I joined VIKING in 2002, initially working as an Administration Officer. My career path began with purchasing, payroll and sourcing duties at VIKING Thailand, before moving to work in sales support, first with VIKING Singapore from 2009-2010, then in Thailand again until 2015, when I rejoined VIKING Singapore in my present role.

To begin with, my work mainly involved purchasing and assisting the local company manager with general tasks. But, as time passed, I felt that I wanted to learn more, and that was the start of a career that has brought me to my present position as the Inside Sales Executive for VIKING Singapore.

Today, I work in the Countries Team at VIKING Singapore, which involves inside sales (taking care of sales by phone or email instead of in person) and VIKING Shipowner Agreements, which are special contracts that help shipowners or offshore operators to streamline their safety equipment servicing. In particular, I’m responsible for submitting quotations to customers in Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines, Myanmar, Guam and ROW (Rest of World).

A typical working day involves submitting quotations to customers, communicating via email with my colleagues, with customers or with partners, updating the CRM system and producing reports for my manager. I also try to stay alert to any opportunities for helping customers via VIKING Shipowner Agreements.

What do I like most about my job? Communicating with different customers from different countries and understanding their needs and requirements. I’m also really enjoying working in Sales. Each time I close a big contract, it motivates me to sell more and more. And I find it very satisfying to support my manager in achieving the goals set for our part of the business.

The hardest part of my job is replying with technical clarifications and deviation lists for specific projects. However, my daily work with a number of customers is enabling me to improve in this area. In general, I find my confidence level increases whenever I overcome problems, particularly when I can put my skills to use to help my colleagues with their daily work.

At VIKING, we work in a very professional way and we have a good in-house system that supports our daily tasks. VIKING works like a family, so it’s a very supportive atmosphere where, if you’d like to try a new role, you will most likely be given an opportunity.

I’ve been lucky enough to be supported along the way by several mentors, including my current manager, Mr. Roland Tang, Mr. Alex Kristensen and Ms. Junaidah Jamal. Through these people and other VIKING colleagues, I’ve learned how to work with customers and built up technical knowledge around our product range.