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Skills & ExperienceMy career and related skills have been split into three categories of personal interest: business, internet, and engineering. Rather than present my C.V., I speak briefly below about my achievements in each below. I hope you enjoy this more than reading a list.If any of the below interests you, please e-mail me to request a formal C.V. in PDF format along with details of any positions or projects that I may be of use to.
Being born and bred in Hong Kong, it could almost be argued that business is in the blood. I started my first business at the age of 16, dealing in virtual items in a popular multiplayer online computer game. What was supposed to be money for a cinema ticket on the weekend with friends, turned into something a lot more serious and profitible than I originally hoped - and thus the business continued through to my heading to study abroad. I was hooked. While at university I always had new business ideas brewing in the back of my mind. During visits home I would seek out products that I thought might be good to sell abroad, and experiment by selling them online. In my second year at university, I led a team of five undergraduate engineers with no formal business background in a £55,000 business plan competition organised by the university. Despite having an inexperienced team, we finished just outside the finalists with an honourable mention from one of the judges, who spoke to us personally after the competition. The result and enjoyment this experience gave me persuaded me that this is something I may want to do in the future. Upon graduating, I finally closed my original online business to focus on larger projects. I joined an internet startup company who needed a business consultant to help turn the business model into something worthy of investment. Four months and a comprehensive business plan later, the business achieved over £250,000 in funding from business angels based on the plan I had written, at the height of the 2008 'credit crunch'. This experience helped strengthen my confidence in understanding how small businesses should operate and gave me some of the skills and work practices I have used in my future ventures.
Being the class geek through secondary school had some useful advantages, and I very quickly became experienced with standard Office applications. At my peak, I could touch-type 160 words per minute comfortably (sadly, these days my rate is about 120 since I play online games far less). During university, I even enjoyed programming my own VBA Excel spreadsheets that I still use to keep track of my personal finances. Although the businesses I had run pre-university were internet based, I did not really develop my understanding of how eCommerce, lead generation, and conversion worked. I began learning through experience, when I helped found an eCommerce website in early 2009. I very quickly learned about search engine optimisation, pay per click marketing strategies, and conversion-based web design. The ever-changing nature of all of these was a challenge I enjoyed, inspiring in me the belief that if I put the effort into learning, I could quickly become a potential leading force in this area. Sure enough, profits at the eCommerce website soared to a point where the manager of the business asked me to step in and figure out ways to streamline the way he handled orders - otherwise he would not be able to keep up! A sister business abroad was launched later in 2009. Using my SEO and website creation skills, I grew the website within two weeks from domain registration to over 100 unique organic hits a day. The beauty about internet marketing is that the skills required (excepting excellent copywriting) are easily transferrable, and the real challenge is in the work ethic and passion to continuously learn more. I am eager to explore internet marketing further in my future ventures, both my own and others.
I have always had a passion for motor racing. Racing go-karts since I was about 10, I began following Formula One almost religiously from about 1998 onwards. My A-Level choices in secondary school reflected my interest in motorsport and engineering. In 2004, I begain attending university at Imperial College London in the department of Materials. During my time there I was enthusiastically involved with the motor club and raced competitively for the university. I was awarded the privilege of captaining the club in my final year and led the club to one of its most successful years in a decade. Between my third and final years at university, I successfully applied for an industrial placement at McLaren Racing, becoming the first person in my department to obtain a position with a Formula One team. I worked in the Stress Analysis and Materials group to help identify materials failures and design improvements to the 2007 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 car, which was driven by Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett. Working in Formula One was probably the most experience I had while at university, as it gave me invaluable experience and allowed me to work on one of my oldest passions. I graduated in 2008 with a Master's of Engineering (Hons) in Aerospace Materials, as well as being an Associate of the Royal School of Mines (ARSM) and an associate member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3). After graduating, the credit crunch pushed motorsport to the limit as sponsors tightened pursestrings. I therefore opted against applying for increasingly scarce jobs, and instead joined an internet startup company to pursue some of my other interests. My passion for racing and engineering is still very much alive and may well be explored again in the future. In the meantime I race competitively when I can and keep up with the latest industry news.
If any of the above interests you, please e-mail me to request a formal C.V. in PDF format along with details of any positions or projects that I may be of use to. |