My Story
I was lost entering the working world after college. The structure throughout school provided guidance and stability, and then suddenly, I had to figure out how to navigate the working world. I received the same tips from career counselors: use strong action words in your resume, send thank you notes, or role-play your interviews. They were helpful to a certain extent but did not prepare me for real-life challenges in the workplace, especially as an Asian American female from a working-class, immigrant family.
Being the first to attend college, my main goal was earning a degree to repay and support my family. As soon as I walked off the UC Berkeley stage with a diploma, I accepted the first job that offered to pay me a decent salary. It would be another four years and three jobs for me to fully recognize my strengths and pursue a more purposeful career path. It was strategic sales and leadership at tech startups, including early-stage Yelp and ClassPass. Being on the right path was so empowering. However, by then, I was already a few years behind my peers at work.
Soon after settling into my new sales career path, I saw that colleagues (primarily white, upper-middle-class) were getting promoted quicker and invited into inner leadership circles, as compared to my Asian / BIPOC peers. While many were smart and driven, I realized they weren’t necessarily more qualified. They came out of the gates already ahead, with more resources such as financial comfort, access to their family’s networks, social relevancy, and sharper acumen to navigate corporate politics. In comparison, even the most straightforward career advice was non-existent in my home as my family spoke little English, worked blue-collared jobs, and relied heavily on me from a young age to help them navigate this new and foreign world for them.
Growing up Chinese-American, it’s been taught to me by my older generations who have been through Japanese imperialism in China during the 1930s and the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, to work hard, be grateful and especially cautious about not speaking up too loudly as that could have adverse affects. For them, it was survelience, imprisonment and even violence. This upbringing and inherited trauma made it challenging for me to find my voice in school and in the workplace. Even today, quite a few of my Asian-American peers have never spoken up about a salary increase, asked for better benefits, or requested a more balanced work life schedule.
With my 15 years of experience in sales and marketing at high growth companies, launching multiple side businesses, becoming a working mom of two, I have learned the fundamentals of navigating and thriving in different career stages. From earning multiple 6-figures a few years into my sales career and then doubling, negotiating benefits, managing and developing team members, recognizing and addressing workplace biases and more, I take my learnings to help you level to your peers and to rise beyond.
Reflecting back, I wish I had the right resources from people who really got me to stay on pace to be purposeful and successful from the beginning. So many like-minded people across varying career stages have expressed similar sentiments, which is what inspired me to start Wildlight.
My immediate goal is to help women, AAPI / BIPOC folks find clarity to their strengths so that they can regain their confidence. My long term goal is to see these people in leadership, investor and decision-making roles and to break down the gender and racial pay gaps.