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I was treated with great kindness and a level of respect, even as a prospective applicant. This continued during my time at university where the YTL Foundation staff continued to look out for me and accommodate my needs where it was possible.
Through the YTL Foundation Scholarship Programme, I was blessed to be given the opportunity to pursue a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in marketing. I am continually grateful for my scholarship and the YTL Foundation team who took great care of me and the other scholars.
In the beginning, I was very nervous as I wanted to be able to live up to the standards of my fellow applicants in my year. However, a lot of that nervous energy went away when I began my evaluation. I was treated with great kindness and a level of respect, even as a prospective applicant. This continued during my time at university where the YTL Foundation staff continued to look out for me and accommodate my needs where it was possible.
Since graduating, I joined YTL Communications’ marketing team as a full-time staff. I have been given many opportunities and projects to contribute my thoughts and ideas to my team. I truly enjoy my work here as I am able to meet many like-minded people at YTL who are completely invested in providing the best of their abilities to the roles that they were given. However, the most valuable aspect of my job is the ability to see the passion that my management team has in providing the best possible services to the people that we serve. Their passion allows me to come to work with a goal and a purpose.
In the next decade, I look forward to seeing how marketing will evolve, as the market is becoming increasingly competitive with many individuals and entities claiming to provide marketing services and knowledge. Hence, marketing students must not only learn the fundamentals of discovering the right product for the right customer, but also equip themselves with specialised skills that will enhance their value to their future employers. An individual must be ready to handle multiple job roles including creative work, copywriting, research and development, and business management to truly be an effective marketing asset to their company. While specialisation will allow an individual to be reliable, versatility will make a marketer more effective in their role.
In my current role, I have seen how useful it is to take up additional skills that I wished I had taken the time to learn while in university. Knowledge in coding and data processing is something that I had to pick up on the job in 2022. While I am now more comfortable with those specific skillsets, the journey to getting there was more difficult than one could imagine. Hence, I would advise that anyone who is currently studying to pursue marketing, consider equipping oneself with value-adding skills during one’s course in university.
I hope that my career path is one that can be used to be a true blessing to others – not only to my co-workers and bosses, but also to the people and customers we serve on a daily basis. In an ideal world, marketing should be a way that one can use their knowledge to help consumers find and benefit from services and products they truly need. I hope that what I do in this career will not boil down to just how much money was made, but how much impact my work and value has contributed to the team and the company.
My advice to all future scholars is to socialise and make as many connections as you can with your fellow and alumni scholars. Getting to know other scholars allows you to expand your network within YTL; giving you key insights and understanding of the opportunities that lie ahead by collaborating with teams outside of your daily work bubble.
I wish you all the best on your educational journey. Many great adventures await you and I am looking forward to seeing how you progress as our future YTL scholars!
