Women at MIT Sloan

Sook Hee Lee, SF '07

Current or most recent position: COO, Commerce Strategic Business Unit, Daum

Portal to a dream job

My career can be divided in half-before joining Daum and after joining Daum. I could just as easily describe it as before and after starting my dream job, because my position at Daum — COO of the Commerce Strategic Business Unit — is very much that.

If you haven't heard of Daum, it is the most popular web portal in Korea and, according to Wikipedia, the fourth most popular Web site in the world. Daum has a history and market position very similar to Yahoo's and a culture like Google's.

Before Daum, I worked in marketing for a leasing company, then a telecom, an airline, and a government agency. I spent seven years job-hopping because I wanted greater challenges. I also wanted a better balance of my personal and professional lives.

Daum cured me of job-hopping because it is always exciting. The culture is open and flexible, and there are always new challenges and opportunities. Everything I want in a career is there.

Resist becoming starry-eyed

I should make clear that I didn't just fall into my dream job. I came to realize that if you want the perfect job, you have to create it yourself. And that's what I did at Daum. I started the job as a one-person e-commerce department. I grew with the organization, then spun off that division into a new company.

Finding your dream job very often entails risk. And when you are confronted with that risk, it is crucial to jump right in. There is no such thing as gradual and conservative change. It is also important to upgrade yourself relentlessly. Don't become starry-eyed by your own performance. Your past performance made you who you are today. Your reputation is a reward for that past performance. If you rest now, there will be no performance, no reputation, and no reward in the future.

That's what brought me to the MIT Sloan Fellows Program. I needed distance from my workplace and from my past knowledge. I needed new skills and a new perspective. Sometimes, the very strength that enables you to succeed in your present position is the obstacle to success in your next.

As an MIT Sloan Fellow I had the chance to stretch myself in so many ways. I built the knowledge I was looking for from sharing experiences with faculty, other fellows, and with the prominent global leaders we met. But probably the most significant ROI was the self-knowledge I gained. I learned what I most needed to learn-confidence and candor. I realized that I must have the courage to share my views, not just within my divisional comfort zone, but on a wider, cross-functional scale.

Daum has big things in its future and my dream job is to be a part of it all. I think I'm ready!

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