Virya Paramita

About Virya

Name: Virya Paramita Academic Year: 3 Degree: Information Systems Management Second Major: Advanced Business Technology(Business Intelligence & Analytics Track) Past CCAs: InnovateIT 2012 & 2013, Whitehats(2011-2012), SISS(2011 - 2012), Meta 2012 Hobbies: Reading, Writing, Gaming(MMORPG - i can't play stuff like Dota/Starcraft), Eating Social Network: Facebook!(:

Why TSM South Korea?

• What motivates you to join TSM?

By joining TSM, I will be able to get exposure to the different companies in South Korea, and I think that it will be a valuable experience. I am someone with a lot of curiosity, and thus, I like finding out how different people do things in a different kind of environment and TSM will be able to provide me with that kind of opportunity.

Furthermore, looking at the past TSM, most of the company visits are to start-ups. From what I understand, there are more and more start-ups in Korea in these few years, however, most of them are not sustainable. Therefore, I will like to have the chance to talk to those who made it till now and see what is the X-factor that set them apart.

• Why pick South Korea?

My future dream is to go into Gaming Analytics, and I think South Korea will be one of the best place that can provide me the experience that I want. Gaming is a huge industry in Korea, and I believe that it will continue growing over the years. Moreover, with Gaming Analytics being the newhot thing, there will be more companies picking it up over the next few years, therefore, since Korea boasts of a huge gaming population, it will most probably give me the exposure that I need.

Also, I have always found South Korea an interesting place with their use of honorific. It is intriguing that age can play such a big place in hierarchy since we don't face much of this in Singapore. This makes me want to see their company culture for myself, and compare how different it is with the rest of Asia.

Internship Opportunities

• What types of internship opportunities interest you?

Anything to be honest. I believe that internship should be a time where we should try all sorts of job roles without any inhibitions as it will not only give you ample of experience, but also allow you to find out what you want or don't want to do in the future.

Therefore, I will like to go in with an open mind and have a fun time learning or doing things that I never imagined myself doing.

• Any ideal firms (based in South Korea) that you wishes to join?

KAKAO! This company fascinates me to no end. If I'm not wrong, Kakao is a start-up that only started 3 years ago, and yet it has the largest user base in Korea. And it is not a plain chatting app like Whatsapp, instead you can have multiple interactions with your friends, such as playing games together(I used to play Anipang quite a bit).

NCSoft & NEXUS & Gravity! My dream is to work in a gaming company as what can be better than working for what you are passionate about, right? And these are the 3 out of the 4 companies that I really really like because of the games that they have. In particular, I am especially interested in NCSoft as Lineage was really huge, and Guild Wars II is holding its own ground right now. I am curious to find out where they get their inspirations, and the process of creating a game even though it will spoil the magic.

Starting a business

• What types of business interest you?

Gaming! (:

• What plan do you have in starting a business? (list existing business)

This idea was an extension of a centralized writing website that my friend suggested me to build over the summer. The initial idea for the website is that it will hold competitions for different genre on a regular basis, and the best writer will win.

I like to write in my spare time, and sometimes I just don’t have any inspiration despite the urge to write. Right now, there are little communities or pages in livejournal and tumblr which will actually post prompts every once in a while as a form of inspiration to followers, so that they can base their art or fiction on it. Some of these might be a special event where they will be a reward at the end of the day, but most of the time it will just be people submitting prompts that they will like to read online.

One problem with this is that all the blogs are very scattered. There is no centralized location for all these prompts and you will have to comb through numerous website just to find one that you may like.

Another problem with this is that most of the prompts blogs are severely fandom based, meaning that those prompts are mainly targeted to certain animes/artistes. Even though it doesn’t deter some people from writing/drawing, there are more people out there who will rather write/draw about fictional character.

Therefore, I decided to build upon the idea that my friend gave me. Rather than just having a website that allows people to write and hold competitions based on different genres to decide the best writer, this website will also allow readers to post ideas that they have but are unable to write, and any writer can claim that prompt and base their story on it. Also, artists will be able to claim those prompts and draw anything based on those. This will create a community where both the reader and writer can help each other fulfill their needs (the reader will get to read/see what they want, and the write can find inspiration).

To entice people to use this website, there will also be little giveaways for the best writer, best artist and best prompter on a weekly basis. And when you have a centralized platform filled with writers/artist, it is easier to get people to notice it, and there will be a higher chance that writers/artist will get a loyal following. With this, as a future thought, maybe publishers can be brought in every now and then to see if there are any stories/drawings that they are interested in investing in and turning it into a book.

Past Experiences

• Describe your past experience (entrepreneurship, or works in start ups etc

I interned as a web developer in a startup called DotCom Enterprise. For my internship, I was given a project by an external client and my boss gave us a lot of opportunity to interact with the client letting us explain our own work during the client meetings, as well as clarify things with the client while needed. Of course, he came in to save us whenever we need it!

The interesting about working in a startup is that I get a lot of freedom. We will have a weekly check-in session with the boss where he will look through our work, and help us when we are facing problems, but other than that, we are basically allowed the freedom to work in whatever way we want as long as we adhere to the functional requirements given to us by the client.

The whole experience feels more like a learning process where I get to learn a bit of everything and it provides me with a better idea of what I will want to do in the future.