Name: Ong Yu Ann Company: Gravity Group Asia / Entertainment Direct Asia Duration: 8 months
At Gravity we hardly ever do what’s stated in the company datasheet that NOC Shanghai applicants receive - assuming that it’s been unchanged since December 2014. Unfortunately that is not because we do so much more - it’s just that we no longer do any of the things that would have given you broad exposure into the digital marketing landscape in China. That time is past. Instead, the boss, Rick, has redirected the company’s efforts at building a multi-channel network (MCN) for China. That’s Entertainment Direct Asia (EDA www.edirect.asia). Rick, a Caucasian dude who speaks impeccable Japanese, Mandarin and (of course) English, comes from a rich background in the IT and digital entertainment industry in Asia, and he is immensely knowledgeable about the digital entertainment industry in China and Japan, particularly with regards to online music and video. Conversations with Rick are to be treasured, if not because they are always insightful, then for the reason that they are hard to come by. At the helm of a company deep in transition, Rick, I have to say, is a very busy man. At this year's Company Appreciation Dinner with my colleagues. Thus, at Gravity I never did what I expected I would be doing. Instead, I was roped in to write (and eventually helm) a monthly industrial report on the live and digital entertainment landscape in China. This report is a remnant of Gravity’s past activities as a “boutique digital advisory”, and is probably so because it’s a major revenue bringer for the company. Writing the report used to be a team affair across 3-4 writers specializing in the report’s various sections, but by the time I was the only NOC intern left, well, I was the only writer left. To write the report, I became a data collector, a fake pundit of the Chinese digital entertainment industry and a fake journalist. I became an expert at crawling for news (Google still beats Baidu), maintaining datasheets (I’m now probably between amateur and expert on the MS Excel Proficiency Scale), generating content (the Singaporean education system has trained me well in the Fluff Arts) and maintaining positivity (^_^). Eating home cooked lunch in the meeting room with my senior. Why an expert at maintaining positivity, you ask? Why, on my first day at Gravity, I found out two senior employees, both of whom interviewed me and grilled me on the skills needed for the job described on the Gravity datasheet that NOC Shanghai applicants all receive before choosing companies, had left the company. One of them was supposed to be my supervisor. No matter, I had a new one. He is hardly around, not particularly conversationally inclined and pretty much left me to my own devices after briefing me on my role. 7 months on, he left the company with nary a whisper. Loyalty and responsibility seem secondary to personal ambition here at Gravity (I witnessed no less than 4 other senior employees that simply upped and left). Perhaps it is the non-existent camaraderie, you know (I sure don’t), but life is no bed of roses, and that nobody said the same about death doesn’t mean that there’s a bed of roses on the other side but now you witness my Gravity-trained Fluffing Ability (trademark).
Join Gravity/EDA for a chance at independent learning in a totally relaxed environment. You will be the master of your own time, you will have ample working space, you will have an angmoh boss, and you will have pretty good WiFi (wink wink). Dinner with some of my colleagues. Shen: Special thanks to Yuann for sharing your experience and inspiring us to do our job and do it well and to make the most of what has been given! A thumbs-up from us too!
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SHEN
申城 (shen cheng) is an ancient name for Shanghai.
As a group of NUS and NOC students who are in Shanghai for a year-long internship programme, we have named our student organisation as SHEN (Shanghai House of Entrepreneurs). Archives
November 2017
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