Account Coordinator @ Aber Group with Ocean Wong

In his year one, Ocean Wong is working as an Account Coordinator at The Aber Group, a digital advertising agency where he manages paid advertising campaigns for charity, not-for-profit and small/medium business clients. Some of the things that Ocean and Blair discuss include working in a small vs. large advertising agency, overcoming perfectionist tendencies; and, why three heads are better than one.

About Ocean Wong

Ocean works in client service in an online advertising agency. He's also a sneakerhead and an ex-competitive hip hop dancer. Ocean was born and raised in Hong Kong then came to Canada for university when he was 18. He speaks several languages–English, Cantonese and Mandarin. “You reap what you sow” is a phrase that Ocean has learnt throughout my past academic or professional experiences. It means that if a certain amount of hard work is put into tasks, his efforts will pay off in some way–possibly unexpected.

The Highlights and Hottest Takes 🔥

How Ocean Got the Job

It goes back to Ocean’s first internship during his undergraduate degree in university in Hong Kong. He worked in paid social at Ogilvy–a large, global advertising agency–and enjoyed working in advertising. Then when Ocean needed an internship during his postgraduate certificate in digital media marketing in Toronto, he focused on finding something in a digital advertising agency. Ocean heard about The Aber Group and kept an eye on their website for job postings. Saw a posting for a paid internship-to-hire role and applied with a custom cover letter and resume:

“I think the main thing was having a really good resume and cover letter to catch their attention.”

Mistake Made

Chasing perfection. "Sometimes I find myself dwelling on certain things for too long. Client and time demands require more action and quicker thinking."

"Good is better than perfect. It’s better to have two tasks done at 80% vs. one at 100% and one at 0%.” 

Lesson Learned

It’s OK to mess up. Humans learn better when we make mistakes. “I messed up this thing for the client. I’ll remember this for next time." The mistake helps learn a lesson to improve in the future. 

Pro Tip

Ask question to help with prioritization. It’s often overwhelming what to do first when you start a new job (especially during a busy time of year). Deal with this by asking questions of your colleagues, your supervisors to help with prioritization. “You can’t do everything at once.” 

Segments

Ocean's Year 1ne @ The Aber Group | 0:58-21:09

The Aber Group is an independent digital marketing agency specializing in charity/not-for-profit clients but also some small businesses running paid online advertising campaigns across display, YouTube, search and social. 

Ocean manages 6-7 clients at a time. A typical day involves: campaign check-in and optimization of the budget in the morning to make sure it's running fine or troubleshooting, client management; and, building campaigns and posting to advertising platforms–Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, Pinterest, TikTok and Reddit–in the afternoon. Microsoft Excel is an essential tool for data manipulation, analysis and reporting. 

Being in a smaller size of company gets you closer to your colleagues, more collaborative, especially making connections outside of your team. There's more hands-on experience with decisions and tasks that are impactful for the client at a junior-level, and more opportunity to interact with clients too.

Getting to Day 1ne: The Job Search | 21:10-32:59

Had a seminar class in the Digital Media Marketing program at George Brown College where guest speakers were invited to talk about their company and working in marketing. Asked questions in the seminar and reached out to the person from The Aber Group on LinkedIn to try to make a connection but it didn’t happen  Kept an eye on The Aber Group website for job postings. Saw a posting and applied with a custom cover letter and resume.

The process was quite smooth for this job. Ocean applied to other agencies and had interviews but this worked out first. In this job search what he did was build on previous practice and try to better manage his network by making more casual contact with people on LinkedIn. 

“Networking was not natural. When it was in-person my heart would be bumping, I feel like it would pop out at any second. I get nervous talking with people who have more experience. Online makes it easier.”

Ocean gets nervous networking in-person, but online (especially during pandemic) helps make this connection more approachable. When connecting with people don’t make it transactional, make it friendly–do some research on them, try to find a common interest–this helps make a better first impression.

Things I've Learned in Year 1ne | 28:00-33:15

Chasing perfection. "Sometimes I find myself dwelling on certain things for too long. Client and time demands require more action and quicker thinking."

"Good is better than perfect. It’s better to have two tasks done at 80% vs. one at 100% and one at 0%.” 

Keep an open mind. When fresh and young in a role it’s good to learn as much as you can–good and not so good.

Re(Sources)

• Connect with Ocean Wong: LinkedIn
• Brands/organizations: The Aber Group | Ogilvy | George Brown College
• Marketing and media tools: Microsoft Excel | Google Ads
• Connect with The Year 1ne’s host Blair Smith: LinkedIn | Website

Credits

• Created and Produced by Blair Smith
• Hosted by Blair Smith
• Mixed and Mastered by Ray Harripaul

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