Now, after my free-lancing for about a year, I began to settle down on a full-time job. I was then offered a job as a Product Specialist, and shortly Product Manager, specialising in Chocolates. Yes, chocolates... Envious? I got to eat chocolates everyday! Luckily I'm not too fat to start with!
Well, it was predominantly a sales job, doing wholesaling of chocolates. I would also need to do some marketing aspect of it, doing brochures and catalogues, plus doing a bit of other food comodity that the company has. But that is to a lesser extend. I would also need to meet up with customers, understand their needs, build rapport with them and also doing delivery should urgent circumstances arises. I would also need to work out and plan with other colleagues for major events, such as exhibitions. And later part, to meet up with suppliers to design and come up with packaging for our range of ready-to-eat products. Well, I was still a rookie in this area and I'd gotten a good superior in this job, whom assist and guide me through along the way. Quite a good and fun job. I also did a part-time property agent course at this period of time, thinking that I might be able to do part-time, earning extra income. But I was wrong... F&B industry has no days, no nights, no weekdays, no weekends, no public holidays, no nothing... It's a fast-paced industry where things happen quickly. That's why it's also considered as a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumable Goods) industry. So as you might have guessed, no time to do part-time work, let alone self upgrading, doing my part-time further studies.
Oh, and it's at this period of time where I'd gotten myself into a liability... My car. For the purpose of work, I would need a good and reliable car, comfortable, value for money and of course, not an ugly car. For this, I'd chosen the Nissan Latio Sport. I got mine in black colour. Anyway, not to digress into cars...
At the end of the year, after I'm done with the Christmas sales for the company, I was actually asked by a friend, whom then introduce me to his other friend, whom own a F&B (Food & Beverage) establishment. It is quite a well-known confectionary, or some might call it a bakery, whom specialises in doing cakes. So after spending about a year with the Chocolate Company, I was poached to the Confectionery Company as a Business Development Manager. Pay rise of course, plus bigger responsibility, bigger room, bigger freedom of planning. And lots of proving...
I work around the branding and marketing aspect first, as I find nothing significantly wrong with the products. My idea was, no point mending things that aren't broken. Since the products are quite well accepted by the customers, why change? My focus and aim was then to improve on it's awareness and value, and probably go into corporate clients, a new venture, breaking out from the usual retail shop concept. So I worked a lot on the promotion mechanics, tying down with credit card companies, doing a lot of publicity work and rope in the aid of media. Not too bad for a start. And people were delighted. But then, it's not smooth sailing... It's a family business and there's 1001 directions given by the family members. And to make things worse, the directions were opposing. For example, 1 said launch a new product, the other said no. 1 said do more agreesive promotions, the other said stop. And to make things real miserable, both were major decision makers. And after gotten stuck and putting up with the nonsense, some promotion activities still worked out. Eventually, came the rising cost of food materials and ingredients, which makes profit margin thinner and thinner. Measures were thought of to control cost, and again, 1 agree, the other don't. At last, after a year plus of working with this company, I was retrenched. I guess my cost in the company was easily written off, as compared to the food ingredients.
Never thought of getting retrenched at such early age, but I'd gotten it. My ex-colleagues from the confectionery were helpful and they knew I'd done my best for them and for the company. Soon, I was refered by one of these ex-colleagues to the friend, whom gotten me into my current job, after 1 month of sitting out, doing nothing after the retrenchment. My family knew nothing about as I only revealed this to a couple of good trusting friends... With a big liability (car), unemployment spells disaster and it can drain up your savings very quickly and significantly. It's only when I'd gotten my next job, which is my current job, then my family knew about it.
About my current job, I guess I would have to leave it till the next blog. I guess it would be pretty long as well. And to just give you a slight preview, the job has got nothing to do with F&B, which I'm doing all along... It was an Engineering field of work. What a change!
Well, it was predominantly a sales job, doing wholesaling of chocolates. I would also need to do some marketing aspect of it, doing brochures and catalogues, plus doing a bit of other food comodity that the company has. But that is to a lesser extend. I would also need to meet up with customers, understand their needs, build rapport with them and also doing delivery should urgent circumstances arises. I would also need to work out and plan with other colleagues for major events, such as exhibitions. And later part, to meet up with suppliers to design and come up with packaging for our range of ready-to-eat products. Well, I was still a rookie in this area and I'd gotten a good superior in this job, whom assist and guide me through along the way. Quite a good and fun job. I also did a part-time property agent course at this period of time, thinking that I might be able to do part-time, earning extra income. But I was wrong... F&B industry has no days, no nights, no weekdays, no weekends, no public holidays, no nothing... It's a fast-paced industry where things happen quickly. That's why it's also considered as a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumable Goods) industry. So as you might have guessed, no time to do part-time work, let alone self upgrading, doing my part-time further studies.
Oh, and it's at this period of time where I'd gotten myself into a liability... My car. For the purpose of work, I would need a good and reliable car, comfortable, value for money and of course, not an ugly car. For this, I'd chosen the Nissan Latio Sport. I got mine in black colour. Anyway, not to digress into cars...
At the end of the year, after I'm done with the Christmas sales for the company, I was actually asked by a friend, whom then introduce me to his other friend, whom own a F&B (Food & Beverage) establishment. It is quite a well-known confectionary, or some might call it a bakery, whom specialises in doing cakes. So after spending about a year with the Chocolate Company, I was poached to the Confectionery Company as a Business Development Manager. Pay rise of course, plus bigger responsibility, bigger room, bigger freedom of planning. And lots of proving...
I work around the branding and marketing aspect first, as I find nothing significantly wrong with the products. My idea was, no point mending things that aren't broken. Since the products are quite well accepted by the customers, why change? My focus and aim was then to improve on it's awareness and value, and probably go into corporate clients, a new venture, breaking out from the usual retail shop concept. So I worked a lot on the promotion mechanics, tying down with credit card companies, doing a lot of publicity work and rope in the aid of media. Not too bad for a start. And people were delighted. But then, it's not smooth sailing... It's a family business and there's 1001 directions given by the family members. And to make things worse, the directions were opposing. For example, 1 said launch a new product, the other said no. 1 said do more agreesive promotions, the other said stop. And to make things real miserable, both were major decision makers. And after gotten stuck and putting up with the nonsense, some promotion activities still worked out. Eventually, came the rising cost of food materials and ingredients, which makes profit margin thinner and thinner. Measures were thought of to control cost, and again, 1 agree, the other don't. At last, after a year plus of working with this company, I was retrenched. I guess my cost in the company was easily written off, as compared to the food ingredients.
Never thought of getting retrenched at such early age, but I'd gotten it. My ex-colleagues from the confectionery were helpful and they knew I'd done my best for them and for the company. Soon, I was refered by one of these ex-colleagues to the friend, whom gotten me into my current job, after 1 month of sitting out, doing nothing after the retrenchment. My family knew nothing about as I only revealed this to a couple of good trusting friends... With a big liability (car), unemployment spells disaster and it can drain up your savings very quickly and significantly. It's only when I'd gotten my next job, which is my current job, then my family knew about it.
About my current job, I guess I would have to leave it till the next blog. I guess it would be pretty long as well. And to just give you a slight preview, the job has got nothing to do with F&B, which I'm doing all along... It was an Engineering field of work. What a change!
