Episode #13 Career Pivot with Eugene Liang: From working in top Asia Unicorns to a career in banking.

My guest today is Eugene Liang

I  met Eugene more than six months ago to advise him on a product he was working on. I thought his career journey into banking was not  traditional.

He  is someone who has spent ten years working for some of the top Asia  Unicorns, such as Lazada/Alibaba - LazGames, Grab, and OFO, to name a  few. He enjoys the zero-to-one process in established companies or startups, from ideation to go-to-market. His experience span gaming/gamification, e-commerce, bike-sharing, and ride-hailing-related industries.

Today he is using all his previous tech experience in a very different industry - banking. Outside banking, his interest is in NFTs, web3, cryptocurrency, and blockchains.

We had an engaging discussion on what it is to work for a Unicorn, what qualities he needed to start in such a company, what he learned, and,  of course, how he moved to banking.

He shared that "folks who work or join startups/tech unicorns are: i)  self-starters; ii) obsessed with execution and iii) thrive in a  fast-paced change environment". And the top skills that one could learn  there are "the ability to do more with less" and "efficiency and  delivering with swift turnaround time."

On  the question "why moving to banking" Eugene said - "I  spent quite a  bit of time in environments where growth rates are prized over  profitability. I thought it would be useful to learn what it means to be  financially prudent and build a profitable business."

On my traditional question about key takeaways, he shared these:

1. Keep an open mind - your skill set could benefit other departments in your company or other industries.


2. Always be networking - opportunities come through people.


3. Bring tangible and intangible value to the new employer - be it skills, network, or domain knowledge not easily replicated.

Please tune in to hear more about his journey!

Happy listening!