I’m one of those people who often over-thinks things. I constantly analyze everything going on in my life: Why am I feeling this way? Am I happy? What could I be doing better? My boyfriend said this or that– what does it mean? You know how it is… or maybe you have a friend like this: they come to you for advice to talk about something seemingly trivial, but of course it’s a huge deal to him/her at the time. That’s me. (Shout out: I have great friends. Thanks ladies!)

I think all this over-thinking has really led me to where I am now. It’s the reason I made certain decisions and the reason I’ve taken career leaps and landed where I have.

I graduated from Wellesley College in 2004 with a degree in Philosophy (not so useful, but attests to my whole over-thinking stuff). I took a job at the ABC affiliate in Boston, working on the production side of a news-magazine style program. At the same time, I enrolled in the Broadcast Journalism program at Boston University, where I earned a master’s degree. I thought that I wanted a long and fulfilling career in news-magazine production (Nightline, 20/20, etc), or even documentary production. After one year in the journalism program, I decided I wanted to try to go on-air—you know, “make it.” I scored an on-air job at the NBC affiliate in California covering the northern-central coastal towns of Monterey, Salinas and Santa Cruz, CA. I thought that was it. I was “Action News Reporter Kimling Lam” … Catchy, huh?!

I was convinced at the time that I would stay in TV news, and eventually, after “paying my dues,” would make it to CNN and become the next Anderson Cooper, only female and Vietnamese-American. I was reporting for about one year before I started to feel that the TV news industry wasn’t for me: I had to talk in this reporter-esque inflection voice, I felt like I was sensationalizing every little thing, when I looked up I found that I didn’t aspire to be like any of the anchors or managers who had “made it,” and worst of all, at the end of the day, I often felt like a complete jerk. I had to interview kids whose parents just died, I was chasing ambulances, I had to stand in the wind and rain to do lame weather stories, and there was that one breaking news story about a kitten stuck in a drain pipe. And I was supposed to be serving the public?! I wasn’t fulfilled. I couldn’t see the bigger picture. Seeing my face on TV just wasn’t doing it for me and I wasn’t inspired. I was also broke-ass-poor (making $10 an hour, on the air, with a master’s degree!). So I started looking.

I interviewed with Meltwater News’ International Management Trainee program in the summer of 2006. Of all the challenging stories I’ve been assigned, the opportunities I had to meet public figures like Clint Eastwood, Justin Timberlake and John McCain, and deadlines I’ve had to meet, NOTHING could have prepared me for this interview.

The group interview was fun: I was sitting on the candidate-side of the table with a bunch of intelligent graduates from Berkeley, Columbia, Brown, etc. What really got me going though, were the people on the other side of the table. The CEO, Jorn Lyseggen, was there in the interview session! This was a start-up if I’d ever seen one. I was lucky enough to interview with the company at a time when Jorn still hand-selected each and every employee to ensure a tight company culture and to be sure that he believed in each and every employee brought on board. In the group interview, we were able to learn more about Meltwater through a company presentation. I felt I got a great sense of the passion, energy and enthusiasm that employees have for the company. There were 8 company representatives, including Jorn, present in the group interview. I remember being impressed by the dedication of resources: this was a company that cares about who is brought on board. They had taken 8 people out of their regular jobs to focus on the recruitment of their future colleagues. It also made a difference that I really liked everyone I met and felt like I could be happy working with them. In the second half of the group interview, the candidates introduced ourselves and we did some group work under the observation of the recruiting team. I remember getting up there and selling everyone on my passion for Bikram Yoga (of which I was a fanatic at the time).

The individual interview was not so fun: This is where the interview gets really challenging. You’re asked why you want to do this, and your strengths and weaknesses are exposed to a room of strangers. It’s high-pressure and I was alone, being grilled by a panel of 8 people. The one thing I really remember from that session was Jorn telling me point-blank after a sales exercise I completely bombed: “Kimling, you really disappointed me.” What?! I was thrown off at the time, but I was hooked. I was challenged and I rose up to it. This was going to be an interesting place to work. When Jorn walked me out of the interview, I knew it was a good sign. He asked me if I would really leave TV and if I was up for joining Meltwater, an unknown company with sky-high ambitions; but with unlimited opportunities. I didn’t tell him at the time (poker face), but this is what I was thinking: “Hell yes.”
***
In my next post, I’ll write more about the transition from news to sales and will tell you more about the Silicon Valley office. One of my colleagues was able to make a jump from sales to the Director of R&D, another got promoted to MD of Vienna, another shot off to Munich. I also saw colleagues take off to be the MDs of DC, Atlanta, Philly and New York. Exciting times.

I’ll post more pictures too, but here’s one for you:
Photo: first time hitting the phones in the Silicon Valley office with my Sales Manager by my side.

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