Flo Lau (Shutterstock) I love what I do, I know where I want to go and always make sure I enjoy the process while I’m getting there
As March is a month when women are celebrated, AdHugger asked a few professionals with a remarkable career to tell us their views on developing their career as women working in the communication industry. And Flo Lau, Associate Creative Director Shutterstock, offered us her view over the matter.
“To me developing my career wasn’t “hard.” I love what I do, I know where I want to go and always make sure I enjoy the process while I’m getting there. I once worked for a CMO who’d say “if you love what you do, it shouldn’t feel like work.” That’s very true. As a creative, I am fortunate enough to work with a group of very talented marketers at a company that fosters creativity with its endless amount of content.
From my experience, everyone is accountable for gender equality in compensation – it’s important to do your research, ask for what you want and have the courage to say no and find something better when inequality occurs. When I first started working I was always too worried to ask for a promotion or negotiate for a better title/salary. Part of it was the lack of experience, another part I realized, later on, was simply all in my head. When I finally started asking for what I wanted and believed that I could do it, it worked and it started getting me closer to where I wanted to be. Of course, I got turned down sometimes, but it’s much better to have tried and got feedback than never tried at all.
Like many parents, I struggle to find a balance between my personal life and work. I am a mother who wants to give her 2-year-old all the attention he deserves, a runner who runs 4 times a week, and a person who wants to be great at her job. Being all the things I want to be is not easy. I sometimes find myself not seeing my son on weeknights because I might come home late from the office, or there are times when I’m thinking about what to pack for his lunch during a work meeting. Finding the right balance that works for you doesn’t come easy and requires excellent time-management and multi-tasking skills. I started a to-do list on my phone that’s synced to my computers at work. That magic list has everything I need to accomplish that day, from writing a check for my child’s day-care to the long list of work projects I’m overseeing, and even those eggs I need to pick up during my 20mins night run. I jot down anything that comes to mind at work, during my commute, in bed before I fall asleep or before I get up. While it doesn’t completely address the balance we need, this list has helped me quite a bit. At least now I am not as forgetful and I am committing to focus on these tasks.
Some key takeaways:
- Love what you do, that passion you have for your job will bring you success, it all comes naturally.
- Do your research, ask for what you want and be ready to take on more. Get feedback if you get turned down. Regardless, in hindsight, you’ll be glad you asked.
- Be amazing at time-management. Take care of your personal life and your health. Find a way that works for you. There’s only 24 hours a day and there’s just not enough time to accomplish everything! So make a list of what’s important for you and hold yourself accountable.”
Shutterstock, directly and through its group subsidiaries, is a leading global provider of high-quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations, videos and music to businesses, marketing agencies and media organizations around the world. Working with its growing community of over 550,000 contributors, Shutterstock adds hundreds of thousands of images each week, and currently has more than 225 million images and more than 12 million video clips available.
Shutterstock’s library includes more than 225 million images, over 12 million video clips and tens of thousands of music tracks and has paid out over half a billion dollars to its contributors. The company also offers a proprietary suite of search, workflow, editing tools, and other innovative products for which the company has been awarded 25 patents. Available in 21 languages in over 150 countries, Shutterstock is used by advertising and marketing agencies, film and TV production companies, media organizations and corporations as the basis for creating compelling marketing, broadcast and editorial content for their audiences. The new campaign was developed with the help of DiMassimo Goldstein in New York City.
Headquartered in New York City, Shutterstock has offices around the world and customers in more than 150 countries. The company’s brands also include Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media offering; Shutterstock Custom, a custom content creation platform; Offset, a high-end image collection; PremiumBeat, a curated royalty-free music library; and Rex Features, a premier source of editorial images for the world’s media.