Boldly seize opportunities for explosive growth

I am a Senior Network Engineer at Toku, and I have been with the company since it was founded 4 years ago. I got into this industry for a simple reason. Something amazed me about how we live in an era where anybody can go on the internet, learn something new, upgrade their skills, and best of all – do this on a lifelong basis.  

A bold move to accelerate growth

That aspect of lifelong learning kickstarted my career in some large corporations.  

I was soaking up everything I could find about network infrastructures and processes and how things work in a huge organization. But it was my fascination with the foundation of network technology, and how I could improve it for future generations that got me interested in Toku. 

I also felt that my work at a large company was not moving fast enough.  

There were constraints here and there. You had to follow a lot of different rules. And there was a lot of red tape that I knew was constraining me from getting better at my job. So, when the opportunity to work at Toku presented itself, I took the plunge. I just had a gut feeling I could grow and learn faster here. 

And come to think of it, there was also a small part of me that wanted to see how life in a startup worked.  

Lifelong learning – and the secret to making it sticky

Working at Toku was a completely different ball game from what I was used to. I had to learn very fast about complex project requirements like the specification of the servers, the network bandwidth, etc. But it wasn’t just the technical aspect I had to learn. 

Get monthly nuggets of wisdom for all things customer experience in your inbox

I learnt how important it was to treat my peers well. A lot of them were senior to me, and I needed to build a good working relationship with them. I was able to exchange ideas with them and learn from some of the best in the field. Perhaps even more importantly, I learned to be more organized, and calm under pressure. My colleagues have much greater knowledge than I do so I am always grateful they took the time to teach me many new skills of the trade.  

On hindsight, not many companies foster a culture that makes you feel safe enough to grow in your role, make mistakes and learn from them. Toku is one of the rare exceptions.  

I believe that’s why lifelong learning thrives here.   

I want Toku to be… 

Bold. More precisely, I want us to be bold enough to expand beyond Singapore and take the world by storm.  

From my experience, not all opportunities are created equal. Some will lead to good growth. Some – explosive growth. As long as the Toku team commits to lifelong learning, I’m confident we’ll be able to boldly seize the explosive growth opportunities and secure our position as the leading cloud communications provider not just in APAC, but globally as well.