Career Coaching Podcast
Ctrl + Alt + Career goes behind the scenes of people who have embarked on an alternative career in Asia and the challenges they face in an Asian society where we are often expected to follow a traditional career path.
(PS - I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me on Instagram @ongjennifer_)
What People Are Saying
My favourite podcast ❤️
This is honestly one of the best podcast out there. Everyone should listen to it !!!! It is so refreshing and inspiring to see so many typical successful “ Asian Kids” jumping out of their “ perfect career” paths to pursue their passion.
✅ It will inspires you to pursue a career that you are actually passionate about
✅ Perfect for entrepreneurs! The founders are all very generous in sharing about their personal struggles and tips for founding a successful company !
✅ Jen has the best voice ever
— Christina W.
Amazing podcast
I love how much research Jen goes into developing the best questions and cohesive storyline so that this podcast is jam-packed with the biggest value takeaways for the listener.
Love listening to this and basically on par with some of my favourite NPR podcasts 😍
— itslilywu
Very inspiring
Jen makes embarking on an alternative career and taking the leap of faith to pursuing your passions come to life through each episode.
She asks all the relevant questions from breaking through social and family pressures, relinquishing the financial safety of a salaried job and many others.
I love how each episode is so unique in terms of the alternative career paths each person chooses to pursue. It also provides interesting insight on very different industries and sectors.
— Pris Q.
45: Benjamin Wong, from Law School and Private Equity to CEO of Kinobi
Benjamin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kinobi, an education tech startup focused on helping university students find jobs. He dropped out of law school, pivoted into finance and spent time working in private equity and family offices before pivoting again into entrepreneurship. Ben is also currently a Board Member of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce Indonesia.
44: Jeremy Au, from Co-Founding Two Companies to VC at Monk’s Hill Ventures
Jeremy is a venture capitalist at Monk’s Hill Ventures. He’s also the host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, which focuses on startups and VCs in Southeast Asia. Prior to this, he started his career as a management consultant at Bain before going to founding two startups - one in Singapore and one in the US before pivoting into VC. Additionally, he is an angel investor in multiple companies.
43: Sabrina Joseph, from St. Regis and Oglivy to founding HuntStreet
Sabrina is the Co-Founder and CMO of HuntStreet, an online luxury marketplace based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Outside of fashion, she’s also very involved in church and set up the Catholic Fellowship Jakarta. She studied in Switzerland and graduated with a bachelor’s in hospitality management and moved to Shanghai to study Mandarin. She realized that agency life was not for her, and also found that there wasn’t a luxury marketplace in Jakarta. Thus, moving on to co-founding Hunt Street
42: Kai Yuan Neo, from coding at Facebook and Alibaba to founding Rocket Academy
Kai is the Founder and CEO of Rocket Academy, an online coding bootcamp that helps people become software engineers. He spent 5 years at Stanford University, where he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. In his time there, he did internships at Alibaba and Facebook as a Software Engineer
Kai wanted to start a business when he returned to Singapore, but his first venture, Project We Forgot, did not take off. He eventually founded Rocket Academy in 2019 after realising his desire of teaching and his expertise in coding.
41 Part 2: Dr Jane Horan, Navigating Workplace Politics for Better Networks
Jane is the Founder and CEO of The Horan Group, a strategic consulting firm helping individuals and organizations build inclusion and purpose. Dr. Jane Horan is an expert in career transitions, unconscious bias and cross-cultural leadership. Her life has lead her to the US, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore where she currently resides. She has a Doctor of Education in Asian Women Leaders and has written multiple books with topics ranging from workplace politics to leadership of Asian women.
41 Part 1: Dr Jane Horan, from Dream Job at Disney to founding The Horan Group
Jane is the Founder and CEO of The Horan Group, a strategic consulting firm helping individuals and organizations build inclusion and purpose. Dr. Jane Horan is an expert in career transitions, unconscious bias and cross-cultural leadership. Her life has lead her to the US, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore where she currently resides. She has a Doctor of Education in Asian Women Leaders and has written multiple books with topics ranging from workplace politics to leadership of Asian women.
40: Felix Lee, from starting a Google Sheet to the founder of ADPList
Felix is the Co-Founder and CEO of ADPList, an online platform hosting a community of mentors and learners. He has always been interested in building his own company, and his first business was Packdat, which he founded with his brother while still in school, that was eventually acquired. Felix went on to work at other startups before embarking on his own. The first version of ADP List was a tab on Google Sheets with a list of volunteer mentors. It has since grown to have 13,000 mentors today.
39 Part 2: Nellie Wartoft, from Recruiting to the founder of Tigerhall
Nellie is the Founder and CEO of Tigerhall, a social learning platform focused on empowering professionals in their career. She hails from Sweden, having her first experiences in entrepreneurship there. She then moved halfway across the world to study in Singapore, and after taking on a role in sales and marketing at Michael Page. In 2018, she founded Tigerhall in Singapore and has since expanded to the US market as well.
39 Part 1: Nellie Wartoft, How to Successfully Fundraise from the founder of Tigerhall
Nellie is the Founder and CEO of Tigerhall, a social learning platform focused on empowering professionals in their career. She hails from Sweden, having her first experiences in entrepreneurship there. She then moved halfway across the world to study in Singapore, and after taking on a role in sales and marketing at Michael Page. In 2018, she founded Tigerhall in Singapore and has since expanded to the US market as well.
38: Sarah Garner, from Fashion Buyer to Founding Retykle
Sarah is the Founder and CEO of Retykle, a luxury resale platform for secondhand children’s wear. She started off her career in America, working at Bloomingdale’s and Holt Renfrew, before upending her life and moving across the world to Hong Kong. Then she gained more experience in the fashion industry at Lane Crawford, DFS, and Shanghai Tang. Sarah left the workforce when she became a mother for a couple of years, and came back wanting to build something she can be proud of. Her experience in bringing up her kids led to the founding of Retykle.
37: Tanya Zakowich, from NASA & Boeing Engineer to Math Tiktoker
Tanya is the Founder of Pink Pencil Math, a company that provided digital math courses. She also build the Tiktok account of the same name, amassing 1.7 million followers to date. Prior to this, she was an engineer at NASA - her childhood dream job, but decided to pivot away from engineering entirely. Listen to the full episode to find out why and how!
36: Coral Chung, from Bain Consultant to Co-Founder of SENREVE
Coral is the Co-Founder and CEO of SENREVE, a digitally native brand revolutionising the luxury industry, which pioneered the luxury convertible handbag and backpack category with the iconic Maestra Bag.
35 Part 2: Lauren Dai, from Goldman Sachs to Co-Founder of Cocoon
Lauren is the Co-Founder and COO of Cocoon, a leave management platform that simplifies the complexities of compliance, claims, and payroll for a seamless, more empathetic employee leave experience. Prior to the founding of her company, she was a research analyst at Goldman Sachs. Later, she took the risk in leaving her “safe and comfortable” job at Goldman Sachs to join the then relatively unknown startup Stripe.
35 Part 1: Lauren Dai, from Goldman Sachs Research Analyst to Co-Founder of Cocoon.
Lauren is the Co-Founder and COO of Cocoon, a leave management platform that simplifies the complexities of compliance, claims, and payroll for a seamless, more empathetic employee leave experience. Prior to the founding of her company, she was a research analyst at Goldman Sachs. Later, she took the risk in leaving her “safe and comfortable” job at Goldman Sachs to join the then relatively unknown startup Stripe.
34: Tips to Land Your Dream Job Right Now!
How do I get to my dream job?" is such a huge, demanding question, and I know, we some times don't have the time or effort to figure out the answer. This episode will help you break down the whole process, making you one step closer to where you want to be!
33: 6 Ways to Figure Out If You Should Quit Your Job in 2022
With the Great Resignation still in full swing, many of us have one question in mind: Should we quit our jobs? This episode will help frame your thinking and decision making, providing you with questions that will help in deciding whether you should quit your job or not.
32: Why I Left My Dream Job
In this episode, I talked about my role at Style Theory and why it was my dream job, and how I made the decision to quit that job. I also shared the one question that helped me gained clarity to make such an immense career move. This episode is also the first in the newest season to be posted on YouTube! Catch the episode to find out what that question is.
31: Chris Edwards, from Marketing Manager to founder of The Honeycombers
Chris Edwards is the Founder and CEO of The Honeycombers, a leading digital lifestyle magazine in Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong. She has also founded other companies, including Launchpad, a community of ambitious, daring and smart entrepreneurs that supports one another in their endeavors, and Digital Collective Asia, which helps businesses explode their sales through ROI and performance driven marketing strategies. Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, she was the Marketing Manager at Krispy Kreme Australia and General Manager at Asia City Publishing.
30 Part 2: Lily Wu, from two-time entrepreneur to co-founder of WOW Pixies NFT
Lily Wu is the Startup Partner Lead at Stripe and the co-founder of WOW Pixies NFT, a social DAO investing in women- and diversity-led projects in the NFT space. Prior to this, she is a two-time seven-figure entrepreneur, selling shoes and building a startup in the education space.
30 Part 1: Lily Wu, from two-time entrepreneur to co-founder of WOW Pixies NFT
Lily Wu is the Startup Partner Lead at Stripe and the co-founder of WOW Pixies NFT, a social DAO investing in women- and diversity-led projects in the NFT space. Prior to this, she is a two-time seven-figure entrepreneur, selling shoes and building a startup in the education space.