Hey there, it’s your girl Elle from the Marketing & Communications team in Indonesia!

If you’ve been keeping up with the YOYO/PDI blog, you’d probably remember me from the first blogpost I wrote, “A Fun-tastic Farewell to Q2”. At the end of that post, I signed off with a “See you next time they let me write for the blog again! Elle ✨” I’m back for a second post, but unfortunately, my precious time at YOYO/PDI is coming to an end soon, so this piece is also going to be my last blogpost for YOYO/PDI 🙁

I started working at YOYO in 2017, back when we were working on the PopSlide app with only 10 people in the Indonesia office sharing one long table.

Today, we’ve got an active influencer platform called PopStar, Pop Digital Indonesia is a Google Partner Agency, and we have enough members to take up almost three full pages in a Zoom meeting. Talk about growth, am I right?

As a farewell, I could write about a lot of things, like my favourite memories at work, challenges faced & conquered together, outings and dinners we’ve had, my favourite jokes from coworkers... but it would exceed the word count, and I just wouldn’t know where to begin and end cause there’s just tons of it!

So, I’ll just summarize my YOYO/PDI experience into these three points that I picked up from the co-workers I’ve had the pleasure of learning from & working with everyday (Monday to Friday lol):

1. Be adaptable

From my job interview, I remember Kyon & kak Widya highlighting that they’re looking for candidates who are flexible, and can handle change at any time, given that anything can happen in a startup. True enough, many changes can, will, and have happened. I’ve seen workmates start new career paths within the company, there are those who have moved to more than 2 departments, created new departments, headed projects, etc. You can also be given challenges that you didn’t see yourself ever doing before (to name a few of mine, it was creating the company profile video, then contributing to build PopStar, and even being a Project Coordinator for PopStar’s first event!)

At that time, I thought “Why do they have to give me such responsibilities? I didn’t sign up for this...can I even do it?” But, looking back, I realized that they don’t just expect you to already be adaptable, but they give you opportunities to improve your adaptability so that you can continue to discover your own potential, see what you’re capable of handling, and test how far you can go. I also never felt alone during those “hard times”, and I have great leaders and solid teammates to thank for that huhu ♥️

2. Develop a growth mindset

Another thing I learned here that I’d take with me everywhere is: having a growth mindset. Having the proper outlook and attitude really helps in making your work experience more fruitful and meaningful, and I was able to witness this even when working together with our Philippines & Malaysia team. Having this kind of mindset is actually really contagious and I’m glad to be influenced by it.

3. The importance of balance

Lastly, I liked that a lot of the people I worked closely with are really hard working. I learned that when it comes to work & completing tasks, it’s not enough to give mediocre results or just be satisfied by completing the bare minimum. What you give is what you get.

On the other hand, I really love how we’re encouraged to rest! I’m often reminded that we don’t have to be workaholics. We often enjoy each other’s company as we set work aside by playing Monopoly & Spot It during breaks, playing music, learning how to create eco-bricks, ordering all kinds of micin & kopi susu in the afternoons so that we could take 10 minute breaks from our laptops and joke with each other, going for jogs at GBK, and many more activities that give us a sense of balance.

Another example of “balance” I acquired: I learned to love Indonesian food (especially Padang food & nasi goreng!!!) more after being inspired by my coworkers who looooove eating & appreciating Indo food. At the same time, I’ve also exercised more since I started joining YOYO/PDI than I ever did in my entire life cause I was inspired by how health-conscious some of my coworkers can be. See? The best of both worlds!

I don’t know what else to say except that I’ll really miss everyone and everything (including Slack messages, and WA stickers). I’m incredibly grateful for everyone and everything. Maybe I’m just being dramatic, and you can say that I’m still young and inexperienced, but I honestly think that I’ve been so lucky to have YOYO/PDI as my first job. It’s got a good working environment filled with passionate people who are hardworking and eager to improve. I’ve had managers, team leaders, seat mates, interns who were never hesitant to support, advise, teach, and joke around. They certainly left an impression on me— so maybe that’s why I find it hard to leave (and on top of that, the pandemic & work from home situation doesn’t make farewell easier either). I hope everyone continues to shine their light so that others can feel inspired the same way I did (hehe omg so cheesy ya).

So, with a heavy and immensely grateful heart, this is me signing off from a company that I’ve called home for the past 2 years & 10 months.

Beyond grateful,
Elle ✨