Microsoft Appoints PR Lead

From: Microsoft appoints PR lead, by Malati Siniah, Marketing-interactive.com, Malaysia

By: Malati Siniah, Malaysia

Published: Dec 20, 2011

Malaysia – Microsoft Malaysia has appointed Wong Giok Leigh as public relations head for the local market.

In his new role Wong (pictured) will be in charge of PR strategy setting and planning, brand storytelling and messaging, media strategy and relations, social networking, digital communications strategy and capabilities, crisis communications and mitigation management along with business and marketing DNA for the company.

He will report to Danny Ong, chief marketing and operations officer for Microsoft.

Wong has spent several years in the banking and financial sector leading branding, marketing communications and PR functions and prior to his appointment at Microsoft was head of branding & PR at Hong Leong Bank (post-merger with EON Bank Berhad).

Some of Wong’s expertise include branding and brand building, corporate reputation, issues & crisis management, public & media relations and marketing communications strategy and deployment

On joining Microsoft Wong said: “The way the world is changing through technology and innovation has always amazed me. Companies and organisations have to fundamentally rethink the way they do business, manage their brands, and create impact.”

“So, having front row seats to this by being a part of the great team at Microsoft is a thrilling opportunity for me.”

Resume 2.0

In this pervasively digital age, is the traditional “paper” resume obsolete?

I started thinking about this question when I stumbled upon some articles introducing the “visual resume”. What is a “visual resume”, you may ask? Essentially, with the advent of user-friendly design software, free images, a creative approach and good ol’ Powerpoint, you can set up a visual representation of your resume – which may be more impactful in helping you stand out from among a plethora of other potential job candidates.

My initial reaction to this idea was one of wonder: “Wow! What a great idea! I’m done with boring paper resumes – this is the future!” But as I thought about it further, I also realised: contrary to common misconceptions that it’s “out with the old and in with the new” especially when it comes to digital media, digital media merely expands the channels for communications rather than replaces them (hrm… something to expand on in another post).

Still, the idea of visual resumes are quite compelling and this is the presentation that set me off on them:

Worst Job Titles 2010

Since I’ve been thinking about job titles today (here and here), I thought I’d share these really great examples of several truly worst. job. titles. ever.

Here’s a list of 30 worst job titles for 2010, via Examiner.com. The winner for 2010: Erection Engineer.

Here are a few of my other favourites:

The length of your job title…(Quote)

Over the years, I have come to realise this bit of truism when it comes to job titles:

The length of your job’s title is in inverse proportion to its significance.

Corporate Title Inflation

I have a friend who was once in a situation where she was offered a position that was, in this particular company, several rungs lower down the corporate ranking system compared to where she was at that time. Without going into comparisons and details about the job scope, it is suffice to say that she felt it felt like “a step back” compared to her job scope at that time. So she mentioned to the interviewer saying that she was presently only one step away from this “Senior Position” at her present job, while the job being offered was three steps away from a similar “Senior Position” title.

Then, the interviewer countered with the fact that such Senior Position titles were inflated – especially in the financial services and institutions that she was in at that time. He said, “Everybody’s a Senior Position in such institutions and organisations.”