Time sure flies like an arrow when you enjoy what you are doing. But fruit flies like a banana? It took me a while to understand the word play in that sentence when I saw it for the first time. It is the same thing for me when meeting new people. I like to take my time observing them before opening myself up. But I only have 10 weeks here so I cannot possibly take 1 month to observe and get to know my colleagues slowly. Therefore, I tried to be more vocal and hoped that I would be able to bond with them quickly. Luckily, they were all friendly and fun-loving people so I was able to adapt the soonest.

Having introduced how I got this internship earlier on as well as the tasks that I was given, let’s go deeper into what I have learnt!

My Main Roles

I am in the campaign operations team and my main responsibility is to assist Jia He in SEO and SEM for one of the clients. On SEM side, it was not difficult for me to understand and get my hands on the process in creating an ad on Google Adwords. However, keywords researching as well as incorporating the keywords into the ad were the crucial parts.

Which keyword phrases do people like to search on? How competitive are those keywords? Are there any other keywords that I have missed out? These are the questions that I ask myself before crafting the ads. Most importantly, the ad’s headline and description lines 1 & 2 have to be kept below 25 and 35 letters respectively.

It was the trickiest part for me. Can you imagine the frustration when you are over the limit by just 1 letter?

Well, maybe that is just me being short-tempered. But, copywriting on Adwords has definitely trained me on how to be patient and think critically in order to create impactful ads with the relevant keywords. It is also vital to bring across the important and valuable message to the target audience while keeping it short and sweet. After some time, I felt as if I could count 35 letters by heart and my fingers stop typing magically. Like WOW!

Similarly for SEO, keywords searching was done to drive traffic into the client’s website. The key is to make sure that the information and the articles written on the website are related to what the audience is looking for on search engines like Google. I also managed to do some data crunching with Google Analytics on one of the campaigns to determine the performance. Some suggestions were also listed to improve the SEO.

For me, there is a small sense of satisfaction when I see a campaign goes live and that the article titles that I suggested were being used on the client’s website.

Hard VS Soft Skills

New hard skills learnt aside, Jereme has always hoped that we will be able to develop better soft skills. I got to ask Jereme over lunch one day how he screens for suitable people into clickTRUE and a person’s high EQ is the one of the criteria that he looks out for. You may have the strongest hard skills but there is little that you can contribute to the company if you cannot interact and work well with your colleagues.

During this period, I picked up better communication skills and was able to understand my working style and attitude better as well. I was confused with my working style because I am torn in between being task-oriented or time-oriented. Let me try to break this down.

Task-oriented people prefer to work on a task until completion before proceeding to the next task while time-oriented people set timing for the first task and proceed on to another timed task. But this does not mean that time-oriented people leave many backlogs because they will keep coming back to it.

I guess it is difficult for me to jump from task to task because I feel insecure about leaving something hanging around. But I have to learn to ‘let go’ and multi-task like my colleagues as there are many different tasks that each of them has to handle. I discovered that I need the time pressure and reminders of the deadline to myself constantly so that I will not procrastinate. I thank Jia He and Adrian for the little walks to my table and getting me back on track.

Never Say Goodbye

My 10 weeks of internship here has been a short but very fruitful one. I am glad to have met the most hardworking people here, people who have great passion in their work and good time management; juggling between work, family and life. It is certainly not easy to meet people with similar personalities and hobbies but they all came together here! I am sure that everyone treasures this special bond.

Thank you all for having me here, bringing me out for good lunches and sharing interesting stories with me! I look forward to future karaoke sessions and interactions on Twitter! 

It is my last day at work here, and it is with mixed feelings that I am writing this. Happy that I’m finally going for my “delayed holiday”, and sad that I’ll be leaving this great place where I’m entitled to the largest and most pristinely polished white table in the office!

But FINALLY, I don't have to do this:

But I will miss taking buses 8 and 125 and then walking a unholy distance to get to the office and also rushing down like a mad dog at 6.40pm sharp to catch the shuttle bus home..

Now let’s recount the days which flashed by so, so fast..

Background

I was actually involved in online marketing for around a year when I joined, with 2 of my websites making a decent amount of money.

Life was good.

It was then that I stopped tweaking my sites because I thought I had made it already, and university was real busy!

Big mistake.

After the big bad penguin from Google struck my sites, I realized I still had lots to learn, and I learned tons of it from my internship here.

And of course, I learned how to slap that damn penguin back.

Learnings

What was most valuable for me here was not learning technical skills, those I have some and can study on my own.

What was invaluable was learning how to think, learning how to learn, and just getting my ass out there in the real world.

1. Learning how to think

This I learned from COO Jereme who I worked under primarily. I still can’t believe he studied electrical engineering in university LOL. His marketing expertise and experience says otherwise.

Marketing has always been about getting the right message to the right people at the right time, and is an art form you just cannot glean from the textbooks.

Just from the interactions with the experienced boss has allowed me to look at things differently and pick up those little details subconsciously, like picking his brain as they say.

For instance, I used to think that my copywriting skills were decent and passable. But it was from his remarks and guidance about my blog posts that I began to see areas I could improve, and things that I have never thought before.

This brought about a deeper level of awareness, and it spurred me on to study materials from legendary copywriters such as Claude Hopkins and Gary Halbert.  And of course, then being able to appreciate their work.

And from researching and writing the blog posts, I gained an even deeper level of understanding about digital marketing and digital strategy as a holistic whole, rather than as a hodge-podge of individual techniques (such as SEO, SEM, etc).

The best part was Jereme allowing me to try my hands on copywriting for sales pages/landing pages, because for me, knowledge is nothing without experience. It is only with experience that knowledge becomes wisdom.

Although my first one didn’t convert too well, just heard from Jereme that my second one sales page was converting at 11%! Woah!

But the most awesome part was that I took these skills, went back to revamp my own site, and managed to increase the conversion rates of my squeeze page by 3x! and I see still MORE room for improvement!

Gamification and user experience (UX) are two other topics which I was exposed to by Jereme. But due to my lack of experience, I am still some way off mastering these topics. Regardless, I am very thankful for learning the right way in approaching these topics, as a solid foundation makes further exploration so much easier.

2. Learning how to learn

Learning how to learn is a skill, a very important skill!

In many of the things we do, I believe there is no right or wrong way of doing things. Everything is relative, and so there can only be a better or a worse way of doing things.

Again, I picked up from Jereme some of the tools to use to make life easier, and also learning where to learn, and from whom to learn. It comes down to “awareness” again.

For instance, from some of the resources/blogs that he shared, I gained a new level of understanding of marketing and business principles and from there, began exploring on my own too.

Without this exposure, I shudder to think when I will get exposed to them if left on my own.

3. Getting my ass out there in the industry

But I am still most grateful for being given the chance to get exposed to the real world.

You know, working from home is good, but you hit a plateau fast. And studying in school is like studying in a mind prison! Outdated syllabus, and exam gradings are so rigid and subjective.

For instance did you know that in the real world, the ad below on the left (cartoonish) actually outperformed the one on the right (professional graphics)?

Scoring well in exams just requires a cogent, well substantiated argument based upon a set of assumptions that the marker agrees with (at least for marketing/humanities).

But in the real world, it is all about creativity, testing, and making constant improvements based upon a set of best practices.

Experience

The icing on the cake must be the culture here. Great, warm, and friendly. The bosses are capable, willing to share and have their individual sense of humour. As for the staff, they are responsible, hardworking and equally capable. Most importantly, they know to work hard and play hard.

The only thing they are lacking in is not having this initiative as suggested by DA JIE: paid, paid vacation. Very meta.

Really glad that our huge age gap didn’t make interaction weird or anything. Ok I’m just kidding because we are all quite young here seriously haha.

Will miss the talking random nonsense (mc, sx, sm, myx, yanru, isabella, jiahe, zoe) and x-filing (whatever you think that is) lunch sessions, the free magazines and the free snacks here haha.

So if you are yearning to get an unadulterated, real education and not one churned out by the profit driven mind prison that is your school, don’t wait anymore, just send in your resume and cover letter, you won’t regret it!  :)

Time for my hols!

I was quite anxious about securing an internship and started searching for opportunities via OnTRAC , the SMU Career Services Management System since early January. I was hoping to find an internship that will expose me to different aspects of Marketing. Having graduated with a Diploma in Marketing, I have never got out of touch from Marketing till now. However, most of the IS-related internships posted are looking for students to do programming, an area which I am not very strong in.

And at last, NoisyCrayons posted a job opportunity on OnTRAC in late January. The job title, Digital Marketing Intern caught my attention immediately and the job description was challenging yet exciting. Yes, I want to learn about SEO, Google Analytics and Social Media Marketing! These are interesting and useful terms that I have heard of when I studied Internet Marketing but not used before. So I uploaded my cover letter and resume almost immediately and hoped for the best.

Then school started flooding me with tests and projects but I checked my email daily for a reply. It was in late February when Jereme, COO of clickTRUE, the parent company of NoisyCrayons emailed me some questions regarding my social media activities. I went to clickTRUE for a short interview two weeks later and viola! I got notified on the internship offer just a few hours later.

I remembered that I cheered out loud while queuing for food during break time and people were staring at me. Haha! I am delighted that I managed to secure an internship at clickTRUE as I am sure that Jereme has received many resumes as well!

The Beginning

Right on the first day of work, Jereme mentioned that all interns are treated just like the permanent staffs. This means equal responsibilities and expectations. After a short briefing, I was exposed to keywords research, search marketing and copywriting using Google Adwords. I also came to understand the differences between advertising on the Content Network and Search Network. There is information overload in the beginning but I managed to gain a better understanding after quick but detailed explanations from Jia He and Adrian. I was also encouraged to explore more possibilities on my own.

Next, I got my hands on Google Analytics, a tool which arouses my interest more than Adwords. Since my Polytechnic days, my lecturer has been emphasizing that marketers should never be afraid of numbers, especially the dollars and cents. Therefore, I trained myself to face them although I was never an A student in Mathematics.

Looking Forward To The Remaining Weeks!

It has been 2 weeks since I started working at clickTRUE and it is truly a brilliant experience. I definitely hoped to be trained on keywords searching as well as making use of the data available in order to analyse how visitors interact with the website. Most importantly, as what Jackie mentioned, I want to “enjoy my stay here and learn as much as I can”! 

Well, simple… I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

At times, I envy those that have discovered their passion early in life, because they’d know what to do and which path to follow. For me, it wasn’t at all easy. My parents placed me into accounting and finance, believing that it’s the best for me. Till this very day, I’d still agree with them one-hundred percent. Why?

This field is HUGE. You can get into anything.

The norm of society: “Finance is where the money is!” “Good prospects, good money kid!”

Accounting offers a safe and stable job. I mean, look at audit, it’s mandatory for most companies.

When every single one of my university friend is aiming for the Big Four Accounting firms, I was finding a way out. I did not have a passion for accounting for sure. I did it for 5 goddamn years. Scored damn well in it for sure but so what? And FOR WHAT?

Finance isn’t exactly my cup of tea either. At first it was extremely difficult to identify if I have a passion for it, because I have no interest whatsoever to begin with, and so I would not know what it feels like to have a passion for something. But when my dad flips to channels of BBC business news or the CNN Money market, I knew almost immediately – it is perfectly fine if I don’t understand any of it, but what mattered was that I did not even want to learn, to know. That was a huge signal lighting off bright in the night.

I had to admit – to me, it was a dangerous and a courageous move to make, to drop entirely out of my comfort zone of accounting and finance, and begin dropping in on things that interest me. I have friends who hate their jobs, but they stuck to it because “this is what I’ve studied for, I don’t know anything else other than that! It’s my job now!”. NO, was all I said. It would take a really long time convincing them, so I figured, “To hell with them, I can do this.”. The only person that needed convincing, was myself.

I did some weird things for a while.

I was taking online courses because I didn’t want to stop learning.

I picked up copywriting skills.

I studied how to build a drop-shipping business right off the bat.

I needed some sort of income while I find my passion. And when I realized how competitive the world of online business is, I got a little upset for a while. But soon after, it began to dawn on me, how online businesses are trying to compete for market share, and how far they’d go to establish their presence. And I thought to myself, “While every business is desperately trying to sell, wouldn’t that be GREAT to be on the side where you HELP them sell?”

I took up an interest and started studying about Google Analytics, Advertising, Marketing and crafting e-newsletters. The more I studied the more interested I became because it was something very hands-on, very practical, and most importantly the skills are invaluable and going forward, how can I ever go wrong with that?

I began vigorously looking for online marketing companies. I found a few on the internet, but clickTRUE has one of the most compelling websites! It carries an air of credibility because it is listed in the SPH magazines website. It looks friendly because it is speaking in my language, it didn’t just bore me out with its list of capabilities and certifications they have, like many other. The pictures depict a warm culture and that is ultimately the most attractive thing ever. It looks awesome.

I really want to get in.

I can’t WAIT to get in.

I did not hesitate to drop in my cover letter.

………………..

Lord beholds, Jereme (COO) and Adrian (Director of Online Marketing Services) gave me an opportunity.

In the beginning, this whole new experience was a little daunting. I had to take a few papers because then I’d be fully equipped with knowledge of how things work (or at least that's what I thought). I guess that was the ‘training’ bit. I’d love to have gone under a proper training course or to have a full-time mentor but no one could afford to spend so much time explaining how everything works. Everyone had important roles in the firm that I too, wish one day will possess the same irreplaceable element.

And so I was pretty much left alone, but I loved it. clickTRUE doesn’t practice the “Do as I say” cliché, which I thought was very smart indeed because they’d actually hinder their creative capabilities. I became independent, and I explored things in my own perspective. Learning can drown out your creativity if you don’t think enough. And when I learn independently, I understand better, and I become more aware of the issues that I’m facing.

My boss, Adrian is amazing. He would help clarify things for me when he knows I’m in the blurry and fuzzy state of mind. He made it clear that I could turn to him or any of my colleagues for help at any point in time. In the beginning, it was more of a self-learning process on my part. But it was comforting to know that he’s just a chat away.

Jereme, on the other hand, helps everyone grow mentally and behaviorally. He would frequently share insights and his thoughts with the whole team. He pretty much manages the entire culture and beliefs of the firm, and for that I truly admire him. He cares about the wellbeing of the employees. When I first start out, he would check in on me to see how I was doing. I highly appreciate them because I’d know I can turn to him if I have my troubles.

Almost nothing can top the most attractive thing about clickTRUE – its CULTURE. Contrary to a hierarchical firm, we communicate on the same level, and there are no boundaries – an exceptional practice indeed. The people here are warm and friendly. We all love a good time. Just a week ago, we had a company event at KTV. It was hell lot of fun! And in that time, I got to know my bosses better, and discovered so many hidden talents among my colleagues. I hope there are many more opportunities like these to be able to mingle with the great minds, because when we are at work, we get serious and very results-driven. No kidding. Everyone is so capable and enthusiastic on the job. “Work hard, play hard”.

The talents at clickTRUE, working and playing even harder!

I love every bit of my journey here in clickTRUE. I’m looking forward to many more amazing moments. As I continue my journey to self-discovery in this company, I urge for you to do the same. Confucius: “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life”

Love what we do? Don't hesitate to check us out! You might just find your dream job here in clickTRUE ;)

Peace,
Sher Min

For all the hard work and effort done, sweat and tears shed, late nights, weekends and yes, birthdays shifts, the clickTRUE team came together to celebrate the holiday season. It is just but fitting since Christmas is a time where families come together to celebrate everything they are thankful for, for the year. Now, judging on how much play we all had… it really must have been one hard working year!

So here are some shots and I’ll let them speak of the fun during the party!

Bambi, The Biggest Winner.  For the snowflake costume and for the grand lucky draw.

The Best Actor Award. Goes to … well, Adrian. Ha! a once in a year office-sighting.

For the gift-giving, look at some quirky and totally appropriate gifts!

Stress ball anyone?

If it was a guy, a nose trimmer would be useful.. but for Suhaila?

Some got good gifts but were stolen soon enough. All thanks to our gift exchange mechanics!

Crono, The Luckiest of us all! His gift was stolen thrice and alas! took the remaining gift under the tree. 

Finally, the team’s wacky shot! 

From us here are clickTRUE, here’s looking forward to another exciting, more hard working year!

For more photos of the party.. check it out here!

Fortunately for this particular intern, her experience hasn't been quite so nightmarish…

Wait, why am I talking about myself in third person today? Let's rewind and start again from the top, shall we? :D

It was approaching the start of the summer holidays, and I was eager to break free from the usual monotony of temp jobs doing data entry and admin work. I won't go into the usual cheesy spiel about wanting to get practical experience outside of academics and school projects, blah blah blah, here. Suffice to say, I figured an internship in an industry that's expanded by leaps and bounds over the past half decade, and is set to continue doing so, could only do me good. And with that in mind, I didn't hesitate to drop clickTRUE's Chief Operating Officer Jereme an email when I first saw their intern recruitment notice. He called me down for an interview shortly after, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I don't want to create any illusions here. Jereme was quick to identify my strengths and I was set to work on a variety of articles for their blog. There was little in the way of mollycoddling and spoonfeeding, or letting me tag around observing my new colleagues at work under the guise of widening my perspective. There was a lot done to widen my perspective, alright, but it took place gradually as I floundered around figuring out how to get my assignments done. If I went wrong somewhere, Jereme would step in and correct me, and I learnt from there. If I had done an adequate job, he would let me know accordingly, and that too, provided opportunity for learning.

In other words? If independent learning is your thing, and you prefer to be exposed to a variety of ways to do things as opposed to simply being told that certain tasks need to be done in a certain way, then you are going to love it here at clickTRUE. But that's not to say that I was simply thrown into the deep blue sea. From day one, Jereme made it very clear to me that I could always go to him if I had questions about anything. And to be very honest, it was simultaneously flattering and frightening to know the amount of leeway he was allowing me as a lowly intern. I was given the freedom to decide what I wanted to write for the clickTRUE blog, collaborate with our in-house designer Bambi on the conceptualization of our Facebook page, manage said Facebook page, and work on the copy for a client's project, amongst other things.

Beyond the practical experience all this provided, Jereme and my other colleagues at clickTRUE were never stingy in their sharing of tips and advice, be it in the form of a quick discussion over drinks in the SPH canteen, or over lunch at a nearby hawker centre.

The icing on the cake, I think, is the fact that everyone here is so lovely. There are no distinctions drawn between newbies and more senior members of the staff here, and it's an amazing thing to experience – the kind which you really need to see for yourself to understand. Having done stints at some far larger, and frankly speaking, extremely corporate and hierachy-driven companies, it was a refreshing change to work in an environment that was anything but that.

So, if you are still debating whether to take the plunge and send in your resume to clickTRUE, please just do so already. And if you need some extra encouragement in the form of a verbal push or more personal anecdotes, just drop me a message on Facebook or Twitter anytime! ;)

This year, to signify a new beginning, we decided to do it off land. We rented a yacht for few hours and did our lohei and dinner off Lazarus Island.

Overall, it was a refreshing experience and awesome chill. Looking forward to the next hangout!

www.flickr.com clickTRUE.biz's 2011 clickTRUE CNY Lohei Onboard "XiaoLing" photoset

The Discovery

Faced with the dilemma of choosing an attachment company for internship, most students usually go with whatever their schools have to offer. However, this time, I wanted to do something a little different, something that helps enhance skill sets not usually taught in school. Given my interest in online marketing, I decided to search for related companies in Singapore. And what better way to find a good online marketing company than to search on the Internet? :-D

Although this simple search churned out many results and several potential companies, only one truly caught my eyes.

You guessed it – clickTRUE. Here’s why… …

From the many companies that I’ve seen from the search, most of them only focus on the individual aspects of online marketing (i.e. perhaps one is good at SEO, the other at SEM, or another at Social Media Marketing). While most companies do offer a wide range of services, clickTRUE was the only one that appeared to be harmonizing each of these services, providing a synergistic blend that serves as a comprehensive online strategy.

More importantly, they seem to have a vibrant and dynamic culture, one that encourages learning and creativity. For a newbie like me, it’s an ideal place to spend my final 10 weeks of ‘Uni’ life.

After a short interview with our Chief Operating Officer, Jereme Wong, he graciously accepted me as their intern, thus beginning my adventure with clickTRUE.

The Initiation

First days at work are usually awkward. No idea where to go, don’t really know anyone, can’t find the toilet etc. Being introverted by nature, adaptation seems to boast quite a challenge. Thankfully, the company culture is just as ‘advertised’ – vibrant and dynamic. The welcoming ambience of the office makes everything seem less daunting.

After a simple briefing and introduction, I was quickly assigned my first tasks and began working on the company’s Facebook page as well as SPH Magazine’s upcoming new site.

Working on these projects puts me directly in the driver’s seat while gaining first hand experience on how online marketing really works. The generous sharing of tips and techniques by Jereme was especially beneficial, giving me a crash course and initiating me right into the flow of work. This kind of open learning and sharing of knowledge is truly an eye-opener for me.

In fact, the very first day I reported for work, there was a little pleasant surprise. In order to chase away the Monday blues, our CEO decided to hold a weekly ‘Video Sharing’ event. Every week, an appointed person will share a video that he/she found useful as well as some insights gained from it. After which, the audience will offer their insights and inputs from their perspectives. These little exchanges make it much easier to learn from each other and benefit from the day to day work.

The Journey

As time went by, I began to settle into my job and my position as an intern. The chance to learn the various facets of online marketing is rather intriguing. There are just so many different things that go on behind the scenes of a successful online marketing campaign. Every step of the way, from getting the initial click to closing the sale, there’s both an art and a science involved in how to eventually get the conversion.

Interestingly, just when I’m slowly starting to pick up my pace in this journey, it seems to have come to a pit-stop for someone else. Clara, a colleague in SPH Magazines had her last day at work just a few weeks into my joining of the company. As pizzas, soft drinks, and of course well-wishes bided her farewell on her last day, I got yet another glimpse of how clickTRUE is more than just a company – it is a community made up of real people!

This reminds me of an anonymous phrase I read some time ago, “a company is only as good as the people working in it.” Yes it’s common sense, but it’s also easily forgotten.

The Beginning And The End

As one journey comes to and end, another is just beginning.

The 10 weeks of internship pass by in a flash. With meaningful friendship forged and a new level of insights into the digital marketing world, I would like to take this chance to thank everyone in clickTRUE for this wonderful experience!

Sincerely,
Shi Ming

To be very candid, half the team is on leave. I am sitting comfortably on my desk, with nothing much left to do and an hour left to the close of the day. But this is not just any Friday…

It’s my last day at clickTRUE!

Before I get started on how my experience has been, I guess I should tell you a bit more about how I ended up with an internship here.

(Serious face.)

My name is Stephanie Phua. I came in as a newbie in internet marketing, intrigued and eager to learn more about the geeky world of SEM, SEO, SMM and all other acronyms associated to internet marketing that exist out there.

How did I hear about clickTRUE? I was previously an intern at a public relations agency. And I’m not going to bother to cover up the truth – interning at a PR agency involves a hell lot of media monitoring. clickTRUE’s banners emerged in most of the major sites I had to monitor, and was top of mind when I thought about local internet marketing consulting agencies. After checking out their website, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to do another internship before I headed back to school. With nothing to lose and an eagerness to get in touch with my inner nerd, I sent an email to HR. After a few email exchanges with Mr. Boss Man (Jereme, who ended up being my supervisor), I came in for an interview, and due to certain slight complications, we settled with a short 6-week stint.

I remember him asking me if this would be an issue, and I said it wouldn’t matter, as long as I got to learn something. Mr. Boss Man very confidently told me I was going to learn at least 2 things a week.

On my first day, Mr. Boss Man asked if I would like to have a drink. I’m not sure if he realized that I had just made myself a cup of Milo. Anyway, I realized the right thing to do was to accept the offer. Over a cup of coffee in the SPH canteen, I was accosted by a barrage of tough questions that got me thinking, strategically. After fielding most of the questions with very frank “I don’t know”s, Mr. Boss Man never gave me the answers. He just asked more questions. And that set the tone for this internship – a lot of it was trial and error on my part, before he stood in to point out what went right, and what should be corrected.

You’ve got to be wondering what could I learn in 6 weeks. I got a good overview of what internet marketing entailed, how Google Analytics could be used to help optimise sites, how to design a website to optimise conversions, and tried my hand at social media marketing. Through conducting research and compiling reports, I managed to glean insights on the basics of the industry as well as existing trends. Mr. Boss Man threw in many helpful tips along the way – little secrets I would never have been able to learn off the Internet.

To any of you out there interested in working here, I love the culture here. The people are warm, sincere, helpful and friendly, with no airs about them, not even the Boss Men. When it’s time to talk business, you know they’re serious, but otherwise, they’re all pretty laid back. Those who have guided me have been nothing short of patient and understanding. Sometimes I ask too many questions, but everyone’s been generous with sharing their knowledge, and they really know what they’re talking about – plus, I never got any discriminating looks.

In a nutshell, I’ve learnt what I’ve come to learn, in a very conducive environment, and this fulfilling experience has opened my eyes to spark a greater interest in the world of Internet marketing. It’s been worth sacrificing 6 weeks of my term break, and I really owe it all to the entire team. Kudos goes to Jereme for taking me under his wings, and exposing me to as many learning opportunities as possible.

Adios, Amigos. Hopefully this isn’t my final goodbye – it’s not hard to find me in the cybersphere out there. Feel free to keep in touch!

Ed note: We had fun too while you were around! Thanks for injecting all that Gen-Y lingo and enthusiasm!

PS: If you know of anyone who on average clocks more than 200 tweets a week, recommend him/her a stint at clickTRUE!

True to clickTRUE’s culture where we try to measure and optimize everything we do (aside from clients’ PPC campaigns!), we tried ways to compact our meeting agendas and went to the extent of deliberately setting meetings to end right before lunch time. However, we never have much success in reducing the average meeting time of 3 hours, until the last management meeting when our CEO decided to do a stand up meeting.

Well, it seems the little inconvenience of having to stand naturally invokes a psychological desire to end the meeting faster. Simply contrast this with having a soft cushioned chair, a table to lean on, comfortable air-conditioning, and a great opportunity to day-dream. The difference is apparent.

As each individual shifts his frame of mind from “let’s get comfortable, this is going to be long”, to “let’s get this done and go back to work”, everyone starts to show more initiative and naturally contributes more (and faster) during the meeting. In fact, stand up meetings seem to be so effective that major companies like Google hold them regularly – even daily.

(photo by Bloomberg showing how Google employees gather for a team meeting at the Google headquarters in Mountain View)

According to a report by Bloomberg:

Google co-founder Sergey Brin once estimated that it took seven minutes to walk across the Google campus; it’s now company tradition that meetings end on the hour and new ones start seven minutes later.

Everyone working on the project gathers, standing-up to make sure no one gets too comfortable and no time is wasted during the rapid-fire updates.

This goes to show that the simple act of standing up does indeed have an effect of inherently increasing the efficiency and productivity of meetings.

The Conclusion

In the end, the meeting adjourned in record time – 80 mins with time to spare (that’s almost more than 50% of time saved!). While it is still no where close to Wikipedia’s definition of a stand-up meeting, but effective nonetheless. More importantly, action plans were drawn and the agenda was met. One thing for sure, we will definitely have more stand up meetings in future.