Farewell, Michele. You will be missed.

I usually don't write about what upsets me. It doesn't actually benefit anyone and we could do without more negativity in cyberspace. This time, it is different. What I am about to share is extremely upsetting and personal but I share this in honour of a beautiful human being who entered my life for a short amount of time and made a huge impact. 


Michele Vivona entered my life two years ago, when I joined the LexisNexis Marketing team. She was the Senior Vice President for Global Web Strategy then, had 20+ years of experience working in various parts of the organisation and was a friendly face and brilliant marketer. Six months ago, we started working together on a project - she would dial in from Seattle, USA and I would do the same from Kuala Lumpur. We exchanged ideas, challenged each other, joked, laughed and exchanged pictures of our pets. We bonded. 


She was someone extremely senior, a brilliant individual and an extremely busy person. She made time for me. We met again in Japan earlier this year and we bonded even more. I had many questions about my career. She had wise answers to guide me. She believed in me more than I did and she demonstrated that. I was someone on the other side of the world - naive, impressionable, hungry for knowledge. She was experienced, seasoned and probably chuckled inwardly at some of my petty concerns. 


Michele cared about me. She showed me time and again that she cared. She was present when we hung out in person and she was present when we were apart. I felt her support, her encouragement and she always made it clear that I made her proud. 


She was a beautiful human being. Her life was cut short and her passing is still a shock to all of us who knew her. I selfishly cannot fathom why my time with her was cut short but I cannot change that. I can celebrate her and tell as many as I can about her. I can take lessons from who Michele was. I want to grow up to become her. She was awesome. 


Rest In Peace, Michele [1964-2012]. 


  
    

You looking for the perfect job?

If there is one topic I can adequately comment on and have earned the right to do so,  it is the current crop of job seekers who carry their iPads with them to interviews, forget to print a copy of their CV and ask if I can validate their parking ticket for them at the end of the session. These kids (yes, I say kids because I feel ancient next to these youngsters) exist in the warm cocoon of over-protective parents who believe the sun shines from their kids' behinds and the world should be ever-so-grateful that their child has decided to join the workforce. 


Gone are the days when a candidate would declare a willingness to learn and work hard if given the chance. Now, I have kids (if they behave like adolescents, I will label them as such) wearing stick-on lashes and flowers painted on their nails telling me exactly why they didn't like their previous employers and what they expect from me, their prospective employer. One male candidate had one burning question for me - "Do I need to cut my hair short?".


I have candidates who proudly tell me that they do not like copy writing (I kid you not!) but decided to pursue a career in Marketing because they have an interest in "advertising". Most people I meet declare that they do not like to read and do not hesitate in telling me how their previous employers refused to empower them at work. They exhibit no passion, no enthusiasm and no drive to succeed. They are also far from qualified, brandishing fancy diplomas but hardly able to string a full sentence together in proper English. It is a sorry state of affairs. Thus, I am writing to the rare individual who has recently entered the workforce and who is seeking to build a successful career. 


Dear young job seeker, if you are beginning a journey, ask yourself what you want to gain from this journey. If you decide on a course at university, do so because you at least have a healthy interest in the subject. If you don't absolutely hate it, then try to understand it and appreciate what you are studying. If your tutor does not make sense, ask someone else to help or demand a better teacher. If you work for a multinational corporation and don't speak and write proper English, you will be handicapped for as long as you are in service. You will break out in a cold sweat when asked to present to your bosses. Your work will continuously be rejected because you did not spell or construct your sentence correctly. You will simmer in discontent because your more articulate co-worker receives accolades. 


You cannot rely on mum and dad to fill your pockets with cash forever and they are not doing you any favours by not giving you a knock on the head when you give up on your job after two months because someone said something to you and you didn't like hearing it. It is always tough in the beginning. Consider yourself lucky if your boss pays you attention and spends time teaching you. Don't create walls around you and don't limit yourself to what you think you like doing. Innovate and push yourself. If you don't know how, let others push you to do better. Work hard, work with vigour and with passion and care about the results you are supposed to drive. 


Look beyond the immediate challenges and strive to improve yourself every single day, every time you embark on something new. For goodness sake, read! It is the best thing you can do to get better at anything that you do. Pick up a book, a good magazine, a journal, a white paper! Participate in conversations, ask questions, suggest improvements, show your boss that you care about your job, your company and its' business and shame your colleagues into doing the same. 


I guarantee that you will have a fulfilling career. That is, after all what every job seeker wants. Not the perfect job - it is after all, relative.