Mentor Spotlight: Khanh @ TikTok

Mentor Spotlight

Meet Khanh, a Mentor at The Commons and working on Monetization Strategy and Ops at TikTok.

To summarize Khanh's career path in one line: Babson College (Wellesley, MA, USA) --> Corporate Developement @ Dell EMC --> Consulting @ Analysis Group (worked on a few litigations that made WSJ’s front page ) --> MBA @ Kellogg --> More consulting @ Analysis Group (MBA tuition is not cheap!) --> Monetization Strategy @ TikTok (trying to figure out how to monetize aspiring entertainment platform churning out viral short-form videos)

Describe yourself with three emojis

 🏫 My motto in life is “The only thing you know is that you know nothing.” Life is a series of constant education phases. I’m currently taking multiple courses with Reforge and completed a course last year with OnDeck.

🚀 I love working @ a rocketship! Learnings are 10x vs. a mature company.

🙏  Be humble and learn from everyone around you. “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Isaac Newton

Current role & location?

📍Monetization Strategy & Ops at TikTok. Living in Toronto.

When pivoting from consulting into tech, what have been the biggest changes you've noticed? What surprised you?

  • This might not be applicable to all companies, but coming from a well-structured environment like consulting, the lack of infrastructure is an exciting challenge to overcome
  • And some advice: one should not settle for waiting around for answers but instead go out of your way to seek for the data that can answer your questions

We love having you in The Commons community. What do you love about being a mentor?

  • Giving back to the community
  • Making new friends with fellow mentors and mentees
  • Few things are as rewarding as helping your mentees success with not only Juniper (one of the Sprint projects) but in their careers

What's your favourite way to stay involved with the community? 

Relaying jobs that I came across or sharing when TikTok is hiring.

Tell us more about your role at TikTok! What team are you on?

I’m leading the Monetization Strategy team in Canada for TikTok. The key objective is to advise and guide our sales teams to hit revenue target by devising and executing GTM (go-to-market) strategies.

Why should someone work at TikTok?

TikTok is a relatively young company despite its global status; thus lots of infrastructure is still missing and it’s exciting to be part of the team that lays foundations for many of these future cornerstones for the company.

What advice would you give to your former self as you were beginning the search to transition into tech?

Discipline, discipline, discipline. Set a KPI of talking to X people each week and asking them to introduce you to 2X people from their networks. Create a CRM to track your progress. Rinse and repeat.

And now, a few fun tidbits about you!

⛑ I'm a Red Cross-certified First Responder

🌏 I've lived and worked in 5 different countries

Join our Strategy + Operations Sprint to get 1:1 access to mentors like Khanh!

Interested in more?
Mentor Spotlight: Lamya Ezzeldin
Resource
Mentor Spotlight: Lamya Ezzeldin
Meet Lamya, Senior Product Manager at GoBolt & Product Mentor at The Commons!
Skillful is now The Commons.
We’re more than just skills training. We're the place where high achievers come to fulfill their career potential. We combine education, mentorship and community to empower the next generation of ambitious professionals to achieve their career goals.
The time to build the education institution of the future is now. And we're doing it.

Careers are catalyzed through skills-training, mentorship and a supportive network. At The Commons, we're delivering those critical career elements together through learning experiences that are social, mentorship-based and community-first.

Join to learn and stay for the community.