Afresh

Can you please introduce yourself?
Hi, I’m Zara. I’m a student in ITE, studying sports management, but I’m currently doing a marketing internship in an agency, so it’s quite different from what I’m studying.

What made you want to do this instead of doing something related to sports for your internship?
I’ve always been interested in marketing itself, so I think joining a marketing agency would really help with what I want to do in the future. And I learned quite a lot compared to the modules in ITE.

Interesting! What made you want to study sports management then?
In secondary school, I was quite a sporty person. I did canoeing, so I was out in the open waters often and I was also the team captain, so that might have made me more interested in pursuing sports.

How did you get into canoeing?
It wasn’t my first choice. Initially, I wanted to get into dance, but the slots filled up quite fast. But a teacher saw that I was quite tall compared to all my other batch mates and suggested I give canoeing a try, so I think that was an advantage I had going into the sport.

Did you enjoy it?
I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it enough to pursue it as a career, but canoeing was definitely a fun and memorable part of my secondary school life. It played a big role in my school life, especially because the training was intense—we were meeting almost every day to train. That experience really taught me about sportsmanship and camaraderie. I think being a part of the team, especially with my best friends, made me more dedicated.

If you could go back in time to pick a different sport or activity to pursue instead, what would it be?
Dance! I wanted to join dance because I was in Temasek Secondary School, and their dance club is very well known in the dance scene in Singapore. Though prior to that, I’ve actually never really tried dancing!

Not at all?
I’ve done some dancing with friends, mainly K-pop covers, but nothing beyond that.

Do you enjoy listening to K-pop?
Yeah, I do! I’ve been a fan of K-pop since I was very young. I enjoy looking at the visuals and the choreography—it’s quite fun to watch.

Are you a fan of any particular group?
I used to be a very big fan of BTS, but they went on hiatus for a while so I fell out of the K-pop scene when they left. But I’m still a fan of Blackpink, and they’re having their concert in Singapore soon so that’s exciting!

Now that you’re pursuing marketing, what’s one thing you’ve learned, whether about the industry or the job scope itself?
That there’s a lot of different roles in marketing itself. It’s not just about being creative, but also working with clients and a team of people, so communication is very important. If one thing goes wrong, it’s really on you.

Now that you’re in the process of building your career, where do you see yourself working towards?
I’m definitely enjoying marketing right now, and I’m planning to take a marketing course in polytechnic to see where it can take me. I’ve started building my portfolio and I’m also looking to connect and collaborate with others in the industry.

Well we hope you get the chance to dive deeper into this passion of yours! Last question, since the year is coming to a close, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned this year?
I think building connections and strong relationships with people is really important. In a work environment, if you don’t have a good bond with your colleagues, it can be difficult to work together. Communication might break down, productivity would drop, and things just won’t get done—that’s when problems start. So I believe it’s essential to invest in those relationships, take the time to understand each other, and learn about each other’s working styles and ways of doing things.