Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep167: My Story: From confused fresh grad to confident corporate leader in my 20's.

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

✅ Get FREE GUIDE, newsletter, join career program 👉 http://www.meiphing.com ✅ Corporate Survivor™ is the ultimate career course for 9-to-5 working professionals, just like *you*, who want to enhance corporate world mindset, skillset and strategy so you can NAVIGATE + GROW your career with clarity, confidence & opportunities... 🚀 ⚡ 📌 ABOUT THIS PODCAST: Welcome to Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing — ex-Corporate Leader turned Career Coach & Founder of The Corporate Survivor™. On this podcast, Mei Phing shares her corporate world insights, experiences and wisdom so you can grow your 9-5 career with clarity, confidence and opportunities. ✅ WEBSITE ⮕ https://www.meiphing.com ✅ FREE GUIDE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/freeguide ✅ NEWSLETTER ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/mondays ✅ CAREER COURSE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co ⚡

Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. In today's episode, I'm going to walk through with you step by step on how I managed to turn from a very quiet introvert starting my career in a very small SME company to leading one of the biggest companies in the world at Standard Chartered, working with people

across 40 countries and managing a $1.5 billion portfolio. So this is the TLDR version of my career journey and I'll also share with you some of the strategies that I've personally used to climb the career ladder throughout the decade-long career that I've had in the corporate world. And if you're new here or you're new to me, please allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Mei Ping. I graduated as a charter certified accountant. I started my career in the corporate world in the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis, started in a very small company as an auditor and gradually moved on to global multinational companies and eventually became the senior director and head of governance and control at Standard Chartered Bank, managing a $1.5 billion portfolio, as well as working with people across 40 countries while in my 20s.

Then one day in 2019, I quit my corporate job to return to take care of my family. And nowadays, as a career coach, I help 9-5 corporate professionals just like you to grow your career in the corporate world with more clarity, confidence, competence, and search for more career opportunities for your future. So let's start with my first job. So I first graduated in 2008 and 2009 during the financial crisis. To be honest, there were not that many jobs available. In fact, a lot of companies actually froze headcount. So what I did was I joined a very small company. So it was an SME doing audit work. Now, it was not exactly like an ideal situation.

In fact, I was underpaid. I was only paid 1,500 ringgit for the entire month. So that's about like 350 USD, which is basically nothing at that time. There were a lot of struggles and I think a lot of it actually came from the fact that, you know, I was a very introverted person and I didn't have like really, really great

communication skills and also the culture shock, loss and confusion of starting a first job, a first full-time job in the corporate world. So all of that combined created a lot of anxiety, stress and frustration for me. So I really had to learn how to work with other people, how to step out of my comfort zone and how to like actually work in a 9-to-five job which is quite different from college or university at that time. Now I will say that despite being underpaid and working in a small company, there were actually quite a few good things that came out of it. The first thing was I learned to actually how to do like how to work properly in a proper job that's not like university so the mindset had to change and the second thing is that I was also able to start building positive working relationship with

my managers as well and this was really really an important point in my career because in 2010 as the job market and the world started opening up after the financial crisis there were opportunities available and I had the opportunity to interview in Ernst & Young Singapore. It was my chance to move to a global multinational company and the manager that I initially worked with actually helped pass over my resume to one of the staff over there and therefore making it a referral. So that first lesson taught me that it's so important to do a job well done because that's actually how you start getting referrals and really building that trust and relationship. So that was like the few good things that came out from working in a small job where I was underpaid. Then after that, I moved on to Ernst & Young Singapore. So in Ernst &

Young Singapore, I was mainly in the audit and compliance department. And again, you know, it was a bit of a culture shock. First thing was I moved overseas. So there was that like that personal life part. But the other thing was actually learning how to work in a multinational company. So this is actually something that a lot of people complain about, and I also struggled the same. So the first thing is that when you work in a small company, you'll think that you can just do everything fast, you can do everything last minute, and it's okay. But in a big company, it doesn't really work like that. If you are a last minute person, eventually it's going to come and bite you back in the end so I really had to learn like really take the time

understand structure culture and people so that's like literally step one that I learned in Ernst and Young and then later on I really had to like look into myself and say hey what are some of the skills gap that I have because clearly this thing is like not really working out as well. And obviously, you know, aside from the anxiety, transition, stress of like actually working in audit and compliance, which is a very highly stressful industry in general, but there's also the part where I need to work on myself, right? So that was a time that I really had to like really look into my own situation and say, hey, you know, maybe there are some skills that I'm not really good at. So that could be, you know, say, hey, you know, maybe there are some skills that I'm not really good at. So that could be, you know, like I said, you know, culture, structure, people,

but also soft skills as well, like communication, relationship building, productivity, critical thinking, visibility strategy as well, because you also want to make sure that like people know who you are and stuff like that. So that was really something that I focused on. So I was in Ernst & Engel for about three and a half years. So out of two out of the three years, I was the top performer. So I'm like, okay, so this is kind of like what it takes to work at an executive level, like a more junior level and to succeed. So step by step, I worked on not just my technical skills, but more importantly, the soft skills,

like the people skills, the ability to adapt and deal with change in any situation, and more importantly, applying visibility strategy so that I could get recognized. So that was my career in EY. Like I said, I learned a lot, but I also learned a lot about myself, actually, not just about the job, but I learned a lot about myself. Then sometime in middle of 2013, I talked about LinkedIn a lot on my social media platforms and in a lot of my content and I also teach it step by step in my career course, The Corporate Survivor. And actually this is the initial time in 2013 where I realized the power of LinkedIn. But in the middle of like 2013, I was not even actively looking for a job. But I thought, hey, you know, I have a LinkedIn

profile, like let's just go on LinkedIn platform and just like see what's out there. So I started like scrolling the LinkedIn jobs functionality. And I came across this job opening from Visa. So if you don't know, Visa is one of the global payments company, one of like the biggest companies in the world. And I saw the job opening for audit and internal control specialist at Visa. And what really attracted me to the job was the fact that I could travel to so many countries. So it covered Asia Pacific, Middle East, Central Europe, and Africa. So I looked at the job requirements.

I'm like, huh, I think this would be a really interesting career growth opportunity for me. And I could really learn something. And on top of that, I'm someone who really loves travel. And I thought, okay, this will be a very enriching experience for me. So I made the move. And obviously, I know I got some salary increment and so forth.

But that was really the big move for me to move out of consulting into an actual corporate, corporate, a commercial company. So with that transition, it also came with a lot of shock. Because when you work in consulting, it's quite a bit different in the sense of, like, your team members and your, like, peers are, you know, kind of like your friends, right, so you complain about your clients with your friends or your peers, but in a commercial company, it's kind of different, because each team is very structured, right, everybody has their own roles and responsibilities, and, like, I was supposed to, like, do my job, so again, you know, as when I started a new role at that time I didn't really have a process on exactly step by step what

I should do to better adapt to the role right in the past there's always been like okay I join and then like somebody's gonna tell me what to do and we'll just deal with that but as I rise up the career ladder and at that time I was a senior executive, it seemed like to not make a lot of sense to wait to be guided or wait to be spoon-fed. So that was actually that point in time I learned that, okay, here are some of the things that I need to find out, maybe the first week, the first 30 days, 60 days and 90 days. So I kind of bit of have a plan, even though I was a little bit blur at that time, but these things sort of like gradually came together in a way. So with visa, I was there for almost two years. I've traveled to many, many countries. I've actually had the opportunity to work with

people from all over the world. So with visa, I've been to many parts of Southeast Asia. I've been to Australia. I've been to Japan, Korea, and, you know, the US. I was seconded there for like six weeks and so forth. So the opportunity to really, Korea, and the US. I was seconded there for like six weeks and so forth. So the opportunity to really broaden my experience and exposure was really immense in visa itself. So definitely gained a lot. And I think that was the time where I really had to learn to speak out a little bit more

because in a commercial company, and probably if you're in the corporate world, most of us are actually working in the commercial company. If you keep quiet and just work hard, that's just like one part, okay? So that was what I learned as well. That's just that one bit. So if I were to just work hard and wait for my time to get promoted, most of the time it probably wouldn't happen. So the real trigger for me leaving Visa was there was a queue for promotion. And even though I was the top performer for the

year, I was asked to forego the promotion in favor of someone else. So that honestly didn't really make a lot of sense to me. So I really evaluated my worth and my skills, my background, and I thought that, okay, you know what, I think I would like to return to banking. So remember earlier, I actually started in financial services and banking at the time in 2015, early 2015, I thought maybe I should consider returning to banking. Now, having said that, I actually didn't take a single step to apply for any jobs in banking. So how I eventually joined Standard Chartered was actually a very interesting story. And it brings us back to the power of LinkedIn. So the reason why I advocate about LinkedIn a lot is because it is a platform that's really helped me to grow my career. So in late 2014, around December, Christmas time, I was actually headhunted on LinkedIn.

So the global HR person dropped me a message on LinkedIn saying that, hey, Mei-Ping, I've reviewed your LinkedIn profile. I realized that your background skills and experiences are exactly what we're looking for, for a new team that Standard Chartered is trying to create for financial crime compliance for the correspondent banking, FI and cash portfolio. So when I got that message, I was like, huh, okay. I didn't know at that time. Remember, you know, this was like in 2014. So it's, you know, in the LinkedIn's like earlier days. So I didn't know like headhunting kind of looks like this. So I had a call to HR and during the call, you know, she was very optimistic of the experience that I have. And she said that she finally found a candidate that kind of like ticks all her boxes because I had

exactly what she was looking for, not just the technical experience, the industry knowledge, but also the ability to travel to so many places and work with so many people. In early 2015, I decided to make the jump to join banking, to join Standard Chartered in this completely new team. And my first time doing like proper regulatory compliance. So something I kind of done before, but I did not realize that when you are in a pioneer team, it means that there's like no guidelines, right? So I had to really start from scratch and really utilize a lot of the experience that I have, not just like doing the work itself, but actually how to build structure and how to approach things in a very step-by-step way so that I don't get confused, I don't confuse other people,

and I feel like more motivated to actually get something done. The bigger, the broader team was evolving because this was a regulatory project, there were a lot of moving parts and so forth. So after three months of joining Signature, I got an opportunity to interview for a managerial position so in the managerial position I interviewed with my ultimate boss that eventually became my boss that that we talked about my experience a little bit and so forth and I will tell you what's very interesting during that internal sort of interview I was one, but there were also actually two other candidates who were more experienced than me and more senior than me. But eventually, my boss told me that eventually why he chose me, because he felt that I'm motivated, I have that

internal motivation, but I also have a lot of proven results in terms of being able to deliver high quality work and recognized as a top performer with really great testimonials, even though I've only worked about five and a half years or maybe six years at that time. So to put me in a position where even though the title was a manager, but the workload was a senior manager position, it was a lot of like trust being given on to me to say,

hey, like give it a try and challenge yourself. The word challenge is maybe the most underrated word ever, but my role at Standard Chartered was really the most intense role. And I've always tell people that the five years I spent at Standard Chartered was equivalent to like probably 15 years in banking because the amount of work that we did was absolutely crazy.

And if you're in a position to oversee 60 projects across like 30 major work streams that are reportable to the US and UK regulator that's a really really big task and I moved from like talking to executives or like kind of like managerial level to really dealing with like only senior managers like director level managing director level like almost a CCO level so there was a really really big change for me and aside from that I was still in the process of like stepping out and standing out. So initially, there were a lot of things where I did a lot of work, but I would just pass on to my colleague or I'll pass on to one of the team

members and say, hey, maybe you can present it because I don't feel comfortable with public speaking. I don't want to be seen and so forth. But over time, the real trigger point that I decided to say, hey, I'm just going to do it because otherwise, why am I working so hard for if no one is going to recognize my work? And I don't even feel confident to present my work. So that was really the trigger point that I courageously have to overcome this like introverted tendency, shyness, reserve, quietness tendencies that I have. And even up to today, I have those as well. But I kind of took on a step-by-step to learn how to

communicate very concisely and very clearly so that I know exactly what I'm going to say I have a clear structure of saying it and therefore I do not turn very nervous so this is actually the same structure that I even use today when doing my group mentoring or doing my career coaching or doing public speaking or even recording podcast episodes like this this is still the same structure that I use and it's something that I do teach to my students in my career course, The Corporate Survivor, as well. And that's why I said that that, I think, was the biggest mindset block that I managed to overcome, like starting my career in Standard Chartered in early 2015.

And then from there on, every single year, I was promoted with 20-30% salary increments. I went out rank by rank from senior executive to senior director in four years. Usually for someone to even move from manager to director, it could take them up to seven years. So how did I manage to do it in just a mere four years? It's really making sure that you know your stuff, right? And also having the humility to realize that, hey, there are some technical skills that I don't know.

There are some soft skills, there are some people skills that I need to work on. If I feel like I'm up for the challenge, then I think I need to put in the effort to prove that I could do it. So that was exactly kind of like the mindset that I had. And honestly, during that time, there's no such thing as like career coaching, career mentor and career training. In fact, a lot of the programs and courses that I teach my clients right now those were things were actually not available to me so I kind of had to figure it out on my own and you know thankfully I did manage to figure it out but definitely it was true a lot of pain a lot of confusion a lot of trial and error I think probably that's like the most perfect word to describe it

so I moved on from managing like smaller stuff eventually the big stuff. So when I left Standard Chartered, I was the Senior Director, Head of Governance and Control at Standard Chartered for the FI and banks portfolio. And eventually I also took on the FinTech portfolio as well. So I was actually a person who started the FinTech Governance Committee, the FinTech Oversight Committee at Standard Chartered. And right now, obviously, the bank is doing bigger things at the moment. So it may sound like a crazy journey.

And actually, it was a crazy journey. But I think, you know, my real lessons here is that like how to actually always approach something with intention and actually set your ambition and set your goal very early and to actually not give up. Because to not know how to do something, it's fine, right? You've learned how to do it, but to give up and say, I don't want to do this, or I can't do this, I think that's like, that's something else, right? So build confidence and competence. These two Cs, right? Confidence and competence is something that actually a lot of people, they say that they want, but they don't know how to build it. So that's really the story of the TLDR version of how I navigated and planned my career and

also grow my career for more than 10 years in the corporate world from someone who started underpaid with, you know, paid 350 US dollars eventually to making multiple six figures at my corporate job in senior leadership positions in my 20s. Nowadays, I actually teach this step-by-step in my signature career course, The Corporate Survivor. And why I always talk about the word step-by-step is because you really need the step-by-step strategy and action plan to make sure that everything, you are doing it with clarity.

And once you are clear on what you're supposed to do, you're confident in what you can do, and you are competent in actually able to do the thing, then you can then work on your visibility strategy, whether it's offline, meaning at the workplace, right, getting seen, getting heard, or online branding via LinkedIn. So that's really the three-step approach that I teach in my career course. And not only that, it does come with also six months of group mentoring. Now, why I decided to introduce group mentoring a few months into launching the program was I realized that, hey, this was actually something that I wish I had a mentor at that time.

I wish I could ask someone more expert than me, more senior than me, actually more seasoned than me. You will also get a free one-on-one career strategy call with me to discuss your career goal and any existing career challenges that you want more perspective, more guidance and advice from. So this is really the intention why I've structured the program in the step-by-step so I can better support you. So with that, I also want to take this chance to let you know and to announce that The Corporate Survivor is now open for enrollment and if you are a 9-5 professional who is serious about your career, you want to plan and grow your career for long-term success, you want more clarity, confidence, competence and opportunities in your career, then thisterm success, you want more clarity, confidence, competence

and opportunities in your career, then this program, I have designed it for you. From a 9-5 professional to another 9-5 professional. And to learn more about the program, you can visit www.mayping.com or www.thecorporsurvivor.co or just simply click on the link in the description below. So I look forward to helping you plan and grow your career

and navigate the corporate world with less anxiety and overall more confidence and more happiness in your career. I hope to see you in the course.