverse environment that could deliver you to validate your first impression (this can be useful when you have a super limited amount of chance to interact).

Grasp it or lose it?

One of key skills to attain accelerated career path is to take notes. Per my personal experience, I like to do the note-taking process, as I know how to enjoy it and utilize this skill to 100% grasp everything discussed thus decided in all (strategic) meetings. I am a type of individual who have suck short-term memory, like to multitask during the meeting (listening, thinking, synthesizing, and note-taking), and are evidence-based (this is so useful if in the future misunderstanding occurs so you have some keying points to say).

Note-taking is not a rocket science, in which everybody is able to learn, master, and get used to. We do not need a diploma to attain this skill. You come to a point where you have a solid understanding of the importance of note-taking, which is good. There is no a solid formula to define a good note-taking though. You need to be getting accustomed to your own pace of writing, regardless of your speed level of note-taking. Once you master the note-taking, your speed is surely going up. I acknowledge that from my experience.

However, some other tribes would vocally say the unimportance of note-taking, cuz they feel like they would remember anything upon the completion of the meeting. But hey, if you are of this type, I am sure you are going to be likely wasting time here to read, so staying away right now is a good time. Seriously though you underestimate the impact of note-taking itself. Why you are still reading until this sentence? Uh I know, you are curious  of the offer I have here? Well, there is no such things like too old to learn new skill, even me am starting to learn how to ride a motorcycle when I was 24. There went some proud moment when you acquired new skill and that is a true definition of achievement.

Disclaimer:

- Reading this will make you a superstar.

- Read this while you are on a shape of learning.

- Following this formula will make you genuinely "scariest" person on the floor. By the scariest I mean you have everything as an exhibit for future use and reference.

- Getting used to this practice will make your career skyrocketed.

If it feels like you forget new information almost as quickly as you hear it, even if you write it down, that’s because tend to lose almost 40% of new information within the first 24 hours of first reading or hearing it. If we take notes effectively, however, we can retain and retrieve almost 100% of the information we receive.

Learning how to retain information.

The most effective note-taking skills involve active rather than passive learning. Active learning places the responsibility for learning on the learner. Based on research, for learning to be effective, we need to be doing things with the material we are engaging with (reading, writing, discussing, solving problems).

We must also be thinking about the thinking (metacognition) involved in engaging with the material. This means that, while we are learning the content, we should also be thinking about how we are learning it. What is causing confusion? How does your thinking change about this topic as you are learning? What has worked well for you in learning this topic that you should do next time? What hasn’t worked so well so you don’t make that learning mistake again? 

Studies have found note-taking is most effective when notes are organized and transformed in some way. An effective note-taking strategy requires effort. Half the battle with us is helping ourselves understand the reasons for needing to take and interact regularly with our notes.

We often tell teachers we have excellent memories and don’t need to take notes cuz we can easily recall information.Research says this is not the case, and we are too confident, which is not really good.

The goal of effective note taking is to help recall what has been learned and retain that information over time. German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1895 conducted some of the first experiments on memory and recall, and spaced learning. He developed the forgetting curve, which shows how information is lost quickly over time if there is no strategy or effort to retain it.

Figure 1: Rate of Forgetting with Study/Repetition

The rate of forgetting is minimized if we interact (re-read/discuss/write/engage) with our notes within 24 hours. A second repetition for a shorter period of time within a day brings recall back up to 100%. A third repetition within a week for an even shorter time brings recall back to 100%.

What are the most effective ways to take notes?

Effective note taking is interactive and involves using the original notes many times over to build memory of the content, rather than seeing note taking as just a one-off copying activity. The important features of this system are captured in the images below.

Figure 2: Sample of AVID’s Application of Cornell Notes in Language Arts

Figure 3: Sample of AVID’s Application of Cornell Notes in Chemistry

There are three stages to good note taking:

In note-taking, we:

• Prepare a page to take notes the same way each time. An essential question at the top of the page focuses the learner on the key learning objective that we should be able to discuss upon leaving the meeting room.

• Rule the page into two columns, with the first column taking up about a third of the page. The space on the left is for questions and notes that may be added in later as students reflect on their notes. The space on the right is for the us to take notes from the our direct line’s fast scratch on a whiteboards, dictation, or important points unwritten.

• Listen and take notes in our own words – paraphrase what we hear, so it makes sense to us rather than write down verbatim what we hear/see.

• Leave spaces and lines between main ideas for revising later and adding information.

• Develop their own consistent system of abbreviations and symbols to save time as they take notes.

• Write in phrases, not complete sentences.

• Use bullet points and lists where possible.

• Learn how to listen for important information versus trivial information.

• Take cues from the the “lecturer” or source, e.g. “This is important…,” “Here is the deal…,” “Pay attention…” “So, this is the plan/point/thing.”

• Use highlighters and color to indicate key ideas, changes in concepts or links between information.

In note-making, we:

• Review and revise the content of our notes.

• Write questions in the left-hand side near where the answer is contained on the right-hand side.

• Connect key chunks of material in the notes pages using color or symbols

• Exchange ideas and collaborate with other attendees to check for understanding and test the comprehensiveness of each other’s notes.

In note-interacting, we:

• Link all the learning together by writing a summary that addresses the essential question and answers the questions from the left margin (note that a summary is different from a reflection that focuses on the student’s response to the learning task or content).

• Learn from their notes by building in to their study timetable regular times for revising their notes for each subject.

Sometimes, I do some random scratches nearside the page of my active note book so I would be able to recall the overall points of the meeting and get the sense of ambiance and thus detailed memories/environment. The result is awesome.

The Basic Social Media Mistakes Companies Still Make

On a gloomy weekend, I came about browsing in my Facebook feed, and one article post by Harvard Business Review popped out. The following is the original article I reposted here. Disclaimer: all of the following content is owned by the author Keith A. Quesenberry published in Harvard Business Review (https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-basic-social-media-mistakes-companies-still-make).

Over 90% of medium and large businesses have used social media in their marketing for five years or longer. Yet the CMO Survey reveals that nearly half of marketers are unable to show the impact of their social media investments. That’s why, no matter what your social media strategy is, it’s always a good idea to go back and make sure you have the basics covered. Your company may discover that it needs a strategic do-over.

Philip Kotler once said, “You should never go to battle before you’ve won the war on paper.” But countless businesses have done just that with social media. Although 97% of Fortune 500 corporations are on LinkedIn, 84% are on Facebook, and 86% are on Twitter, many brands entered the social media front lines without a clear strategy. Social was an add-on to existing plans — another outlet to deliver the marketing message. Later, marketers found themselves working backward to connect their social strategy to business strategy, as managers demanded greater proof of ROI.

There are a few common mistakes that marketers make with social media. The first is to start with social media objectives. Marketers take a channel such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and then set goals for raising their numbers of likes, comments, and shares. This approach sounds like it makes sense, but it can trap you in a social media–only perspective. After all, how much is that like, comment, or share actually worth to your business? Unless you connect your social media actions to broader business goals from the beginning, ROI can be elusive, and social media becomes an end unto itself.

The second mistake is to limit your brand presence to the most popular social media channels. Success often depends on having a multichannel social media strategy. Yet only two-thirds of the Fortune 500 (66%) are using YouTube, under half are on Instagram (45%), just over one-third (36%) have corporate blogs, and one-third (33%) are on Pinterest. If you are not using these or other platforms, you could be missing out on valuable business opportunities.

For example, research has found that 93% of Pinterest users plan purchases on the platform and 87% have made a purchase after seeing a product they liked. Other platforms, such as Snapchat, may be the ideal place to reach certain demographics (say, Millennials). Instagram has played an integral role in helping to lift sales for brands including Gatorade. And businesses that have prioritized blogging are 13 timesmore likely to receive positive ROI.

So how do you ensure that your social media efforts are aligned with what matters to your company — and that you are positively contributing to the bottom line? Start by basing your social strategy on business objectives, then follow that by thinking about target market, social media platforms, tools, and metrics.

Different organizational objectives and target markets may require very different channels and tools. Don’t simply set goals for higher follower or engagement metrics in the brand’s current social media accounts. Those platforms may be wrong for your business objectives; channels you aren’t on may be better for what you’re trying to accomplish.

To identify the most meaningful business objectives, ask some questions: What numbers must you hit? How will you know you are successful? How does your boss judge success? What has changed recently that is challenging you? What do stakeholders care about most? Business objectives can vary wildly, from increasing sales, generating leads, or improving customer satisfaction to raising awareness, soliciting donations, or gaining volunteers. Thus your objectives should not be social media–focused, such as “Within six months, we should grow our number of fans and increase engagement on Facebook by posting a minimum of five times a week.” That’s a tactic, not a clear goal. A good objective could be “Increase awareness of the brand by 20% for people ages 18–24 within six months.” Hootsuite suggests that real business goals often come from business conversions, brand awareness, and customer experience.

When considering platforms, think carefully about which you should be on — and which you shouldn’t. Remember that simply increasing your activity on current platforms may not bring you closer to meeting business objectives. Achieving a better ROI may require closing social accounts that are not aligned with business objectives, or even decreasing social action to focus on posts of more substance. Buffer Social, for example, recently got better results by posting less, not more, on Facebook.

Once you’ve identified your objectives and selected the right platforms, you have to create content that the audience will value. Solve a problem they’re facing, deliver a timely message, or just put a smile on their face. Stories that evoke emotion tend to perform better than straight sales messages. Even paid social media posts merely buy reach; the content itself must be engaging enough to draw action beyond a view. Plus, valuable content often gets shared, increasing your reach even further. And don’t simply post the same content to all your social accounts — customizing the content and scheduling for each channel will get better results.

Yet content only gets you so far. Much of social media ROI is earned in responding to customers. Sprout Social has found that brands reply to only one in 10 social messages that require a response. This is a huge missed opportunity, since helpful replies to even negative comments can improve your brand image, reach new customers, and increase the likelihood that customers will buy again. Depending on your industry, you may need the customer service department to get involved. Don’t forget, social is a two-way medium.

Next, ensure you have the right tools in place to manage your social media efforts. To measure success, brands need tools that can monitor, publish, and track the appropriate analytics. They also need to integrate social media across departments, since it is an increasingly important part of the strategies of many areas of the business. For efficiency, you may need tools that can bring together multidisciplinary social teams across department silos.

It’s worth considering tools like Google Analytics, which can break down social traffic to see which efforts are working, ranging from website conversions from a direct sale to email subscription, event registration, or quote requests. Setting up goals with dollar values per conversion can help determine where to focus your time and money beyond followers and likes — connecting social media to the bottom line. Monitoring tools can also track analytics such as sentiment. Too many corporations have seen crisis situations where negative comments in social media led to sales declines and drops in stock price. There are numerous social media analytics software options. Spend some time researching which ones are right for your organization.

Once the right tools are in place, identify and track the metrics that will show the returns on your social media investment. Only when you have done the hard work ahead of time — connecting social action to business objectives — do vanity metrics such as likes and followers become more meaningful. Obviously, you can’t directly connect every social action to a business objective, such as an in-store sale. But you can get close by estimating values. For example, if you know that a percentage of customers who request information on your website purchase a certain product, you can trace the connections by looking at related social media posts and the number of visitors being driven to that call to action page.

If you are struggling to link your company’s social media presence to business goals, you are not alone. But it is never too late to (re)start at the beginning. Take a step back to ensure you are considering broader business goals and the target market. Check that you are using the right platforms and are engaging in the right ways. Then make sure you have the necessary tools and metrics in place. It is a lot easier to prove ROI when you have a clear plan for meeting the business’s objectives — and are not simply increasing social action as an end in itself.

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