Author: Hannah

Social Media and The Shard

To be fair, The Shard did an excellent job at keeping fans and influencers interested via their Twitter and Facebook Page. The website is immaculately designed and a visual feast with its amazing photography, typography and layout. They also included a livestream attached to both the Facebook Page and the website. The one item that was not thought out too well, if at all, was the live event social media strategy.

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On personal finances…

The mental labelling applied to money
As Seth Godin wrote, money scales but emotions around money don’t. I agree with this, and I would even go far and attribute emotional or mental labelling (see emotional accounting) to certain ‘types’ of money (even though $1 is still $1). Money saved for emergencies is the money in your wallet to buy that coffee.

The clash with money happens when one’s ‘mental label’ clashes with another’s ‘mental label’ of money when a transaction is occuring or about to occur. For example, cash mentally labeled under ‘To Do List’ for Person A may be under the label of ‘The month’s groceries’ for Person B. A clash occurs because there is no common ground (unimportant vs important).

Continue reading On personal finances…

London Calling Pt 3 of 3: Lessons learnt when I moved to London

Lesson #7

Strategise and optimise your contact approach

Spend a day looking through every single contact you have, then plan your approach with these contacts.

Your contacts could be from; recruitment agencies, social media, social networking, nice and mainstream professional networking sites, expat online communities, obtaining introductions from existing contacts, introductions from new contacts, pitching (as opposed to cold calling..).

So be strategic.  Look beyond the “I’ll drop my resume at this store” thing.

Continue reading London Calling Pt 3 of 3: Lessons learnt when I moved to London

Choosing your suburb — going with first impressions vs research

Prior to moving, I didn’t really research which suburbs or neighbourhoods I should live in. Originally, I was going to stay for a bit at Fulham as a visa migration agency that I was in contact with had accomodation there. I’m actually pretty glad that I ended up not going anywhere near Fulham and instead settled somewhere central – Barbican, in fact. It was close to the major London landmarks with Museum of London and Shoreditch down the road, everything that I need was at a walking distance, I had a coworking space up the road and the Barbican Center about five minutes away. I met many other young people from different nationalities – such as Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, France, Japan, USA, Lithuania – and some ended up being a good support network.

Continue reading Choosing your suburb — going with first impressions vs research

10 tips on how you can hit the ground running in a new country within 1-3 weeks of moving

Tip 1: Don’t include your home phone number / mobile / address on your business card – keep it blank then fill in the new number, address (see Tip 2 and Tip 3) when you arrive.

Click below to read more…

Continue reading 10 tips on how you can hit the ground running in a new country within 1-3 weeks of moving

Developing One’s International and Global Perspectives.

One of the key challenges of my new role (but also living in London in general) is the UK and global/international markets. The amount of details involved, the rate of change in terms of economies and technology, the prevailing attitudes dating back to historical events would make one fainthearted at the task.

Continue reading Developing One’s International and Global Perspectives.

Dealing with the distance with your professional sphere…in another country.

I was in the middle of locking in two contracts when I moved to London. I was so optimistic about retaining and being able to work to and from Australia that the cashflow from those two contracts were considered as part of my overall budget of being here. Meaning that in terms of risk, I was able to have maintain a certain degree of financial independence (ie being able to pay my rent in central London instead of couchsurfing which tended to be the common ‘thing’ to do when Aussies move here) and that I have the luxury of choice of who I want to work with and for what.

Continue reading Dealing with the distance with your professional sphere…in another country.

London Calling! Part 2 out of 3: Lessons learnt after moving to London

Lesson #4
Be open to objective criticism, but filter out the unnecessary

I don’t know how, but within 1.5 weeks of moving I found myself in a private meeting at a business club and restaurant on top of London landmark, The Gherkin. I haven’t even heard of the name of that unusual structure (I felt The Bullet would have been more appropriate..) until the call to set up the meeting. Originally it was going to be at West End and I would probably have fared worse as I have really only walked through it. Where and what the meeting was about was unimportant, what was important was the takeaways from it.

Continue reading London Calling! Part 2 out of 3: Lessons learnt after moving to London

London Calling! Lessons I’ve learnt moving to London to live and work – Part 1 of 3

In the midst of a double dip recession in the United Kingdom and the Eurozone crisis, I still answered the call.  I moved to London from a comfortable and promising profile rooted back in Australia.

Continue reading London Calling! Lessons I’ve learnt moving to London to live and work – Part 1 of 3

Not a disappearing act – personal reflections, the move to London.

Ever since high school, I’ve dreamt of taking off and heading overseas to work.  Work on a cool video concept and design for a band in northern Europe.  Work on a hot new startup with some guys I met in a sports bar in California.  Do some location independent work somewhere in South East Asia.   I knew that this was bound to happen one day when I was “ready”.

Then the global financial crisis hit.  I’m Aussie and we’ve just scraped it but I remember the anxiety in 2009 not knowing as to whether or not I would be graduating to the recession.  Luckily, I didn’t.  Other youths in countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland didn’t fare well with the economic crisis still hitting many in the EU – Nearly 25 million unemployed (in general, not just Generation Y) as of April 2011 and numbers for young people ages 15 to 25 not looking up at all.  11 million 15 to 24 year olds unemployed across the OECD with Greece and Spain facing 50% youth unemployment rates out of the youth labour forces.

My decision to move to London from Australia involved ignoring the news.  News about the riots, Eurozone crisis, potential of double dip recession in the United Kingdom, and more.  I deliberately did not read news articles, tweets, comments and more about the situation.  Whenever I mentioned my move prior to leaving the first question asked was “Why”.  It wasn’t just what was happening here, but also because it involved leaving a lot back home – of which many was the fruits of my endeavours and hard work since I first moved out of a regional area to Brisbane to study.  I wasn’t running away from anyone or anything.  I knew that I was ready to leave and that whatever it was that I was facing – I was more than ready for it.  I was prepared to fail spectacularly – for people to say “I told you so”.  I was ready to lose money, lose potential opportunities back in Australia, hopefully I haven’t lost friends

My work visa was in the mail a week before I fly off.  As soon as I recieved it, I confirmed a global agency regarding my status and they later confirmed a few interviews and meetings with various recruitments agencies in London.  Even though I purchased my tickets in October, I was still unsure of leaving and was also doing some traveling which required my passport so I had a six week window to sort out my Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visa.    My work announced my old job position online when I came back to Australia from traveling in the United States – possibly keeping it there in case I changed my mind and decided not to leave.

My first day in London was chaotic.  I couldn’t find the hostel that I was meant to stay in, another hostel that I approached was booked out so I decided to stay in a hotel.  On my first week, I went to three recruitment meetings.  I failed spectacularly when it came to not only having a CV actually readable (it was too long, too complicated, not in the right format, and so on) but also having myself being interview ready.  I had one recruiter state that I need to practice with her before she introduces me to her clients.  I had another one who was fierce and asked me why exactly was I doing in London and was I even aware of the unemployment rates?  I told her that I deliberately ignored “the news”

I attended a number of events and ended up coming up with a strategy in regards to job seeking.  I’ll share it here eventually, but after ten days was given an internship offer with a startup.  I declined – I wasn’t here to do free work for anyone.  But it was also difficult working out of a hostel and on my final night or two before I found a place to move in, I was sitting on the stairs outside my room at 3 am, unable to sleep because of the noise and the uncomfortable bed, and checking spare room listings.

In my first month living in a flat inner east of London, I was either sharing with interns, those looking for internships or jobs, or those about to graduate and not knowing what post-college world would be like.  I was also sharing with those who not only had management skills but also international and multiple Masters under their belt.  One of the tenants worked for free rent at the place.  More than a few from Spain who moved to London to seek work and improve their English.  I was borrowing a computer from a lab at the downstairs business to teach myself Javascript and look for work.  The rental manager would constantly ask me whether or not I found work – at first, I saw it as a sign of concern but it actually wasn’t seeing as the business he was involved  was fraudulent.  As in, the business was renting out their property to tenants illegally.  Like myself.

I decided to go to Ireland and then to Dublin to visit my relatives.  My cousin, younger than me, has just given birth to the most beautiful little person I have ever seen.  I met family that I haven’t seen for years, or I was too little to remember and we literally went all around Ireland.  It was a break.  And it helped solidified what I really value as well.  I could have stayed in London and slugged it out looking for work.  But I made similar mistakes in the past – of constantly putting work ahead of family or life or myself.  It was another reason why I left Australia.  I had to learn what it was like to lose so much.  I lost a lot and that feeling of loss still reverberated even in London when I had some promising opportunities fall through the cracks because of the move.  But it was more like a silver lining in the cloud.  I can now start to unattach myself now, away from my established lifelines back home and see where I will end up… Someone commented that people move to London to disappear.  Originally I wanted to disappear but it was the opposite.  I disappeared and I wanted to find myself

Gen Y: Make yourself recession proof

I have most recently learned that this is my 2nd or 3rd recession and I am Gen Y.  The first involved migration (cross-country, cross-continent) by my parents when I was really young and it came at a good time – just mere months after leaving the country, the company both of my parents worked for over a decade went bankrupt.  Second being by myself, most willingly but for another reason – professional development.

Continue reading Gen Y: Make yourself recession proof

London Calling! Lessons I’ve learnt moving to London to live and work – Part 1 of 3

In the midst of a double dip recession in the United Kingdom and the Eurozone crisis, I still answered the call.  I moved to London from a comfortable and promising profile rooted back in Australia.

Continue reading London Calling! Lessons I’ve learnt moving to London to live and work – Part 1 of 3

Not a disappearing act – personal reflections, the move to London.

Ever since high school, I’ve dreamt of taking off and heading overseas to work.  Work on a cool video concept and design for a band in northern Europe.  Work on a hot new startup with some guys I met in a sports bar in California.  Do some location independent work somewhere in South East Asia.   I knew that this was bound to happen one day when I was “ready”.

Then the global financial crisis hit.  I’m Aussie and we’ve just scraped it but I remember the anxiety in 2009 not knowing as to whether or not I would be graduating to the recession.  Luckily, I didn’t.  Other youths in countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland didn’t fare well with the economic crisis still hitting many in the EU – Nearly 25 million unemployed (in general, not just Generation Y) as of April 2011 and numbers for young people ages 15 to 25 not looking up at all.  11 million 15 to 24 year olds unemployed across the OECD with Greece and Spain facing 50% youth unemployment rates out of the youth labour forces.

My decision to move to London from Australia involved ignoring the news.  News about the riots, Eurozone crisis, potential of double dip recession in the United Kingdom, and more.  I deliberately did not read news articles, tweets, comments and more about the situation.  Whenever I mentioned my move prior to leaving the first question asked was “Why”.  It wasn’t just what was happening here, but also because it involved leaving a lot back home – of which many was the fruits of my endeavours and hard work since I first moved out of a regional area to Brisbane to study.  I wasn’t running away from anyone or anything.  I knew that I was ready to leave and that whatever it was that I was facing – I was more than ready for it.  I was prepared to fail spectacularly – for people to say “I told you so”.  I was ready to lose money, lose potential opportunities back in Australia, hopefully I haven’t lost friends

My work visa was in the mail a week before I fly off.  As soon as I recieved it, I confirmed a global agency regarding my status and they later confirmed a few interviews and meetings with various recruitments agencies in London.  Even though I purchased my tickets in October, I was still unsure of leaving and was also doing some traveling which required my passport so I had a six week window to sort out my Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visa.    My work announced my old job position online when I came back to Australia from traveling in the United States – possibly keeping it there in case I changed my mind and decided not to leave.

My first day in London was chaotic.  I couldn’t find the hostel that I was meant to stay in, another hostel that I approached was booked out so I decided to stay in a hotel.  On my first week, I went to three recruitment meetings.  I failed spectacularly when it came to not only having a CV actually readable (it was too long, too complicated, not in the right format, and so on) but also having myself being interview ready.  I had one recruiter state that I need to practice with her before she introduces me to her clients.  I had another one who was fierce and asked me why exactly was I doing in London and was I even aware of the unemployment rates?  I told her that I deliberately ignored “the news”

I attended a number of events and ended up coming up with a strategy in regards to job seeking.  I’ll share it here eventually, but after ten days was given an internship offer with a startup.  I declined – I wasn’t here to do free work for anyone.  But it was also difficult working out of a hostel and on my final night or two before I found a place to move in, I was sitting on the stairs outside my room at 3 am, unable to sleep because of the noise and the uncomfortable bed, and checking spare room listings.

In my first month living in a flat inner east of London, I was either sharing with interns, those looking for internships or jobs, or those about to graduate and not knowing what post-college world would be like.  I was also sharing with those who not only had management skills but also international and multiple Masters under their belt.  One of the tenants worked for free rent at the place.  More than a few from Spain who moved to London to seek work and improve their English.  I was borrowing a computer from a lab at the downstairs business to teach myself Javascript and look for work.  The rental manager would constantly ask me whether or not I found work – at first, I saw it as a sign of concern but it actually wasn’t seeing as the business he was involved  was fraudulent.  As in, the business was renting out their property to tenants illegally.  Like myself.

I decided to go to Ireland and then to Dublin to visit my relatives.  My cousin, younger than me, has just given birth to the most beautiful little person I have ever seen.  I met family that I haven’t seen for years, or I was too little to remember and we literally went all around Ireland.  It was a break.  And it helped solidified what I really value as well.  I could have stayed in London and slugged it out looking for work.  But I made similar mistakes in the past – of constantly putting work ahead of family or life or myself.  It was another reason why I left Australia.  I had to learn what it was like to lose so much.  I lost a lot and that feeling of loss still reverberated even in London when I had some promising opportunities fall through the cracks because of the move.  But it was more like a silver lining in the cloud.  I can now start to unattach myself now, away from my established lifelines back home and see where I will end up… Someone commented that people move to London to disappear.  Originally I wanted to disappear but it was the opposite.  I disappeared and I wanted to find myself