'My parents think I'm still unemployed': Gen Z woman rejects job after uni, turns side hustle into full-time business

"Have you found a job yet?"

For quite some time, this was a question Maribelle Su had trouble answering.

Technically, she isn't jobless but what she does for work isn't a standard "office job".

Maribelle, 24, started her own social media agency after graduating university, rejecting a job offer in the process.

She took to TikTok, under the account maribelle.socials, on Wednesday (March 13) to share her journey to becoming a young entrepreneur.

Content creation has always been a passion of hers.

"But I've always thought of it as a side hustle rather than a full-time job," she said in her post.

Back when she was a university student, Maribelle shared that she had already showed signs of being a budding entrepreneur.

During the Circuit Breaker period, she founded Flourworks, an online bakery, in an attempt to "get out of the rat race".

The content on Flourworks were all created in-house and being able to build her own brand was extremely satisfying for her.

"I really liked building my own community and brand — the satisfaction of it was really unmatched," said Maribelle. 

"As tiring as it was, I truly enjoyed the process of managing my own business and creating content." 

However, as the pandemic situation died down and her school schedule got busier, continuing the business was not a viable option — especially since she was the only person running it. 

To gain experience and skills in the working world, Maribelle had a stint as a social media assistant at local media company The Smart Local, which she described as "one of the best" internships she's had.

She also tried social media management for a year for Under Armour, but unfortunately the company "had no head count".

Starting UGC full-time

Maribelle shared on TikTok that she felt a sense of trepidation as her time in university was coming to an end.

Towards her graduation, she was not receiving any job offers.

In addition, the competitive nature of the corporate world and constant layoffs meant Maribelle felt less confident of landing a job.

"As I was graduating soon, I felt really lost. I truly didn't know what to do," she admitted.

It wasn't for a lack of ambition or eagerness to learn either.

In the back of her mind, she was thinking of potentially starting a social media agency one day.

Unfortunately, what stopped her from turning those aspirations into actions were fear and the thought of being "not good enough".

Another factor holding her back was the "traditional Asian family" mentality towards working in the media industry.

Maribelle even considered more "practical jobs", like working in a bank, which she admitted she did not enjoy.

At that point of time, she started doing user-generated content (UGC) as a side hustle.

She mentioned that as her client pool got bigger, she began wondering if this could actually work as a full-time job.

This also allowed her to "revisit" her journey as a small business owner and reinvigorated her love for content creation.

Fast forward to the present, and Maribelle revealed that she has created content for 20 brands under her agency, UGC with Maribelle, specialising in lifestyle, health & fitness and beauty.

Things seem to have gone well early on, with Maribelle noting that she was able to reach her income goal "in just two months".

So when a job offer came in, the young entrepreneur had no issues rejecting it, determined to commit to her business full-time.

Despite the positive start to her working life, her parents can't quite get their head around what she does on the daily.

"My parents think I'm still unemployed," she mentioned.

Navigating hurdles

For others looking to follow her path, Maribelle's advice is to build a portfolio and gain experience in the field you are keen to enter.

She added that learning how to connect with people in the same industry is an important skill as it can get lonely.

Maribelle told AsiaOne: "It's also not as easy as it seems. It might seem glorious escaping a 9-5 [job] but in reality, you are most probably putting in more time and effort."

That said, one regret she has had in this journey was to not start it sooner.

Imposter syndrome played its role in that, but Maribelle noted that "it's all part of the process".

She added that 'adulting' while starting a business comes with its fair share of struggles. Despite this, Maribelle chose to be grateful for the things that have worked out so far.

"I still have plenty to learn but so much more to give. This is me just manifesting that things will all work out in this one year," she said.

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amierul@asiaone.com

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