SUMMARY

Upon completion of all my tertiary studies, I decided that I wanted to intern at a fashion company in order to expose myself to the industry more. I was curious about fashion marketing as well as fashion design. Additionally, I was itching to travel and be exposed to a new culture and environment. I made a decision that China would be my starting point. Asia has always fascinated me and I have not yet had the opportunity to study or live there. China seemed like a good first option because out of the other countries I had in mind (Japan or Korea), I had been exposed to it the most in my life thus far. I managed to connect with a founder of an SME and was offered an internship with them, The China Temper magazine. The China Temper was willing to be flexible with my timetable so I could find a job to support myself. In my final months living in Perth, I completed my Teaching Certificate and was set to move to Shanghai in February 2020. I packed up my 5 years into boxes and left Perth in December 2019 to spend time with my family before my move. I was excited and looking into teaching jobs, however, as we all know, the beginning of 2020 came and various news articles and reports of a new viral outbreak began, and out of all the places in the world, it was China. The lockdown of Wuhan was concerning but not enough for me to think it would have an effect on my plans much less the rest of the world. My dad became a bit concerned and suggested I wait a bit longer. This was a suggestion also made by the founder of the magazine. Shortly after, Zimbabwe entered lockdown as many people had moved between China and Zimbabwe during Spring Festival. And so began the start of one of the most challenging times that many people faced whether it was the loss of loved ones, jobs, or mental health challenges, among many others. Around April I had been in contact with my internship and I asked if it was possible for me to do anything from where I was. Initially, it started with some admin and auditing of the articles that had been published thus far, and then I began doing bits and bobs for Social Media with the direction of the Editor in Chief, I started researching Social Media Marketing and how to create content happened as well as learning on the spot and experimenting. Within a few weeks, I was managing all channels of social media of the magazine. Although I felt stuck, frustrated and lost, being able to do this work kept me hopeful that one day I would be doing these tasks while in China. As we all know COVID didn’t last for only a few months. Travelling became harder and moving more restrictive and more dangerous. I then decided to learn more about Social Media Management and enrolled in a course that had a trainer who was an entrepreneur and had made a career out of Social Media Management.

INTENTIONS

My goals and intentions are to become a freelance social media manager for companies in the creative industries and a Frontend developer. This is why I chose to complete the Social Shells Program and began my coding journey.

image : www.chinatemper.com