We sat down with Singapore native and Senior Outreach and Engagement Strategy Associate Caleb Goh to learn more about his new found hobby of pottery, skills learned from his entrepreneurial venture and why he feels it is important to always be as inquisitive as a student.
Tell us a little bit about your journey before RakutenSymphony?
I was born and raised in Singapore and after finishing National Service, I moved to Australia. I completed my Bachelor’s in Media and Communications and Art History before staying on to continue working for a local fashion company based in Melbourne.
At the same time, I found my interest in marketing, especially branding and decided to learn more about the industry by starting my own pet care brand. Through this, I was able to learn about communicating with suppliers, branding and marketing to my customers. Though it was a short venture of 18 months, I picked up various skills that I have been able to apply in my professional career.
Come 2020, the pandemic hit, and I was planning to move back to Singapore to start my job hunt again. This was when I was contacted by a schoolmate who recommended me for a job at Rakuten. I had a virtual interview, and the rest is history.
How would you describe your current role and responsibilities?
My current role has developed as the company continues to grow. I was recently elevated to the position of Senior Outreach and Engagement Strategy Associate for Rakuten Symphony. My main role is to support both the sales and marketing teams in developing material for clients, conferences, and internal communications. I also support in the coordination between the two teams as many functions require input from both sides. Additionally, I have also been tasked to assist with the internal communications for one of our major projects, working with people all over the globe to develop our internal newsletter and town hall meetings. Finally, I am starting to assist Anna, my manager, with developing our customer journey and ensuring that we attract the right clients and retain happy customers.
Continue being a student. I believe we can always learn from each other and continue to develop ourselves.
What part of your team, or company as a whole, most excites you?
The ecosystem is something that is unique to Rakuten in telco. There is so much to learn from the different subsidiary companies and how we can leverage and adapt them to enable our customers to provide their end users better services and ultimately a better customer experience.
I am also excited about augmented reality enabled by 5G and edge computing. I believe it will change how we work remotely in the future and enable accessibility and convenience to society.
What does a day in the life of Caleb look like?
Every day is slightly different, but my main role requires me to liaise with many different stakeholders both internal and external. As I also support CRM for the sales team, I currently help the team with reports whenever they need to extract certain data out of the CRM.
On an ad hoc basis, I assist the sales team with their client presentations and ensure that the right story and messaging is presented based on the audience to whom the slides are presented.
Lastly, as the team continues to expand, and the sales and marketing team continue to work closer together, I’ll be working with both teams to improve our CRM processes and ensure the teams are comfortable using the tool so we can extract accurate information for various internal reports.
Do you have any personal mantra or quote which keeps you going?
Continue being a student. I believe we can always learn from each other and continue to develop ourselves. We shouldn’t be afraid of asking questions or giving opinions. Rakuten Symphony is an incredible global organization with colleagues with decades of experience. Interacting with them is something I see as a great asset for my professional career growth.
Pottery has taught me many life lessons such as overcoming failure, being patient and how every step is important in achieving the best outcome.
What are your hobbies outside work? Are there some books or shows you are watching, listening to or reading currently?
I have quite a few hobbies outside of work, which include pottery, photography, and dance. Anything creative piques my interest and these hobbies keeps the creative side of me busy and engaged.
During the pandemic I picked up pottery and started selling pieces to friends and family over these two years. Pottery has taught me many life lessons such as overcoming failure, being patient and how every step is important in achieving the best outcome. I recommend everyone try pottery at least once!
Any personal or professional goals you have set yourself for the near future?
Personally, I would like to finish creating my pottery website and launch it this year. Currently I only have an Instagram (@clay.leb) page as my portfolio, but I would like to create a website to start automating some sales processes. I would also like to create a blog to keep track of my progress over the years.
As I am still early in my career, I look forward to my continued growth and my increased understanding of the telecom industry’s customer lifecycle. Ensuring that we continually engage the right clients and make sure that they are satisfied with our solution will, in my opinion, help take Rakuten Symphony to the next level.
Read more about some of the other incredible people calling Rakuten Symphony home here.
