Career Arc Stories, A Conversation with Lydia Huang
Do you have a friend who is always in a constant state of growth mindset? The person who manages to see the silver lining in every situation? The person that you learn something new from every time you catch up?
In my life, that person is Lydia Huang. During one of our regular catch ups, Lydia shared her inspiring career arc story and how she found purpose in utilizing her life lessons as an immigrant to help other job seekers.
Did you find your career or did it find you?
I found my career and went after it. When I was doing sales at a SaaS company, I was burnt out. So I tried to find something close to sales. I like to talk to people and help people. Make an impact.
I then came up with a list of 3 options. One was consulting, the second was customer success and third was recruiting.
I started to think about each one, starting with consulting. Consultants have to travel a lot and I didn’t want to do that, so I crossed that off. Customer success is about helping B2B clients, and they aren’t impacting a community.
Being a job seeker as an immigrant was hard. It was also hard to find a job in the U.S. without U.S. experience. It was because of this experience when I wanted to a find a job where I could help other job seekers. I decided to quit my sales job and took some time off. Three months later I got a recruiting coordinator role at Amazon Web Service.
It was a good stepping stone. I was doing scheduling and sourcing simultaneously. I looked for people to shadow internally to learn how to be a recruiter. Three months later, I landed a recruiter role at Redfin. Once I finished my 4-month contract, I was back to the job search again. I then discover recruiter opportunity at Pokémon and reached out to a recruiter for an informational interview. It turned out to be the best opportunity in my career.
At times, I wanted to give up. But you really never know. All 3 jobs I got from networking on LinkedIn. I reached out to people. Set up coffee chats. "And then got the interview opportunity."
How has your personal experience or upbringing influenced your professional career?
I think it is more about my personality. I’m the oldest in my family, among my siblings. I had to know what I’m doing because no one was teaching me. I have a responsibility to take care of people.
Many people don’t have confidence in themselves. Especially as an Asian woman. It’s all about fitting into the community. For me, I always wanted to get better. I’m ambitious. But that’s seen as a negative thing in Asian culture.
In the U.S., I learned from other women. Learned from their mistakes, how to avoid it and do better. I like to talk to people who have more experienced than me. This helped me transition from being a people pleaser.
“Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office” was the first book I read in U.S.. I still remember it. That book transformed me into a stronger woman.
What was a major obstacle, setback or challenge you overcame?
In the beginning when I started looking for a job as an immigrant I didn’t have U.S. experience. I found myself in so many bad experiences. Some were pyramid schemes.
Once I was interviewing with a guy who called himself a CEO, looking for someone to do marketing. When he realize that I only had a marketing certificate, not marketing experience he got really mad. The interview was at a coffee shop and he left me there. He excused himself and never came back.
It was hard starting all over again as a recruiter. But I learned from that experience and became smarter. I may not have the skill set but I had to get people to give me a chance. I worked really hard to fill my schedule with coffee meetings with people. I would even meet with people for 30 minutes in different parts of the state on the same day. Then attend networking events in the evening.
Lots of people didn’t see my value at the time. They couldn’t see that my skills are transferable. Lots of recruiters put you in a box. Passion is something that you can’t put on a resume. Passion is something you have to show.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
I would tell myself to not please everyone and just be you.
There was a time when I was assigned to do a presentation. But I didn’t have confidence and couldn’t do it. An opportunity was missed.
That’s when I joined Toastmasters. It changed a lot of things for me. I became more confident with public speaking and more comfortable with feedback. I learned how to get feedback and give feedback. It made me better. I practiced how to give feedback. How to think quicker. How to give impromptu speeches. I challenge myself a lot.
That’s how I became really good at my job now. I would not be able to talk to people or give them advice without that experience. I tell people, “don’t view your hardship as a bad thing because you’re learning something”. It’s all about mindset. Be positive.
Your personal brand in 10 words or less.
Live with purpose.
More About Lydia Huang
Lydia Huang is a Marketing Recruiter at The Pokemon Company.
Why recruiting? Because she loves connecting with people and truly believe that recruiting can make an impact on others. Michelle Obama once pointed out, “You’re at the table for a reason. So, don’t waste your seat.”, which has become her motto when doing her job.
With her recruiting experience in fast-paced and high-growth environments, Lydia excels at developing unconventional sourcing strategies to build a pipeline of talents and deliver business results on time.
Experienced sourcing tools and strategies: LinkedIn Recruiter, ICIMS, Taleo, GreenHouse, keywords search, specific job boards, Boolean Search, local networking events, and relevant company/industry search.
Ultimately, Lydia hopes that she can utilize her recruiting skills and job search experience to help Marketing professionals find their dream jobs and make positive impact on the LinkedIn community.
