OYP Episode 09: Sooho Choi
Sooho, Global Travel & Hospitality Lead at Publicis Sapient, talks about how working to realize our desires to change the world can fuel our growth and career development.
Interview
Ashley Snow - Welcome to the Own Your Potential Podcast, where you'll hear stories from leaders across the globe, about how they've taken control of their career growth, and lessons on how you can too. I'm Ashley Snow, and this is episode nine with Sooho Choi, we all want to change the world. So first things first, can you tell us a little bit about your career journey?
Sooho Choi - Sure. Well, first of all, I've been at Publicis Sapient for almost two years now. So relative newbie compared to many of my peers. I lead a travel and hospitality globally for the company based in Chicago. And it's been a great two years prior to that about 22 years at Accenture, doing all kinds of different things, leading various industries, working in oil and gas, logistics, semiconductors, retail, automotive, and of course, travel and hospitality, doing work in technology consulting, worked all around the world, running large parts of central Southeast Asia, and spent some time in the Middle East as well as in South America. So it's been a fun ride. But I'd like to think that that versatility or that variety has brought good perspective.
Ashley Snow - How would you describe your unique approach or mindset to career growth? And how is this approach representative of who you are outside of work?
Sooho Choi - Well people often refer to life as both career and personal and they tend to separate it, I found that the two often influence each other. Just as an example, people used to ask me when I was at Accenture, why stay in consulting so long, and what kept me motivated. And we often get mired in what feels like sort of the day to day grind. However, if you step back and reflect on a regular basis, not daily, or even weekly, or even monthly, but you know, more significant long, longer chunks of time, you can take a bit of an objective measure, what have I learned? What have I accomplished? What have I contributed? Am I fulfilled with the answers to those questions. And from a professional perspective, I found that in most cases, I could point to things that I felt pretty good about. So I think that same type of mindset applies to one's personal life, perhaps just brought together in different ways. For example, whether it's your family or the community,
Ashley Snow - How has your brand evolved over the course of your career, in what ways has your brand or identity in the workplace remained consistent?
Sooho Choi - There's an element of, I guess, quote marketing associated with a personal brand, which of course highlights and brings attention to what you want the world to know you for. And if accurate, this should be built upon who you are as an individual, and not just what you want the world to see. And to that end, I think my brand has changed from a professional perspective evolved as an the nature of work that I have worked on has changed. So from the early days of being kind of data engineering, and building large transaction processing engines on to doing large scale program management, being much more of an adviser in business consulting, and finally in a little more sales centric, as well as general management role, which is the nature of the role that I'm in now. And each experience builds upon the former. And as resulted in me becoming I guess, quote, known as an industry advisor, an expert, particularly in travel and hospitality, which is the area that I helped build large parts of Accenture's practice. But it's been built with both content and hands on experience. Now, throughout all that what's been constant, though, is really your values. So your brand may change, your perception might change. But my values around integrity and hard work, and really using our intellect and skills to the best of our abilities in any circumstance has been constant throughout that it's been a learning journey for me.
Ashley Snow - Lastly, do you think there's a social stigma around self promotion? And if so, what do you think we can do to challenge that perception?
Sooho Choi - I remember during my interview process of Publicis Sapient, two years back, actually two and a half years back, because that process took a long time, I was asked the question, why are you interested us? And my answer was that I wanted to change the world. Sounds a little bit tongue in cheek, but I actually believe we all want to change the world in our own unique ways. And to give a bit of color, as our lives progress, we go through these phases, right? Each person is slightly different. Of course, you grow up, you learn as much as you can in school, we apply that education and do good work in our jobs, we accomplish things, whatever those things may be. At some point, one of the measures that takes more importance in life is this idea of significance, what am I leaving behind for the betterment of society? What am I leaving behind that makes my company better? What's my family, my friends, my community. And specifically from a work perspective, I would love to be remembered long after I'm gone. As a man of principle and positive influence upon Publicis Sapient contributed to the company's success by prioritizing our clients outcomes and our people's journeys, in support of those outcomes, obviously, to help grow to become even bigger and more successful.