6. Public relations - Take me to Saigon! 2009 - 2010

Cooperating with a partner, I am currently in charge of a tourguide website's content. Working as a writer and editor, the website Take me to Saigon! aims to help foreigners to travel Saigon easier and enjoy travelling the city as locals.

What we try to do is to create a convenient website for those who want to travel in Saigon by most updated information and most useful instructions provided by our locals.

Writing about hometown is so much enjoyable and also helps me to enrich knowledge. This is really a good chance for me to practise PR writing to promote Saigon tourism. There is nothing greater than writing about something you love and given creativity to blow your ideas.

5. Pharmacists’ Choice Marketing project 2007 - Marketing Intern

Being impressed so much in Marketing, I tried to apply for an Internship position in my last Marketing lecturer's company, Marketeers Vietnam, in my first summer back to Vietnam.

I was assigned to assist a Marketing Manager in Pharmacists’ Choice Marketing project. This project aimed to impress customers by well reorganizing the medicine cabinets. This was applied for most of pharmacies in Ho Chi Minh City. My responsibility was to ensure the pharmacies' corporation and report project manager and top managers.

Working with Mr. Smiley, my last Marketing lecturer was a precious experience to me. He generated ideas naturally and creatively. And he was really supportive to any student who love and desire to learn Marketing. And he was the one inspiring me in the first class also.

The most interesting idea I gained was that Advertising was not all about outstanding gorgeous things that attract people but also familiar and real things that make customers want to try, to buy and to buy again.

Although my intern period was not that long, this was the most interesting experience I have ever spent on my way in my Marketing career.

4. Event 3: Subaru WRX Challenge 2006 - Marketing Assistant

It was in an examination period with all stressful things to study as I am kind of overloading in my first semester in Nanyang Technological University.

"Leave them all for couples of days! Take a trip! And you will feel better, girl!", a senior advised me when I was so stressful and stuck in words and words. Then I decided to apply for the Marketing Assistant position in a campaign so called "Subaru WRX Challenge". Wow, it was so much fun out there, man!

This was an event and my job was so simple. I just managed the advertising videos shot through bluetooth by two laptops for four days. But it became such a precious experience as I could observe how the whole event worked. The players were challenged to put their hands on a car and they had some rare periodical breaks in the whole day. Finally who was the one could stay there the longest would win. It sounded easy but to maintain such a four-day event in the city center, it could take couples of months for planning. Everything occurred smoothly from music, videos, MC, promoters, photographers, etc. Everyone worked as if a united team for a long time in which I was so glad that I was a team member.

After nearly 74 hours, the winner, Alex Koh, was called out. We were so happy that embraces and laughs kept going on. The event made me really feel better. But more importantly, again I felt that Marketing was the only area I could really enjoy working.

3. Event 2: Malaysia - Vietnam Business Opportunities Seminar - Marketing Assistant

After enjoying as a part of an event, APEC 2006, I was so lucky to join holding an event for the Malaysia Consulate General. This took us more than a month to prepare for a day event so called Malaysia - Vietnam Business Opportunities Seminar.

This seminar aimed to source new business opportunities between the two countries. I was a temporary staff in a team of more than 10 students who used to experienced in APEC 2006 and found most competitive by the Consulate.

As a Marketing Assistant, I needed to prepare all documents, update the enterprises' information and manage the database.

In logistics, we needed to prepare everything for the events from brochures, leaflets, name tags, folders, etc. a week before hand.

As an interpreter, we needed to help to translate for Malaysian and Vietnamese enterprises so that they might have sought their potential business opportunities.

It was so much fun when working on many positions in the whole event. This was so great because all of us have learnt a lot in terms of "know-how" to organize an event.

2. Event 1: APEC 2006 - Liaison Officer

Most of students who experienced in APEC 2006, they would never forget it. And it must be one of the most beautiful working experience in events I've ever spent on.

As liaison officer for the Australian APEC 2007 Management Team Delegation, I performed as a tour-guide, an interpreter in bilateral meetings and an assistant. The delegation was so friendly and funny. I was so in the team that I thought we worked as a family while the IT Manager called me the baby in the delegation as I am the youngest.

More interestingly, most of APEC 2006 committees' assistants were students. The fresh air was all around in any way you walked through. It was such an impressive international events. The organization was professional, colleagues were fun and the delegation was so nice and even funny.

I really enjoyed working in APEC 2006 as I did improve my communication skills a lot. Moreover, I could see how a professional international event was held and how the system was maintained. What left from APEC 2006 was my networks who were my so talented and funny friends currently.

1. A magazine inspires a dream

Here is my story.

In the very first class of Marketing, my lecturer, Mr. Brown Smiley showed us a magazine in which the cover was Toc Tien, a teenage singer, wearing a bee costume. The middle pages was all about honey's benefits for health. And the last cover was an ad of Colgate Honey. And that's how Marketing worked to impress, said Mr. Smiley. "Wow, brilliant!", I thought. I made up my mind. That's exactly what I want and love to do.

However, I was struggling between overseas study and "love to do" thing for such a long time. And I ended up with a Degree in Economics which was so "not me". But I figure out myself that I should keep the fire burned or I am going to die hard in the rat race. The Happiness is not only about the achievement but also about the process to achieve. And I am now really happy when it is so clear of the way I want to go.

So, the way is clear. Just go!