Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - EP254: How to understand the company culture during job interviews | Part 3/3

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

✅ WWW.MEIPHING.COM ⮕ CORPORATE SURVIVOR™ ⮕ Get access to *ALL* my career insights, experiences & strategies. Level-up your career + Grow your salary by mastering the 9-5 working world ⮕ Get my advice, guidance & feedback in group & 1:1 mentoring + 24/7 access to all career course modules (career clarity, workplace skills, job promotions, career growth, job search AND SO MUCH MORE). 📌 ABOUT: Mei Phing Lim is the founder of Corporate Survivor™ with over a decade of experience in the consulting, Fintech and banking industries. Formerly the senior director of Standard Chartered’s global financial institutions team, she quit her high flying job in 2019 to become a caregiver to her mum (r.i.p). With 600 clients coached since 2020, Mei Phing is on mission to help 9-5 professionals level-up their careers by mastering how to navigate the working world, impress the boss and get paid in her career mentorship program, Corporate Survivor™. ✅ WEBSITE + ALL LINKS ⮕ http://www.meiphing.com ✅ CORPORATE SURVIVOR™ ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co

Hey, this is May Ping and welcome to the corporate service, the best place for all things corporate world. So welcome to part three of three of my mentorship series where we have been exploring how to identify the root cost issue so that you can fix the actual problem without creating more issues in the future. And this is really the most underrated skill in the corporate world. So if you want career growth for long-term career success, you want to be successful at every single job. You need to understand your boss's expectations. You need to understand how the corporate world actually works. And more importantly, in order to avoid the noise and distractions, you need to master the ability to identify what the root cost problem actually is,

right, the root cost issue, so that you can spend your time and energy to fix the right thing, instead of creating more chaos, instead of wasting your time, effort, and energy on things that do not really matter. So that's what we have been doing in the past two episodes. And if you want to watch the full Q&A video, you can definitely grab it at www.w.w.com. I'll send it directly to your inbox. So this is part three. And part three, we're actually going to focus on seeking new opportunities. So my approach is that no matter how much you like your boss, you like your job, you like your company,

at the end of the day, you need to learn how to protect yourself. Because at the end of the day, you're an employee who is there for the value that you bring. And in a way, you need to really learn how to position and sell your value so that if something happens, right? If suddenly you feel not as happy, or only be frustrated or you've seen. sense that things are not going as well in your company, you always have an exit plan, right? You always know how to seek new career opportunities and to be successful in the new job that you're getting. And one of the key things that's really important for this is clarity in terms of your next career direction. And the other part is actually understanding the interview

process and understanding the hiring manager process. And actually, I think there is a third element to this and is the conviction that you have spent the time to find the job that you think is the most suitable for you. And once you land it, then when you start a new job, you go in with the mindset of making it a success and not black tracking and quitting after three weeks. So that is definitely not the goal. So this is the third part of the series. And as I said, even in my career program as well, while we focus on work performance, we focus on work computers, work visibility, managing bosses, key stakeholders and so forth, there will be a point in time where you may want to look out for new career opportunities. And that is where the job search bonus course that have

included in my program, the corporate survivor actually comes in. So similarly with our members Q&A call as well, the first part, a big part of it, we do focus on the work navigating complicated work situations, key stakeholders and so forth. However, the final part of it, we will definitely go into some job search questions, which is really important as well, because as I said at any point, you may feel that, hmm, I want to explore what's out there. I want to make sure that I still have value to bring. I want to make sure that I can still land a role that I think, you know, it's what I'm actually well, and that is also super-duper important. So this part of the series where we're actually going to go into the job search Q&A question. So to be clear, right, in job search, right,

it can be any question, right, because one thousand and one question, right, each person's job search situation might feel a little bit different. But I do feel that the key components of job search actually is the same. So as usual, we will have two case studies. So these two case studies are the questions that were submitted by members for this particular Q&A call. However, I will say that for the other Q&A calls, there are definitely different, different kind of job search questions as well. So just a preface on that. So there are two case studies. So for the first case study, it's actually one of my students who is at the

executive level, and she has been taking a career break and wanting to change industries, change job functions for quite some time. So she took some break for her mental health. at the same time starting to look out for new career opportunities. So because she wanted something that is very niche for her next career change, she took a while to search for it and obviously to rebuild her confidence from a previous traumatic job. All that is fine. The issue then happens is that she ended up landing a job that she really wanted.

However, only after a few weeks, she started asking herself and started doubting herself whether is that really a role that she wanted and whether the job even makes sense. and right now, just after a few weeks of joining the company, she's thinking about looking for another job again. And in this particular case study, she listed down all the things that concern her, and I gave us one specific advice as to how to think about a new role and some tips as well, right,

in terms of the questions that you can ask during the interview to avoid future situations. So this might be definitely applicable for you as well if you're thinking about changing careers or maybe you've started a new job, and you started to wonder and say, hmm, I'm not sure if this is the actual job for me, So I think these are going to be super-double helpful tips for you.

So the next case study is also for a student who is also at the executive level. So as for himself, he's been with the company for almost three years and he's actually looking up for something, a new opportunity that can give him more exposure. So he is in the interviews process and he had a question around job referees or whether job referees should be included in the resumes. And initially he said he didn't think that it's going to be an issue, but he just wanted my perspective. and this is something that we definitely do in the Q&A calls as well.

My students can come and get my perspective as an ex-hiring manager, ex-corporate leader, say, hey, this is actually how management thinks about stuff? So this particular case, I give him some feedback as to why I think it's a really bad idea to put in referees in your resume and how that is coming across to hiring managers and some behind the scenes in the hiring process that he might not have known of. So these are the two cases. And as usual, if you want to get the full Q&A video, you can go to www.maping.com to register and get the email delivered directly to your inbox.

And the final part of the video is actually a wrap-up of the entire member's Q&A call where I get feedback from my students as to what did they learn. And are there any specific insights that's my blowing to them and how they're going to apply those in the job when they get back to the office. So with that, let's dive into the Q&A questions for job search. So this question around understanding the company's culture during interview. So in my previous position in A, my diet reporting boss is a U.S. citizen. Now in this company, B, position, my boss is from the UK. So I feel like I cannot fit in or adapt to their culture at all.

So this will be my last night accepting any job offers from any Caucasian bosses, unless the boss is from our Asian countries. So for this position in B, the job of this month is very misleading. So the job citizen says I'll be working collaboratively for a team of researchers, specialists and bioinformaticians. But when I officially started on the job, I'm the only research staff in this department. The rest are medical doctors.

There's no career ladder here. This is not a place to grow. So I want to ask you, what type of questions should I ask during the interview to find out more and understand about the company's culture before accepting the job offer? Now, these two questions are actually very short, so I'm going to give you an answer correctly. Now, you notice that for the whole day of today, right, we've been, this, this word culture came out a lot. Company culture, company culture.

Now, try not to use the word company culture, because company culture is a lot of people. things. So what you want to do, right, in this situation whereby, actually you notice, right, this student, she has already decided what would not work for her, right? What she doesn't want. Then this is actually the chance for you to make sure that these are the things that doesn't work for you. Then you need to make sure you ask this to interview. But even at a more higher level, because she said that, you know, I cannot work with like a Western culture, right? But the context for this student, right, actually, she has been on a career break for quite some time already before she landed this job.

So she did wait for quite some time to land this job, which I think about one and a half years. So at that time when she took on this job, it's like, okay, you know, finally, right, it's a, it's a good company, it's an interesting role, I can take on. But when she went, it was a little bit different. So then she started talking about this is not a place for growth. So like I said, when you want to get out of a career break, right, what is your number one priority? Is it to lend a job so that you can kind of like restart your experience again, is to actually

give it a try to try to, you know, deliver your work, even if your work may not be exactly the same, but at least, you know, it covers the career break of like two years, whereby people can't say, oh, maybe it's on a career break already. So it's like you kind of step in, even though it's not the most ideal role, but maybe give yourself six months to accumulate something to say in your resume. But you notice here that like when she first set out to find a job, it's just to land a job that is, you know, to end her career break and then you find something a little bit more suitable for her. But then within just a few weeks, right, that goal has changed. Now she's talking about growth. But if, let's say, right, I'm telling you, like, if you get out of a career break,

there's quite some time, you need to kind of like reset your working experience. So it may not necessarily be the time for growth yet. Okay. So it's like looking at the phases, you need to be very clearly, actually, what do you want? So what I suggest is this. Now, in the job search program, right, in week one, right, that's the push and pull factor where I talked about you know many things right you want to quit or maybe the things that you want is it you want a salary you want the job title you want a better company you want you know growth opportunities if you're someone who's coming out from career break right try to remember back right what was the first thing you wanted because sometimes once you get the job right it's very easy to be like well this job also

doesn't have all these other things that it's not really something you wanted to focus on at the beginning okay but i have i challenge you to consider like if you quit within a short period of time having had a long career break before, were the next job going to be something that you may be even more difficult to get, something for you to consider. Now, back to the more tactical part, right?

If the things that you are not sure about already and if you feel that you've been burned before, maybe you have joined one or two companies before whereby it's really very misleading, then you can actually be a little bit more curious during the interview. So these questions that she's asking, right, I will definitely try to ask at least two questions, right, to get more information on the JD. So usually the JD doesn't have that many lines.

So for example, if she said that, okay, so let's say this part. Work collaboratively with a team of researchers, specialists and this one. So maybe during the interview, I guess, say, okay, I say, oh, actually I have a, I have a question to ask. So in the JD, you mentioned that I have to work collaboratively with a team of researchers, specialists, and bio-matician. So I just want to ask, like, how is the team structured right now? Let's say if I were to join, how is the team structured? How many people will I have in the team? And then in terms of the team of specialists, like, which departments are these?

And I just want to get a sense whether I'm familiar with them or not. I'll ask it this way. Let them tell you. Okay? So don't just answer the question because the interview is a two-way street. It's for you to also find out about that. Particularly if you feel that you've been burned before, then I'll definitely make it a point to ask two questions. Like you have a very simple example.

But last time, I worked a client before whereby when she read the JD, right, There were four things that the company said she had to do. So she was actually very excited by the first three. But the fourth one, she was like, I don't really want to do this job. So during the question part, she asked the interviewer, you can say, I noticed that in the JD, there are four key areas. Yeah, there are four key areas that I need to focus on. So if I said, I want to join this company, what would be the,

what would be some of the, what would be the top three priorities that you want me to focus on in the first six months of this job? And you guess what the interviewer said, the fourth thing, the thing that she really hated. But after she came doing, she's like, maybe I'm going to decline this because, right, I cannot imagine six months doing the thing that I actually didn't want to do. And even if, by the time, I don't even know whether the first three things is going to eventually come to me because I may not survive the first six months because it's the thing that I didn't want.

I don't know how to do. Okay? So, ask the question. Don't reflect. It's like, don't just reflect. It's like, don't just, okay, you know, fingers crossed, the next job, going to be better. You really identify the things that you don't want already. That even reporting lines where you can say that, oh, just wanted to.

I also wanted to understand in terms of like, the, the bosses in the department like, you know, what would be, can you share a bit about their background? You know, are they like Singaporeans? Are they Malaysians? You know, are they Westerners? Like, can I just get a bit of the sense of like your, you know, board of directors or whatever? Ask the question that you really want to know. Okay? Now, okay, let's move on to the next question. This one is a very, very fast question.

This is a question around choosing your referee for reference check. So this is today saying, he's a junior, senior executive. So he said, I'm applying for a new job that will need a referee for reference check. So I didn't do well in my first job. So what should I do? Instead of putting my supervisor, I was thinking about using my colleague who's a senior. So it did mentor me as well.

I want to put someone who believes in me. Then he said, I also came to realize I might have ADHD, kind of stumped by it, but I believe it's not the end of my career. Okay. Now, I'm going to give some advice that's applicable to everyone because this question is very specific. Now, the first thing is that, right, in your resume, do not lease referees. because let me tell you right what sometimes a HR hiring manager might do

they might go through a referee they might end up calling that person for the job not for your friends so don't put in so if really you are the bad you are kind of like the final stages already by the time HR asks for the referee you there's a very high chance you're going to get the job offer at least okay so

only give it much later when it just becomes a mandatory HR process already not because the recruited is curious any other candidate that they can talk to okay so that's the first thing now The other thing that I personally like to be a bit more proactive is actually in module 6.1 or the job search week three, which is actually around LinkedIn. So the thing is that right, you also don't want to be in a situation whereby when you desperately meet a referee, then you start calling someone you haven't spoken to in like three years,

you haven't kept in touch with it. So if you can, if you have LinkedIn, you can try to request a recommendation so that you can keep it on your LinkedIn profile. So I've also seen certain recruiters, they actually look through it, but oh, actually this person has worked with MAPing before. or maybe I give this person a call. That has also happened to me as well. And I've also seen recruiters or higher managers came to me and just,

oh, I noticed this person's suffering to this person. This person spoke very highly of you. So I was like, oh, okay, interesting. So if you want, you can do that. Otherwise, if it's a little bit more casual and you're in touch with the person, obviously make sure you let the person know that you want to put, you know, this person's name as a referee. Now, you don't necessarily have to put your supervisor.

You don't have to put your boss. But someone maybe who has worked with you before, preferably somewhat a little bit more senior than you is fine. So this person that this student identified, right, she's kind of like a senior who has mentored him or guided him before. I would say it's good. But maybe contact this person first and tell them they're like, hey, actually I'm in the process of exploring opportunities

and had to put a referee. Can I put you as well? You can say, I mean, I'm not sure if they were actually called, but it's just kind of like an admin. Since we worked together on this project, this project in the past, right, just wanted to, you know, if you'll be okay. So that's why when you work, don't work alone.

Because you notice that when you want to look for, job, now you need people. And not everybody may be willing to be your referee. So sometimes like, the way I teach corporate survival is that we have a set of like, uh, core stakeholders. Then you have the expanded stakeholders. So there's always like a set of people you can choose from. Does it make sense? Okay. So that's why for a longer term prep, right? In module 4.3 and 5.1, it's actually lessons around your stakeholder circle. So you want to be, have a proper

list around the people that you have worked with before. Because obviously not everyone you work with, um, can comment on your work performance or you actually work well with them because some people you don't work well with but it's just something that you can prep try not to wait under the point of like I need a referral to something by tomorrow where I'm going to find these people okay try to try not to get to that point

okay so I know today's session feels heavy right but you notice that we're circling around kind of like the same thing which is today I think really understanding how the corporate world works to me is like the biggest team so some stories are really long some some are too specific but you notice that it may not really be the key issue now

Now, at this point, I know it's very heavy, so you may need to watch the recording again, but at this point, I want to hear from everyone what's your biggest takeaway or learning from today's session. Okay? Everyone sharing the chat box. So I'll go through some final admin. So this is where you can find the recordings of this year. So it's always going to be in the latest group mentoring section. Then I've also listed all the 2025 upcoming mentoring calls, Q&A calls,

The workshops, all the dates are already included. So you can kind of go through that as well. So just some minor admin. Then all the older videos, I've also organized it by year. So you should be able to find all the videos. And obviously, you know, every video inside, there's all the case studies and stuff like that. And finally, please make sure that you book up my email so that you can read my email. So every month, I send three emails on the mentoring calls.

On the first of the month, I send the Q&A form as well as some instructions below on to how you submit a question, what you should do before submitting your questions like that. I sent one email about one to two hours before the live call so you can get the Zoom link and then some further instructions on what to do when coming into these calls and then finally I always send the recap

together with the timelines about a day after this call. So make sure that you book up my emails and please read my emails. These instructions are also actually included in the Menton Cross portal as well. Okay. Okay.

So we overran a bit but as you can see the dilemmas are very real. the emotions are very real, but sometimes it's not so easy to cut through the noise. It's not so easy to actually figure out actually what is the root cause problem. I see a lot of problems, but what is the root cause problem? Okay, so final point, right before we end, just like two more minutes. I just want to hear from everyone quickly.

What's the biggest takeaway or learning you got from today's mentoring call? Okay, quickly put in the chat box. Okay, sometimes we are too focused on our personal goals and issues where we fail to look at the boss and upper management of the company's vision. Good. Eliminate the noise. I understand the correct problem to solve. Recognise the things that you cannot change. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Even if I'm the superhero, even I have the best motivation and enthusiasm, they're just stuff that I cannot change. Because I don't own this company. Even as the owner, there's maybe certain things.

It's going to take a while to change. Right. You know, in corporate and in business, it takes a while to change things. Right. So don't expect everything to be stable. That's why I want to train y'all with self-awareness. Self-awareness to be able to either and if, hey, actually, what is changing? Like, why do I feel this way? Is that something I'm missing? So this is something that I can help you in our mentoring calls, but it's also something that I would like you to practice when you're at work.

And eventually this kind of like becomes a habit, right? An awareness, like a self-awareness that you naturally will have, so you don't have to, like, be like purposely trying to remember when you do this and do that. So eventually it kind of becomes a little bit more natural. But I think it's a very, very good superpower to have, right? because after a while, right, it's very natural. Like, for me, if I look through the questions, I can tell very quickly what I think the actual problem is, right?

So, but at first, you know, you may need to underline and then, like, strike off and make notes and stuff like that. It takes a while. But after a while, it's like, it's very fast. So that's why, right, the way I teach corporate world is more like, the foundation is so important, but seeing how you can apply it and interpret different situations that eventually actually come back to the three-step framework.

Like, I didn't say anything that's like outside of the three-step framework today, but maybe today you see a higher level application on a much more complicated situations. Does that make sense? Okay, let me look at some of the final reflections. Okay, but make sense, make sense. Okay, when facing a dilemma, we need to step back in order to see things more objectively and able to identify the root cause. Job scope clarity, accepting the reality and ready to work a backup plan just in case time of crisis.

Good. So it's important to identify the root issues of any situation we face to be able to apply the correct solutions and resolve them effectively be realistic in accepting changes and pivot from that exactly now you see right you see if you look at like today's stories right today's cases it's not because the lack of effort as you can see right every student has done has tried to do something about it like they are actually able to say that hey I tried to do this I also notice this is actually going well oh I don't feel good it's like they're actually able to explain which is a good thing right some people don't even know what's wrong they just say I feel like

shit right but the fact that you're able to explain it means that like you have a certain level of awareness, which is you're building it. But now it's like, I want to challenge you to see even the bigger picture. And you notice that the more complicated story, the more noise, it's like, wow, you know, everything is like important. So eventually everything feels important. But you see that the way that I break it down, actually it's only one thing. It's like maybe one and a half things.

But eventually it kind of like, it's like circling around the same thing. It's like you're still in the corporate job. Even if like all these students that submitted questions today, you guys are not in the same company, not even in the same company size. You're not, you guys not even in the same. country. You're not even the same career level. But it's things that you can apply. Look at it. It's like, oh, this thing probably happened to me as well. Right? Okay. Okay. So final comment. Identify the root cause and apply the right solution. Have a plan B.

Okay. Good, good, good. Okay. So I will end today's session here. I know it's a bit heavy. But as usual, I like to have deep conversations because all these like two second reals is no point. Right. To be able to identify the real root cause problem, you must have very strong fundamentals, have a very good understanding of corporate world, your job, be very observant, have high self-awareness and obviously please come here and practice with me as well. Hopefully I want to be able to have one day whereby, you know, everybody can tell me, maybe this is the root cause and bang, bang, bang, everything is exactly how I think, how I interpret it. I think to me, that would be the goal that I would like to have. Okay, cool. So final point, right? For key decisions, if you want to use your

one-on-one career strategy call, I would highly recommend that because the way that we want to go about these members' Q&A call is something that can benefit every student. So if you want like something a bit more personalized guidance and advice, you want to like talk more about your situation, please use the one-on-one strategy call that's included the program. There's the reason why I included those calls. So make sure that you do that. Then finally, if you want to upskill and learn and look at more of these real-life scenarios, you can go to the mentoring crossball. We have like more than 100 case studies already. There's a lot. So yeah, you can look through that, download the mobile app and then you can learn.

along the way. Okay, Ken, and with that, I'll see you next month. Take care. Bye-bye.