Before the pandemic, Cho Jia Yan’s role as a Manchester United employee included quarterly trips to Old Trafford and accompanying club legends to different parts of the world as part of the club’s partners’ marketing efforts.
“Yeah, I’ve met Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and most of the first team players. We would discuss and brief them on what to say when we film content for our partners’ marketing campaigns. I’ve also spent a lot of time with former players like Wes Brown, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole in places like Toronto and Shanghai when they have meet-and-greets or other events,” says the 2015 sport science and management grad, who calls Hong Kong home.
The seasoned jetsetter’s interest in working abroad was piqued as an NTU undergraduate, first when she did an exchange in Canada, then during her internship at Lagardère Sports, a global sport marketing agency, which took her on full-time in 2015 after she graduated. And when the opportunity to head up a new office in Shanghai came up, she immediately raised her hand.
“The first three months in Shanghai weren’t easy. I didn’t have friends there and had to adapt to using WeChat for almost everything and working at a super-fast pace. Once, I didn’t reply a client’s WeChat text within an hour and they complained to my boss!”
In 2019, she scored the move to Manchester United and to Hong Kong, where, in her words, the culture is “work hard, play harder”.
“We give it our all during office hours, but make an effort to wind down after a long day, such as at the nearby bar. We have team bonding activities like art jamming and junk boat parties. We were supposed to go for the Rugby Sevens, but it got cancelled because of COVID-19.”
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This story was published in the Aug-Sep 2021 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.
