Taking Small Steps to Achieve Success
Working in a role that has no direct correlation with her major doesn’t make Yasmin give up and stop learning. The supportive environment at Quipper made her stay and grow well by the help of her managers and peers. Let’s meet Yasmin and get to know how she can be the MVP in her first professional working experience and only third year working at Quipper.
Do you imagine being awarded as one of Quipper’s MVP (Most Valuable Player) this year? How did you feel when your name was mentioned as the MVP?
“Never did I imagine my name would be mentioned as one of the MVPs this year, as during my time here, I am always surrounded by talented yet kind people, so it feels like many people are qualified to be one! I still remember that I was totally surprised to hear the news and I start to think back at what I did last year to receive this award. Haha. But from here, I realized to always give our best and be a help to others in situations.”
Quipper is your first professional working experience and it’s already been 2,5 years since you worked here. What makes you stay at Quipper?
“Yes, Quipper is my first working experience as an employee since I graduated. I could say there are lots of good things in Quipper but the one that makes me stay is the environment and the opportunity to grow. For me, Quipper’s environment is supportive and appreciative, which I think is not something we can always find in other companies. Quipper as Distributors of Wisdom is always improving to give the best for students, schools, and campus. With that, there is always room for us Quipperior to grow professionally and personally through the projects or works we have done along with helping the company grow better.”
What is the best moment you’ve ever experienced while working at Quipper?
“When we were building QSP. At that time, I was in my first year at Quipper and had a chance to discover the business ops on how we can deliver student accounts with the back office system at that time (still limited features). So because there was no QSP Support at that time, I kind of did tons of trial and error (both in the back office system and business ops on account delivereablement to schools) to create a proper and realistic ops scheme. What makes it the moment I remember the most was that it was such a challenging yet exciting moment in my first year! It helps me to strengthen my logical thinking. Even though I’m not in QSP anymore, I’m so glad to see QSP growing much better.”
Your educational background is Library and Information Science, but now you’re dealing with the strategy and growth for the company. Did you ever struggle in working and how Quipper appreciates your learning journey in this role?
“Yes, during my first year of working. As mentioned above, Quipper is my first company and what I do is almost the opposite of what I learned at university. But Quipper gives me time to learn, take small steps, and appreciate my work. Also through my managers and my peers, when I present my works, I also receive great feedback that helps me learn deeper and complete what I did.”
Working as a Strategic Planner must have made you face numbers, targets, data, and also demand you to always initiate new ideas for Quipper. How do you deal with all of these things and still perform well despite the huge responsibility you hold?
Because during my time in Quipper I was involved in several different services with different responsibilities in each channel (Direct Sales as Cost Strategy Planner, QSP as Business Ops, and currently on Campus as Strategic Planner), everything that I faced was always something new. How I try to deal with it and try to give my best:
- Learn: Have time to learn deeper about the business and the project even if sometimes it needs to go extra miles (for example: spare my time in the evening to learn closely about the projects we’re executing. Using Udemy given by Quipper to master my hard skills — Thank you, Quipper!)
- Read articles, news, and google related references: In order to come up with new ideas or develop the ideas we want to pursue, we need a clear baseline and plan that solves the client’s needs. I feel like I need some insights and strong data to be able to do this, so I try to do some research online and come up with a plan.
- Getting insight from surroundings: Casual conversations with the salesperson or other stakeholders helps me to get pictures of what realistically happens on the field vs. the plan we create.
Last, do you have any career advice for people who just started working so they can be an MVP like you someday?
“From my point of view, the most important thing is to never stop learning and enjoy the journey. Many new graduates or people who just landed their first job may feel insecure or afraid to make some mistakes. Of course, I did too! But, don’t just get stuck at that point. If you feel you don’t understand the given tasks but you sure are interested in what you did (the field), you can learn! Take small steps to understand better what you did and you’ll eventually be able to see the bigger pictures. Sometimes the path might get bright, sometimes we meet rocky paths in our journey. But my advice would be just to enjoy your journey. Without realizing it, the ups and downs we experienced will help us to grow stronger personally and professionally!”
