We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gloria Kum a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Gloria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My career story started around senior year of college. I stepped in to fill in a co-director role of a 2-day conference that my Taiko (Japanese traditional drumming) club was hosting. We were inviting 300 people onto the campus — including professional players to learn and connect with folks within the taiko community. While the development of the event was about 2 years, I joined five months in. I came out of that conference connecting with many people around my age and with all the professional instructors that came. It was a very eye-opening experience for me and it made me realize how much I enjoy collaborating with others and leading a team to achieve their goals for high impact.

After graduating and picking up different jobs, I eventually got laid off due to the infamous COVID pandemic on February 2020. While the impact was unfortunate, I saw it as a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to pivot and focus on getting my foot into the animation industry. I took advatage of that time by learning essential skills, applying to various positions, and networking left and right. I met people from such diverse backgrounds who shared their stories with me. It was very inspiring to hear their origin stories. I eventually broke into the animation industry a year later and became a Production Assistant on SpongeBob SquarePants and The Patrick Star Show!

I slowly worked my way up as a Design Production Coordinator for The Legend of Vox Machina and later pivoted to the gaming industry and came on as an Administrative Assistant at Riot Games. The year that I’ve spent at the company has been the best in my career thus far, and I’ve made such lasting connections there. Unfortunately, the company experiences layoffs and I was one of the many that got impacted. After I got the news and announced it on my socials, folks within my network came in to check on me as support and provided referrals and positions that aligned with my skills.

Reflecting on where I am right now, I realize how important it is to build a strong network. More specifically, building meaningful and genuine connections with people. You never know when you will cross paths with them again, and you never know when they may help you in the future. The people who you surround yourself will help you grow to the person you are today, not the company. Keep the connections you have close, cause you can always to continue supporting each other during all the highs and lows.

Gloria, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Outside of my 9-5 job, I draw on the side and explore my crative hobby in art! Since I’m now funemployed (as some of my friends would say), I’m taking advantage of this time to explore and focus more on my art small business.

I’m really proud that I was able to parttake in a public art gallery for the first time! The piece that I created for the show is very personal and I was so touched hearing the viewers experiences when seeing the piece and hearing about my story. I want to continue creating pieces that reflect on my story, my API identity, and also bring warmth and comfort.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When it’s for work, it pushes you to express yourself under constraints that align with the teams vision. But when it’s personal work, you have the liberty to create whatever you want to your hearts content. When you put a lot of purpose behind a piece, people can see and recognize it right away.

Any advice for managing a team?

Be communicative and have empathy. Those two qualities have been the most helpful when I’m interacting and engaging with a team. Taking the time to sync with your teammates and leaders will go a long way and provide success – whether it be to touch up on a challenge or even talking about how things are going outside of work. And when you have empathy, the gesture of sympathy will go a long way. We are all human and we all have feelings. We are not perfect. But the smallest gesture of simply checking in on someone will go a long way and even leave a lasting impression.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gloriakum.weebly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glo.shrimp/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloria-kum/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gloshrimp