Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - FREE TRAINING - *BONUS Q&A* - 7-DAY CAREER GROWTH CHALLENGE

Episode Date: November 30, 2025

✅ 7-DAY TRIAL (100+ Q&A'S) ⮕ www.meiphing.com ✅ CAREER COURSE + 1:1 COACHING ⮕ www.thecorporatesurvivor.co

Hello and welcome to this bonus Q&A session. I'm hosting as part of the seven-day career growth challenge with me, Mayping. So right now, I'm going to answer a couple of questions that were submitted by members of my community, and I'm very sure that you can relate to many of them because they are related around communication, relationships, getting visible, selling yourself. So every single thing that is extremely relevant and has already been covered in the mini trainings over the past seven days. So I'll go to a question by question. and I'll share the question, then I will share my answers and my perspective, my guidance so that you can gain deeper insights as to why these career problems are happening to you right now, what you might be thinking a little bit wrong, and what to do instead.

Okay, so first question, what's the best way of talking about, tell me about yourself during the interview session? my interview went moderately bad due to lack of energy. So that was the question. Now, first thing I'll say is that, like, if you find it very difficult to answer the tell me about yourself question, it tells me that you have no idea what your value actually is. So when we first started the seven-day training, I talked about why it's so important to be able to identify your job scope, to be able to identify what you're hired to do, because all these things would then be used to sell yourself for new opportunities, whether it's a

promotion, it's an increment or job search. So by not doing the groundwork, now you have reached the point of, I'm going to apply for a job, and this is the question that gets asked in every single interview. Now you're struggling to answer. So I'll definitely go through the foundation. I actually take a pause and really look into all the pieces of work that I've been doing, what have I achieved, what I've done well, because all those things will then need to go. go in when you're selling yourself as a professional who deserves that new opportunity and deserves to get hired. So this follower's conclusion that the interview went moderately bad due to lack of energy is definitely not the case, right? It's not lack of energy. It's lack

of preparation. Because if you don't know what you're going to say, because you have no idea what your value is, you don't know what you've been doing at your current job and your previous job, your entire career is just a blur. And now you're trying to memorize something for the interview, it definitely will not work. And when you don't know what to say, it feels very awkward, you're very stressed out, then obviously you feel like, oh, it's so negative, right? And guess what? The hiring managers, they are very experienced people as well. Like, I've hired from junior people all the way to director level. And a very experienced hiring manager will be able to tell that you lack preparation or you're just someone who is working hard, but have no

idea what you're doing. So if you cannot explain to me, what is the value that you've been adding throughout your career, in your current job and your previous job, how can you convince me that you will be adding value if I hire you into my team? So that is the mindset of every single hiring manager, every single director, as well as every single head of the department. So circling back, if you remember in the earlier trainings, I talked about when it comes to job search, right? When it comes to getting opportunities, what you want to show is you are competent.

So by not knowing exactly how you have been adding value, you are missing this core component that decides majority of the hiring decision that you are someone who is competent, right? So when you cannot demonstrate competence because you cannot communicate during the interview process, then it kills off another element that is important as well, which is you cannot demonstrate that you are a good communicator. Because you can say in your resume, they are a very good communicator, but if I cannot see it in an interview as a hiring manager, I will not be convinced, right?

So your chances of getting the opportunity has just gone down. And the final element I talked about in the earlier training around the other piece of the puzzle that hiring managers want to see is collaboration, confidence, right? So if you're struggling to even explain what you've been doing, right, then if I hire you into my team, I would be extremely concerned whether you can communicate with other people. You'll be confident in the work that you're doing. So all these things that you can see, right, they are just killing your chances of, lending the opportunity, which would then mean no career level up, no career progression

and no salary increment. So that is why we need to make sure that we've built the fundamentals, right? Everything that I have talked about in the seven-day training is not for fun. It's not just a random idea. That's like, okay, that's cool, right? Let's just move on. But every single thing connects together because the corporate is a jigsaw puzzle. Meaning if you struggle in one part, this thing will pop up in another area that it will actually

stop your career progress. Okay. So for this follower, I'll definitely focus on taking a pause and actually going back and looking through how you're actually adding value in your current job, your previous jobs, as well as your entire career. And this is what you're actually going to talk about in the tell me about yourself. Because the main goal is to show that you're competent and you're the right person to be hired for the role. Okay. So let's move on to the next question. So there is a question around visibility, which I think is really important as well. Well, so question, I have trouble getting sponsorship to move from the mid-level to senior level. So when this follower means sponsorship, it's basically getting endorsement. So one thing that you need to understand in the corporate world is that when you're more junior, you know, from junior level, executive to getting to like maybe manager level, is quite easy. Most of the time, you know, it's just based on your hard work and then visibility, aligning expectations to your boss, every single thing that I've talked about in the trainings. Now, the challenge then comes is that how do I move from manager, right, to the senior level? So you're talking about like senior manager, director and head of department,

those are really, really what you consider, management and leadership. So this is where the things that you did not address as a junior, as mid-level, will now come back to haunt you. Because the time to get visible, the time to get endorsement, time to build your network, the time to build your reputation that you're someone that is worth promoting, that is an ongoing process. It's not a situation whereby, oh, I'm already stuck at this managerial role for seven years. What do I do now? How come I didn't get promoted? How come I still cannot get promoted? That means that, you know, we are so focused

on just reaching that title and then hoping that, you know, at some point I'm just going to get promoted. So this to me sounds like a lack of strategy. So there are a couple of things that you definitely need. So the way that the follow articulated the question is that she said, getting sponsorship to move from the next level. So getting endorsement. But what is not mentioned here is how is her boss involved in this process? Remember what I said in our mini trainings, your boss is the most important person in your career.

So therefore, this is the person that you clarify your expectations, you align expectations, you make sure that you consistently communicate, and you always make sure that you get visible to your boss. So it then makes me question, how come your boss is not endorsing you and pushing you for the next career level? because for your boss to be able to do that, it's going to be way easier than you try to convince the other 10 people

that is within your company to give you that endorsement. And I can tell you that if your boss and the head of department within your reporting line thinks that you're very good, the chances of you getting promoted actually is very high. And that was how I got promoted. When I got promoted to senior director at Standard Charter Bank, right, it's a global function. A lot of people say, like, how did you do it?

Because particularly at Center Charter Bank, people get stuck at the manager level, like minimum six to seven years. But I did it in one year. I got promoted in one year. So how did I do that? It's actually understanding very clearly that if you want to position yourself up the career ladder for progression, right, relationship building, right, getting visible, ongoing communication with your boss, alignment and ongoing phase time, right, with your boss, which is the most important person in your career. And then with the management team, right, the visibility element. is so important. So we want to network for sure. Definitely we want to reach more people.

You want to work with more people. But the goal is not just more people. The goal is to connect with people that actually can give you good feedback. And to connect with the kind of people that your boss actually believes in their feedback, like it's someone that is related. So all these things are taught in the corporate survivor. So that's why even alluding to the earlier question as well, we want to make sure that we have clarity on our job, where we have confidence and computers and when you build your visibility, you need to make sure that you focus on the right stakeholders and more importantly, the visibility to your boss. So that when it comes to important elements, times where you want to get promoted, you want to up level, your boss is more than willing

to push you because the sentiment you want to get is like, oh yeah, of course, like, you know, maybe it's the person that I want to promote because she's doing a great job, right? She can manage multiple stakeholders. She's running great projects. She can be a people leader. Like all those things, right. The convincing, the selling yourself, as I said in the trainings, is that it's not just doing that 30-minute conversation around your performance review. Now I think, oh, how am I going to find people to endorse me and support me and sponsor me? No, no. It's throughout your performance year, okay? It's throughout that one year, right, doing your work days, which is why even in my career program as well, like when we do monthly mentorship sessions, like I can see the members and

the clients that actually perform the best are the people who attend the mentoring calls every single month. They're the ones watching the video recordings every single month because they are continuing to sharpen their corporate mindset and corporate instincts of learning how to clarify their work, getting confidence, competes, and how do you actually become visible? How do you actually remove problems with your boss before it actually blows up? So for this follower, what I would definitely suggest is to actually have a one-on-one conversation with your boss to ask what does it have to take in order for you to look at level up and what are the things that you could do better? Because right now it sounds to me that

you're probably thinking a lot in your head, maybe trying to work hard, but not necessarily be extremely clear as to what are the key parameters that you need to focus on for the up level. So I think that's what I would advise. Okay. So let's move on to the next question. So as you can see here, it's like when we talk about career progression, right, career level up, growing your salary, yes, I mean, all those are, you know, ultimate goals, right? all those are really important. But the path of getting there really matters as well

because we can say they want to make a lot of money we can say they want to climb to the peak of Mount Everest but if the path there is filled with like potholes filled with problems with drama.

So no matter how motivated that you say you want to get there it's probably not going to happen. So we just want to make sure that we are really, really clear on building the foundations and understanding how the corporate jigsaw puzzle is connected.

And one thing that you might have noticed from both questions that was submitted is that the visibility element, right, the wanting to sell yourself and knowing exactly how to communicate your value, that is actually done right at the end, which is actually not a very good idea. Like, you don't want to wait until the interview process, when you seriously want to get the new opportunity, right? You really want to leave your company already to then realize that, oh, I actually don't know

how to communicate my value. I don't know how to position and sell my value to make sure that the hire manager understands that they should hire me. Or you really reach your point of like asking for a promotion and really working so hard at expecting that you are the next one to be promoted only to realize that, oh, actually people don't really see that I am the next person. So now this then becomes like a snowball effect, right? So you don't want to wait till the snowball has turned into like a giant monster to then realize that, oh no, like what do I do now? So that is why even when I design my career

program, so I have a career program called the corporate survivor. The way that we go about it is the three step framework, right? So step one is get clear. Step two, get confident. Then step three, get visible. Now, this is a ladder. I would say that it's a gradual process that you really want to focus on getting your fundamentals right, because in both situations as well, right at the beginning, you need to be very clear on how you're actually adding value, exactly how your work is contributing to the bigger team, and being able to identify that, being able to communicate that and making sure that your boss and all your clear and key stakeholders, right, within your job, is aware and has given you good feedback would definitely increase your chances, right,

of getting that promotion or salary increment within the company. But that same knowledge and that same, I would say, yeah, that same knowledge and skill of learning how to position and articulate your value. That's something that if your current company can't give you the role, then I'm going to use the exact same skill to apply for a job, right, to position my value in my resume, LinkedIn profile, interviews. And that is the method that I teach as well. So set very, very clear foundations. You need to have clarity, confidence and competence to know that you can actually do not just

your current job, how you're adding value, but also preparing yourself for the next career level so that you'll gradually get the endorsement. Then when you reach the get visible stage, right, where you're going to position your value, then there's going to be two space, right? First is internally within the company. And then second one is how you sell your value to get that new opportunity externally. And that is why step three, in my career program is where I teach get visible. We don't try to get visible before knowing actually what our job is supposed to be and what a good job is supposed to look like.

So follow the steps, right, get clear, get confident and get visible. And if you can't progress within your current company, then there's also a bonus job search course. There's also included as well that teaches specifically how to sell and position your value in your resume, LinkedIn profile and interviews to get that next opportunity. So every single thing is connected. Like I said, the coverage of Microsoft puzzle is connected.

So I just want to make sure that you see the connection that every single thing that you're doing, like from the start, do not skip any steps. Do not skip any of the sequences because this is actually how you can have long-term sustainable strategic career success in the corporate world.