Most of the time in our workplace, we want to be the best and contribute to the company so that everyone can grow together. Former Singaporean celebrity Sharon Au shared her ideas at work and she was “scolded for it” and she then “dramatically” resigned from Mediacorp in 2018. The 45-year-old recalled the day she quit Mediacorp without having first secured a new job, in the latest episode of meWATCH talkshow Hear U Out.
Ms Au had finished her overseas studies and was serving her bond with the company on the corporate end.
She said: “I forgot myself in a meeting and started sharing my ideas excitedly and I got told off for it. Perhaps I was feeling too vulnerable back then. I remember crying after the meeting as I closed my laptop and packed up.
“We were supposed to go back to work after the meeting but I don’t know why, I just walked away and couldn’t stop, and I ended up going home and crying on the way back. I didn’t know what I was doing. I got home, switched on my laptop, and typed out my resignation letter.”
The actress did not speak much about the meeting, including its purpose or who attended, but the last positions she held before her departure were publisher for Elle Singapore and the lead of styleXstyle.com. Ms Au and Mediacorp released statements announcing her resignation back in 2018. AsiaOne contacted Mediacorp regarding her comments and the response was that they were “unable to comment on the personal decision made by Sharon Au”.
Following her resignation, the actress relocated to Paris because she wanted to start afresh but no one there would hire here. She had no job for three months and even considered being a waitress at the Italian restaurant near her apartment. Luckily for her, a former Mediacrop chairman invited her out for dinner when he was in Paris for work.
According to Ms Au, the chairman had seen her work and was impressed by her.
She added: “While we were eating, he asked me how work was, and I told him I didn’t have a job and couldn’t find one. He was so shocked to know that because to him, I was someone very capable and talented, and someone he admired.”
A phone call later, she clinched a job at a private equity firm and she has climbed her way up to being an investment director with clients under her.
“Life is all about connections. You must grab on to the connections you make and it helps to have a benefactor,” said Ms Au.