Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass, Professional Development

Imposter Syndrome: How to keep it from limiting your potential

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

You’re smart, ambitious, and eager to make your mark in the world. You’ve built a foundation for a long and fulfilling career, and even have “proof” in the form of accolades and positive feedback. Maybe you recently got promoted to “that dream job”.

Yet, on some days, you can’t shake the feeling that you’re not truly deserving of what you have. When you reflect on your career so far, you attribute your success (“if I can even call it that“) to a series of fortunate events strung together by a few key people you were lucky to meet. Secretly, you know you only got to where you are because “the role happened to become available at the right time“, or “I was lucky to be placed on a high visibility project that caught the eye of my CMO“. On bad days, you’re overwhelmed with anxiety that one day a thread will be unraveled, exposing what lies underneath: you got here by fluke and you’re not actually as awesome as others may think.

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Veronica Yeung Career Stories

Gratitude: my career story so far (Part I)

In the wake of my 7th anniversary with PepsiCo, the present I’m giving myself is gratitude. Gratitude for the people who have shaped my path. For the trials and tribulations that inadvertently guided me to where I am today. And for what’s to come.

Last week, as I was sipping my coffee having just gotten settled at the office, I felt a rush of gratitude overwhelm me. I suddenly became hyper-aware of the people, the environment, and the energy around me. The steadfast clickity-clack of a keyboard from a fellow cubemate. The casual chitchat a few rows down laced with comforting laughter. The linear tempo of Fred’s footsteps trotting down the hallway. Even the haptic familiarity of my beloved office chair.

I realized that this office has been my home for the past 7 years.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass, Professional Development

Why your career is not like a video game

4 min read

A few years ago, an article by Oliver Emberton that compared human life to a video game went viral. In a brilliant way, he used the structure of a video game to explain why it’s important to live with a strategy in mind. Think of it as the ultimate game guide for life. I loved the article so much that I had it bookmarked, and occasionally still revisit it 5 years later.

I definitely can’t call myself a hardcore gamer, especially now that I’m a stuffy, boring adult (whoa). But at 13 years old, I received my first Nintendo Gameboy Pocket for Christmas – Pikachu-yellow and glorious. I spent most of my allowance money on AAA batteries because my parents wouldn’t buy me a charger. Whatever money was left, I saved up to buy the latest Pokemon games as soon as they were released. I was sentenced to wearing glasses shortly thereafter, probably because of the countless days and nights I spent leveling up my Lapras to beat the Elite Four.

Today, it seems everything can be gamified. How fun your latest vacation was can be measured by the number of likes on Instagram (fortunately, this might go away). How good you are at public speaking can be measured by the number of connections who endorse you on that skill on LinkedIn. How savvy of a shopper you are can be measured by how many PC Optimum points you’ve banked. But the more I thought about the analogy of a video game, the more I realized it shouldn’t be compared to your professional life.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice

Early career personal finance tips you’ll wish you knew sooner

6 min read

Sometimes, late at night, I still get cold sweats thinking back to the time when I started my first “real” job. It’s not because I hated my work, had toxic coworkers or despised a horrible boss. It’s because I had zero clue how to manage my personal finances. Now, I can only look back with one part shame and two parts regret.

A lot of people will say “money isn’t everything”, but those are also the people who have likely figured out a system that works for them. They’re not constantly feeling the stress of watching a paycheck disappear within days, or being blindsided by the shock of a massive credit card bill. If these feelings are familiar to you, you’re not alone. When I first started my big girl job at 22, I neither cared nor knew much about personal finances. I was just stoked to be getting what seemed like a TON of money coming through my bank account every two weeks! That initial excitement would soon turn to anxiety as I watched the dollars disappear. After a year of working, I had almost nothing in my bank accounts to show for it.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Land the Job, Resume/CV Help

Most people have this on their resume and it’s completely pointless

4 min read

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that resumes are daunting to perfect.

For those who are still in school or just starting out, you barely have any experience to begin with, so you have to euphemism the heck out of simple tasks (yes, I just used euphemism as a verb).

“I maintained the visual identity of our brand by selectively transferring products to primary merchandising locations”. Translation: “I re-arranged and re-stocked shelves”.

What aggravates the issue is that most people have never been taught how to do it properly. Particularly if you did not study business, meaning you were likely left to your own devices without structured and credible guidance provided by your school. In a previous post, I dive deep into what a good resume should look like for new grads looking to start their marketing careers.

But today, I want to address a specific part of the resume that I see way too often, that I plead for you to avoid like seeing your ex on the street.

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Veronica Yeung Kick Ass, Professional Development

#10yearchallenge

I was talking to a coworker today about all of the recent Facebook/Instagram posts on the #10yearchallenge, and I’ve come to one conclusion: the only people who do it are the ones who haven’t visibly aged (and want the kudos for it). Am I bitter about not being one of those people? Not at all…

Regardless of the intention, I do think the idea of taking a long look back and seeing how far you’ve come can be rewarding. In a lot of posts, I see people talking about difficult situations they were in 10 years ago that seemed impossible to overcome (long-term partner cheating, complicated medical conditions, rock bottom self-esteem). Fast forward to today, those same people can now only remember snippets of those episodes because time has diluted most of the emotional charge associated with those bad times.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Interviewing, Land the Job

How to interview (much) better with emotional intelligence

8 min read

Over the last 5 years, I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring more than 100 aspiring marketers and students. We work through anything from finding the right job to excelling at the job. But there’s one thing that has consistently puzzled me, that is hard to explain in words. It’s embodied by those who look perfect on paper, but who fall flat when you meet them in-person. Those who seem eager and passionate, but you can’t bear talking to them for more than 5 minutes IRL. Those mentees of mine who do everything right, but still can’t convince someone to hire them. So what’s the issue?

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Land the Job, Resume/CV Help

Recruiter’s guide to a stand-out résumé: marketing new grad edition

6 min read

No one is born with the ability to write a great résumé. When it comes to one of the most important documents in your life, it’s generally true that effort leads to result. In fact, the résumé that landed me my first “real job” was probably poked and prodded over the course of ~100 hours. You read that right: ONE HUNDRED HOURS.

“Come on, is that really necessary?” you may be wondering.

Keep in mind that 100 hours was over the span of about a year, and as I collected more relevant experiences, I continued to make tweaks and refine. So no, I didn’t lock myself in a room for 4 straight days until my fingertips were raw from turning the pages on my thesaurus.

Now that I screen résumés as a regular part of my job, I wanted to share a crash course on crafting a stellar résumé, from a recruiter’s point of view.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass

4 promo-blocking behaviours that most people think are good

6 min read

It’s a lovely Spring morning, and the aroma of fresh coffee beans envelope me like a cashmere blanket. I’m at a local coffee shop about to meet with a mentee, Nate*, who I haven’t seen in several months. He reached out via LinkedIn a few weeks earlier, as he was in town for a few days and “could really use some career advice”.

After ordering our respective lattes and a bit of catching up on life, our casual chit-chat evolves into a full-on rant about how he’s being passed up for promotions at his job. 

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About

Hi, hello. I’m Veronica!

I am a New York City-based marketer at PepsiCo by day, 90’s sit-com and true crime addict by night. I love to help people take control of their careers and excel at their jobs.

Many moons ago, I lived on the west coast of Canada in Vancouver, BC. I studied marketing at the University of British Columbia, with very few expectations of where that would lead me. Upon graduation, I landed my dream job at PepsiCo. I packed up my bags and moved 4000km+ to the east coast. I joined the PepsiCo Foods division, which allowed me to proudly declare “I sell chips!” at parties. Through hard work, supportive sponsors and a big dollop of luck, I moved through several progressive roles over my tenure, ranging from “traditional” Brand Management, to Innovation, Shopper Marketing, and Business Development. In 2019 (roughly 6 months before the world shut down!), I accepted a new adventure with PepsiCo and transferred to our Beverages HQ in New York. I now reside in Manhattan with my husband, Jon, and our rescue pupper, Tonky.

I’ve spent a decade+ co-running a mentorship program at UBC with a talented group of industry professionals, where we help aspiring marketing students land their dream jobs. As I progressed in my career, I became a people manager and campus recruitment lead for the marketing department. It’s been interesting to approach the topic of “career” from all angles.

I hope you’ll find value in the perspective I’ve gained over the years, shared through bite-sized nuggets on this blog. If you’d like to have a more personalized conversation about your career with me, drop me a line through my Contact page!