Working In Hong Kong: Startup Life, UX Workshops, and Travel
First of all, it has been a while since I have posted here! I have been very occupied with working and travelling around in Hong Kong. If you followed my previous posts, I talked about looking for opportunities abroad in one of my favourite cities, Hong Kong. This July, I am excited to say that I got to work at a startup there!
In May, I started working remotely with Terminal 1, a client I had in the tech recruitment space. The team was made up of world-class recruiters and technologists working to deliver efficient and cost-effective recruitment solutions to connect clients with strong technical candidates around the globe. As my work with them and UX/UI assessment went well, I was offered to work at their office in Hong Kong! Though I had opportunities in Vancouver, I decided to take the leap and get out of my comfort zone. I wanted to work at an ambitious startup while fulfilling my lifetime goal of working abroad. The company was also very welcoming, helpful and open throughout my time working with them remotely. I was glad to finally go to Hong Kong again and check out the company.
Wandering around the city at night
Arriving in Hong Kong, it felt familiar as I was just there in back in January. When I got to the office, I was so happy to meet everyone in-person. The team was very international and we spoke mainly English, but I still got to practice my Cantonese with my local colleagues! I love the diversity of the teams especially in Hong Kong with it being such an international city. As a UX/UI Designer, I helped design experiences and interfaces of tools for recruiters while working with developers. Startup life is definitely very fast, flexible and challenging. There is a lot of work involved and decisions to make. I worked together with the Head of Product to create mockups and prototypes for testing.
T1 Team Cooking Competition - We won!
My involvement in UX and UI wasn’t just during work but there was also a big UX community in Hong Kong! There was IxDAHK and UXDHK, both which I attended some events at co-working spaces. So amazing! Loved the diverse crowd. However, compared to other countries especially in the US, the UX community there is quite small. I did meet a lot of designers from the US and even Vancouver though! They even had some hackathons.
As the political situation in Hong Kong got worse and some other concerns came up, I had to head back to Vancouver after a while. I am glad I got to meet so many different people, experience a lot of the local activities and eat delicious food. The team was also amazing and I was happy to work with them. Before I got back to Vancouver, I knew I had to travel to the other countries nearby! Next thing you know, I packed my bags for Taiwan and Japan. Other than just for fun, I wanted to further see how people live differently as well as the unique technology and designs they had. I will save my observations for another blog post but I must say the trip shaped my inspiration and approach to design. Coming back to Vancouver, I am excited for the next big opportunity for me. Stay tuned!
Sea view of Japan
Mail post in Taipei