Can you introduce yourself?
I was also in GCC before, in the Speaker Outreach Department. After graduating in 2020 with an applied math degree, I worked in Taiyang Chuanhe, a talent agency, and a well-known MCN. I worked in this company for a year of strategy, mainly responsible for exploring the group’s new business and the exploration of the old ones. We are also in charge of some management and technical support for the company. Since this March, we have done some new business, and team leaders in the group also participated in various tasks, such as BD and team management. I recently changed my job, where I started to work on strategic operations last month in Bytedance.
Can you introduce your work at Bytedance?
I just started my work at ByteDance this year in the Southeast Asian Department of TikTok. Let me introduce the organizational structure of some Bytedance businesses first. In the areas of production, all countries and all regions have a unified team. In the areas of operations, there are different teams in each country and each region. I am a member of the Southeast Asia team. Since there are several countries in the Southeast Asia team, my primary job is to be responsible for the cuisine of Southeast Asia, one of the vertical categories, and the supply of some vertical classes. Specifically, I work closely with some local operation students in various countries to help them develop strategies, including coordinating and managing their daily work on these verticals or formulating some strategy. Then there will be some monthly/annual regular review of our work.
Did your previous experience as GCC's Speaker Outreach Head help you in your current work, such as works related to client communication?
Yes, I joined GCC in my junior year. In the first semester, we held a China Forum, and I have participated in some important panels. Later in the second year, I started to be in charge of GCC's entrepreneurship and investment Forum because it was related to my internship experience. My first internship was at ZhenFund, where I was doing investment-related work. Later, I interned at Baidu and iQiyi to do work on product and business analysis. I was very interested in the entrepreneurial circle at that time, and I also got the opportunity to network during interning. Since I was in charge of the GCC Forum, I tried to cold call some entrepreneurs, such as Mr. Xu Xiaoping, the big boss of my first internship, who later delivered a speech remotely for the forum. Through this event, I had a more profound understanding of my potentials, and I realized that I am interested in BD's outward expansion. Also, when I worked in Taiyang Chuanhe as the strategy maker, I came across a new business opportunity, which was an opportunity from 0 to 1. At that time, the company did not provide enough resources. We were required to find clients, which was similar to my experience of finding speakers at GCC.
Working in such fast-growing and world-famous companies as ByteDance, do you have any unique feelings?
After college, many Vandy graduates may wish to go to some very large or mature industries, such as Investment Banking or Consulting. However, when I was in my junior year, I gradually realized that I did not want to go to companies with perfect mechanisms and structures. Instead, I wanted to go to a startup or a fast-growing company because more opportunities would be offered. At that time, I did go to this kind of entertainment company. This entertainment company is not as big as some well-known Internet companies, but there are many opportunities such as being able to be in charge of a new business. Because many internal orders have not been established yet, recent graduates can also participate in high-level decision-making. When I came to ByteDance, I realized that ByteDance was about the same size as Tencent or Baidu but much younger and more dynamic. For example, the team and leaders of ByteDance are younger than Baidu’s. Similar to the business level, businesses like ByteDance are also very new. One example is TikTok. Before TikTok, there were very few companies that had such a large volume in China. So ByteDance was one of these companies that could explore new markets, such as the Southeast Asian market that we are doing. The Southeast Asian market was not as mature as Douyin, where it is at its very early stage, meaning there will be more opportunities. Take my experience as an example, I only have one year of working experience, but I can also be in charge of one vertical category. These opportunities are relatively hard to obtain in mature companies such as Baidu or Tencent.
Can you describe your daily work routine?
I have just worked in ByteDance for more than a month, and what I have done so far is different every week. When I first came here, what I did was more like adapting to this job, looking at the people around me, and looking at the business system, such as some important data index. Working is different from school. When I was in school, people would tell me what to do, but my leader wanted me to know what I needed to do at work. In terms of my working routine, I check my daily schedule every morning and later to see the changes and key indicators of my vertical operating data. Also, I always communicate with some local colleagues from countries in Southeast Asia. During or after the landing of some important activities, there will be much paperwork involved. I also participate in some innovative projects, such as new online product features.
Do you think studying at an American university would set any barriers when returning to your home country for work? And are there any benefits?
Let me first talk about the advantages. It is very advantageous to do international-related business. You can also communicate with people from different countries at work because the US is indeed a diversified country. And my experience of studying in the US is more unrestricted without many standards and constraints. The difficulty is that the way of communicating and the overall environment are different between the two countries. For example, at Taiyang Chuanhe, the academic backgrounds of my colleagues were diverse. It might be difficult for me to find a way to communicate with them, and we barely have similar interests. And in China, the types of people are more complicated, so it is necessary to see people's strengths, habits, communication styles, and disadvantages to better interact with them. Also, I realized that the network I have in the US is not being helpful in China, so I need to establish my new network again in China for work.
You mentioned that you had had many internship experiences before. Do you have any suggestions for Vandy’s students? For example, how to find an internship and know it is a suitable type of internship?
You must first know what you want and then think about how to do it. There will be lots of opportunities at foreign universities. First of all, there is always this one big question: do you want to return to your home country or stay in the United States? If you wish to stay in the US, there are limited industries that would give you legal statuses to stay, such as finance and engineering. If you choose to go back to China, there will be other questions. For example, the starting wage would not be high. Also, there would be differences in culture. So you should think about the pros and cons and what you will be acceptable. One best scenario is to develop and finalize the idea of returning home or staying in the US and which industry you want to enter in the third year of college.
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