Alumni Spotlight Stories: Cadence Lam

As the Media Partner Operations Specialist at Facebook and Instagram, Cadence shoulders the responsibility of managing, strategising and operationalising external-internal workflow projects related to Facebook’s and Instagram’s media partners. Cadence was previously an Advertising Operations Specialist at Twitter, a Graduate Apprentice at Airbnb, and a Co-Founder of now-defunct start-up, YourSpace.

Q: Could you share about your current role as a Media Partner Operations Specialist at Facebook?

At Media Operations, we support many media partners comprising of celebrities, influencers, government partners, etc. Our goal is to provide the best support in terms of product and policy knowledge, by having internationally-agreed strategies in operationalising workflows in an efficient and effective manner.

We are based in three different regions – America (Menlo Park, Facebook HQ), Singapore (Marina One, APAC HQ) and Europe (Dublin, Ireland, Europe HQ). With a diverse team comprising of different skill sets and time zones, we have to project the best course of actions to provide timely support when needed. The Media Partnerships team provides us with critical information derived from the media partners, and in turn, we will strategise projects to enhance white-glove support (a meticulous approach to service excellence) for the partners.

Q: Do you find difficulty working in Asia, compared to the rest of the world, given your time with NOC New York programme and the one-year internship in New York?

No, I do not think so. My team is really small in relative to the entire Facebook organization, which has about 30,000 employees worldwide. My team has less than 50 people, so we are really nimble and proactive in wanting to accommodate to each other’s time zones to maximise productivity.

Facebook, or any other technological company, places emphasis on being adaptable to the different needs of individuals. So, we have a lot of friendly time zone meetings and online video calls. The coordination of these meetings was never an issue for my team because we have a 24/7 coverage; the APAC team comes online, then the EMEA team, and finally, the US team.

Q: How did you know you wanted to work in the tech industry?

I got really interested in NOC, which is an internship programme with a strong emphasis on technological entrepreneurship (technopreneurship). I applied for the New York City programme because back then, I wanted to be in the Media industry but I also wanted to find out more about media technology for various industries such as Advertising or Fashion. I had the opportunity to intern full-time in New York for a year and got involved in the Media industry by interning at a Fashion start-up, which is affiliated to Vogue Magazine.

So, that was how I got involved in the Media Industry. When I came back, I did a few stints at different companies. But I chose to work at Facebook and Instagram because I get the opportunity to work closely with different media partners and that is what engages me on a personal growth basis at this point.

Q: When you thought about entering the Media Industry, what were your career goals that you had in mind? Were you into journalism or content creation?

To answer your question, no. Instead, I am more into strategy and I like to strategise current events and the future developmental strategy of a company. For example, thinking through organisational level strategies like what the plans for the next quarter are or thinking at a departmental level like how we are going to best implement improvements to the analytics department is more suited for me; I like looking at things from a zoomed-out view to understand the nuances of events that could affect a company’s long-term goals.

I came into the Operations field to get a more zoomed-in picture because at the operational level, we have to take note of the finer details of the Operations process. So, in a sense, I get to see a lot of things that I may not get to see at a macro-level. Being able to view the grander scheme of things yet being able to pay attention to detail is the reason why I am exposing myself to Media Operations at Facebook. It is important that we always need to find a balance between the two.

Q: What are the strengths of the organisations that you have worked in (e.g. Twitter/Facebook)?

They move very, very fast. These tech companies change things up everyday and today’s strategy is going to be different tomorrow. And what we document today might not even be usable next month. Such companies are adaptable to different trends and there is a lot of risk-taking involved. Unlike being in an MNC, tech companies allow employees to have a lot of autonomy in doing our work and in that sense, we need to have a lot of confidence in what we are doing. That is one trait that people who want to enter the tech industry should have; confidence in what you are doing and the willingness to shoulder responsibility, which is where we learn the most from.

Speaking of “taking the blame”, it is not really taking the blame per se, but more of the inability to hit the team’s or the company’s KPI. We would have to learn how to justify our course of actions and how we thought could have been done better. As long as we are willing to learn from our mistakes and whatever we do, tech companies are very open and supportive of your ideas or projects. My NOC journey has helped me in this aspect because I got to pivot and execute my ideas over and over again.

Q: Do you think that the skills that you have learnt in NUS helped you in the aspect of being confident and willing to shoulder responsibility?

NOC taught me what it is like to be in a tech start-up environment as I started out in two companies comprising of 50 and 10 people respectively. The internships at these start-ups helped me learn to be fast and push for my ideas even when it might not be correct. Having the ability to want to push forth your ideas although you may not be a long-term player in the industry should be a goal that everyone should set.

As for NUS Business school, there is a lot of international context in our modules. I had a great time learning about strategy planning in one of my modules. So, in this context, I understand what is going on in different industries. And having a lot of case studies also helps in my understanding of the various industries. However, the case studies that I had back then such as Nokia, is not exactly relevant today because if you think about it right now, tech companies are the ones catching up.

Q: What were your considerations when selecting a career path? Prior to joining Facebook, you worked at Twitter and Airbnb. Was it your intention to try out different career roles before deciding on one? What were your motivations in the short-term stints at those companies compared to a longer time experience?

For me, it was not really about trying out. To be really honest, the tech industry is extremely competitive. Joining those companies and working with them for that period was more for the learning experiences. Being undecided on whether I really wanted to work for a large tech company spurred me to take on an apprenticeship role at Airbnb, which was the only offer that they could offer to a fresh graduate. I took on the Southeast Asia market and managed it; I had the opportunity to travel numerous times every few weeks and participate in major decision-making events. But ultimately, I knew it was an apprenticeship and there may not be a full-time opportunity waiting for me. I decided to move on because I wanted to have more exposure.

As for my career in Twitter, I got offered a contract role, which was already very competitive to get in the tech industry. The contract was for 6 months and I decided not to extend because I felt that the organisation’s culture and vision is not a perfect fit for my personal aspirations. Even though great opportunities do come by, the personality match between you and the company is still much more important in the long-term.

Afterwards, I had the opportunity to take on a full-time role at Facebook and Instagram. They wanted someone who’s willing to take risks, and who moves and adapts to changes fast. With this vision, I knew that I wanted to be a part of Facebook and Instagram.

Q: As the Co-Founder of YourSpace, a business model focusing on Co-sharing office space, what were some challenges you faced in coming up with it?

The biggest challenge is not the idea itself but in finding the right co-founders. Back then, we had seed grants and capital funding from investors to produce a mobile application. But we did not actually deliver it to the public despite having done pretty successful beta-testing. This was because my co-founders had a disagreement between one another, resulting in conflicts; one ended up leaving the team. At that point in time, I did consider moving forward with two of the remaining of co-founders, but we started to differ vastly in our visions of the company, which led to us departing from the company’s initial idea.

I did another attempt on the same concept with other co-founders for about a year. But the other co-founders are not as committed nor are they as intuitive about the co-working industry. I do think that the most important traits that one has to look out for when partnering others is the full-time commitment and the shared vision, as well as belief in the same idea. Having a great team of co-founders will aid greatly in the cohesiveness of the team and cultivate a long-term working relationship.

Q: How would you advise your juniors to prepare for the changing environment in today’s world?

My main advice would be open-mindedness. I think that undergraduates are more afraid to take risks and adapt to changes, perhaps due to the way we have been brought up all our lives. Like, doing school work, we tend to follow a strict set of regimes. After being exposed to the industries in New York and getting the first-hand experience of seeing how start-ups work, I realised that there is no fixed set of rules or guidelines to follow. In fact, there is never a wrong or a right. It is just how well you do or how bad you do it. Being exposed to such experiences allowed me to be more comfortable with taking risks and handling autonomy in initiating projects based on factors like data analyses, intuition, etc.

Additionally, be willing to explore more and learn more languages. Learning new languages is important. Coming from the tech Industry, these companies are always looking out for people who are proficient in various languages. Whereas exploring more entails understanding, perhaps in regard to different political views. For example, many people working overseas may not fully understand the cultures of these foreign cities, despite having the knowledge on how to handle projects. Understanding the different cultures helps in making business decisions – making a business decision based on each city’s cultural nuances is more complicated than you think.

Q: Given that you have worked with large tech companies, what are your opinions on the technological impacts on businesses and consumers?

Privacy is the largest issue revolving around technological impacts. People should be more aware of what they share online and also be critical in the reading of news or products. For example, do not believe that Facebook sells verification badges. There are actually people who are paying to get blue verification ticks on Instagram, and these “sellers” are all scammers. Ultimately, consumers have to be more conscientious in what they are doing.

Despite this, technology is the future, which is why I chose to pursue a career in the tech industry. I do want to see more entrepreneurs in Singapore. Our seniors who created Shopback or Carousell, for example, are really good motivators for imagining what we can do in the future.