The post-90s generation is known to be good at multi-tasking in general, and Tiki Wong is an outstanding one amongst them. When she studied for her higher diploma at IVE, she did three part-time jobs to support herself. Just two years after her full-time work, she starts her own business and at the same time is the project manager of another company. Despite having a busy schedule, Tiki continues to study to improve herself. She is now studying for a Master’s degree, offered by the University of Warwick, at the WMG School for Professional Development jointly run by VTC and the University of Warwick.
Why does she work so hard? Tiki replied, “At the beginning, it was because of financial needs.”
As a post-90's, Tiki is still young but it seems to her that time is always not sufficient. She shared, “I like to use the shortest time to finish a task.” In fact, her habit of “rush” was caused by her background. She was brought up by her grandmother alone. “We had received the CSSA (Comprehensive Social Security Assistance) from the Government. I still remember that we had to tighten our belts and spend less on food and necessities towards the end of each month.” At the age of 14, Tiki started to work on part-time jobs to support the family. When she was at Secondary 7, her uncle arranged her grandmother to move out and live with him. Since then, she had to earn for her own tuition fee, living expenses, and rental of a sub-divided flat.
Change of life from a liberal arts student to a multi-media specialist
Life was not easy, but this shaped Tiki’s views on further studies. “I did receive an offer from JUPAS (Joint University Programmes Admissions System); however, I learnt from my part-time jobs that one should enter a profession that cannot be easily replaced in order to advance faster in the future.” Despite her liberal arts background, she chose to pursue a Higher Diploma in Games and Animation at IVE. She added, “At that time, if I had rest days, I would stay in my tiny room and watch YouTube and online courses to learn how to write computer programs by myself.”
After three years of studies while doing part-time jobs, Tiki intended to work full-time to earn a living for herself and her grandmother. However, her teacher from IVE introduced another opportunity to her and suggested her to take a top-up degree programme in Multimedia Computing run by SHAPE and Coventry University of the UK. “The course is very practical and updated. It has provided me with a good opportunity for further studies. At the same time, I could apply for scholarship. That was a great choice absolutely!” She smiled and explained. So Tiki studied hard again for one more year, during which she equipped herself with skills in video production, editing, and webpage production. After four years of studies at VTC, Tiki has transformed herself from a liberal arts student into a multimedia specialist.
After graduation, Tiki was employed by an established electronics company, ALCO, where she created another remarkable record – starting as a project assistant, she was promoted to deputy project manager in less than 2 years. On average, it took 3 or 4 years more for other colleagues in the company to be promoted to a similar position. What was her secret of success? She said, “I like to ask questions about everything. The supervisor found that I was not only interested in my own work, but also wanted to understand the entire production process. So he transferred me to the project management department.” Tiki worked with a passion for learning. After office hours, she stayed in the office and studied about hardware development, production, logistics and sales of electronic products until she get familiarized with all the processes. Her colleagues regarded her as a new superstar with high potential. Just at this moment, a teacher from IVE invited her to apply for scholarship to study a Master’s degree programme offered by the WMG. Eventually, she started another three years of study, in part-time mode, with the tuition fee of over $110,000 fully covered by the scholarship.
Valuable advice from teaching fellows in difficult times of business start-up
One of the features of the WMG course is that it is delivered by teaching fellows of the University of Warwick from the UK. Tiki treasured this learning opportunity dearly. “The lecturers, who had been senior executives in different industries, are very experienced. Whenever there were new lecturers coming to Hong Kong, I would search online information about their professional background and experience. I would not miss any opportunity for their expert advice.” She added, “When I was studying at WMG, investors approached me and expressed their interest in investing in my start-up business. I sought advice from the lecturer of the module on International Joint Venture, who had participated in the transaction of Lenovo’s acquisition of the personal computer business of IBM. I was really honoured to have this renowned lecturer giving advice on my tiny start-up.”
It is uncommon for girls to study IT. Moreover, it is really rare to have instances like the case of Tiki who has become the owner of an IT start-up company within two years. She shared, “I think girls are better in communicating with clients and understanding their needs. Many of the projects that I completed were previously given up for certain reasons. While others did not want to take them over, I took them up as challenges.” The first success case of Tiki was an “unfinished” mobile app. “At that time, I was still working for my former employer. My partner and I worked from midnight until 5 to 6 a.m. every day. We finished the whole project in six weeks’ time and managed to tie in with the client’s Christmas activities.” Tiki and her partner also visited the event venue and witnessed the participants download the app. This piece of work, which once became the most popular mobile app in Hong Kong, made Tiki feel highly satisfied. Then, more customers approached Tiki with their incomplete IT projects for revitalisation. Tiki’s confidence in starting up her own business also grew with her gaining of management knowledge from WMG.
Tiki’s career has started to take off with promising results, and she never forgets her grandmother who brought her up. Tiki is particularly interested in the development of technology products for the aged. She is currently working as a project manager for another technology service company. She hopes to help seniors like her grandmother via a GPS and health management service called “iBao”.
The hardship in childhood is another part of the memory that she will never forget. Tiki said, “I believe that if we can give grassroot children enough resources and opportunities, all of them can unleash their potentials.” With this belief, her company is developing a software using artificial intelligence to help schools analyse students’ performance in examinations. In the long run, Tiki and her partner hope to offer this software for free to students in need to facilitate their learning. It is hoped that those kids can change their life with knowledge, and have higher achievements in future.
