Good-Bye Grab & Welcome Circles.Life!
I joined Grab in 2016. One piece of advice I was given as I joined was that start-up years are like dog years – one year at a start-up can expose employees to the same intensity, excitement and sheer variety of work as seven years at a larger company.
This fact came in handy recently when I had to explain to my 8-year-old daughter why I was leaving Grab for Circles.Life. When I shared my news, she asked me about my loyalty and commitment towards Grab.
I carefully explained that loyalty comes in many shapes and forms and, as far as I was concerned, I would always remain a loyal Grab brand ambassador.
Even though I am leaving Grab to climb a new mountain with Circles.Life, I will always believe Grab’s sincerity in wanting to deliver their vision to “Drive Southeast Asia Forward”; in solving transport accessibility and safety, improving the lives of its partners and enabling millions of micro-entrepreneurs across the region.
In answering my daughter’s question about my commitment, I tried to explain that I hoped I had had consistently shown and delivered professional value during my time at Grab. Although I will dearly miss all the friends I made whilst working in our numerous offices in Singapore, I hope my departure will not dilute or diminish my contribution.
If anything, I blame (in the most positive way possible) Grab for having instilled in me a much greater purpose. My passion now is for the work Grab and Circles.Life do and my “why” – my reason to get up and go to work in the morning- has fundamentally changed. For this reason alone, I will always be tremendously grateful to Grab and the people who took a chance on me. I have learned a lot from them.
Like many of us, I used to make career decisions mainly to further my own career goals and financial upside. My professional fulfilment now derives from a much bigger purpose. I want to use the experience and skills I have acquired along the way to contribute towards creating and sustaining positive social impact.
While I am in Southeast Asia- or elsewhere for that matter- I will remain truly committed and happy to serve towards a much bigger cause in helping millions of consumers, especially the ones at the bottom of the pyramid (the invisible and unserved), in improving their lives.
Leaving Grab doesn’t change this goal. We are all now so connected with technology that it’s more of an “au revoir” than a ‘goodbye” as likeminded people with the same “why” all strive towards the same goal. We are climbing the same mountain, but with different crews.
The pull effect to join Circles.Life was based on the chance they are giving me to deliver even more value towards creating more positive social impact. They are allowing me to stretch and grow my career development even further whilst helping them deliver a very ambitious corporate vision of their own.
So, what is it that Circles.Life aims to do? Well, aside from being Asia’s first fully digital telco and consumer focused company we want to:
Give power back to the customer
Lead innovation in the telco industry
Build a great place to work and grow
In one of my earlier posts “fancy a date with a rock-star?” I discussed what it takes and what it’s like to work for a start-up and at Circles.Life it’s no different.
Our corporate website will tell you more about who we are, our mission & vision, what drives us, and our corporate values that are central to us achieving our ambitious business expansion.
In order to achieve our growth we need to continuously and consistently hire, retain and develop lots of talented individuals (from inspirational leaders, product whizzes, engineering evangelists, marketing gurus, customer services enthusiasts, telco experts, energetic graduates, number loving finance specialists, data innovators to marketing focused recruiters). I would encourage you to explore our career opportunities on our careers website or contact me directly via Linked In.
After my 20 or so dog years at Grab, today was my first day at Circles.Life. I enjoyed meeting my new colleagues, especially the People & Culture team, so that together we can build an amazing place to work and grow.
If you are interested in finding out more just get in touch!
