My Uber rating was higher than my GPA. I landed my first job after tweeting that at Uber.

Cherylyn Wee's tweet at Uber and her first day on the job at Uber Singapore's office.

Cherylyn Wee

• Cherylyn Wee is a 32-year-old sales director who landed her first job after tweeting at Uber.
• She says that a key takeaway was that being constantly online can pay off in unexpected ways.
• Wee believes that people early in their careers should be intentional with their social-media posts.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cherylyn Wee, a 32-year-old sales director at a software-as-a-service company in Singapore who landed her first job, at Uber, after tweeting at the company.

Insider verified Wee's account with her then-supervisor at Uber. Uber did not respond to a request for comment.

This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

As a 25-year-old fresh graduate in communications, I was looking for my first job. That's when I tweeted at Uber, "My @uber rating is higher than my GPA. Can I put this on my CV?"

A screenshot of Wee's tweet at Uber in 2017.

Cherylyn Wee

For context, my GPA was a 4 out of 5. And my Uber rating was 4.9 out of 5.

I also shared a screenshot of a mock résumé with my tweet, imagining in a tongue-in-cheek way that I was already working for Uber by being a passenger, with responsibilities including:

• Regularly assessing the efficiency and quality of the Singapore network of drivers.

• Being an advocate for improvement.

• Assisting in the external communication of Uber to the general public.

My tweet got the company's attention, and Uber invited me to apply for roles at the company.

The first role I applied for didn't pan out. But someone else at Uber saw my tweet, and they reached out and asked me to apply for a different position.

And that's how a tweet helped me land my first job, as a marketing coordinator at Uber Singapore.

Being constantly online can pay off in unexpected ways

In 2017, I was really active on Twitter (now X) and constantly engaging with brands I encountered in my daily life.

Once, I discovered a typo in a restaurant's promotion material, and I tweeted at them: "Hey, I've found a typo in your content, could I get a bag of free popcorn the next time I come by?"

When Uber came to Singapore, I figured that I should send something interesting.

When I saw that the ride-hailing company had a passenger rating, I thought: Oh, my god, am I a good passenger? I had a 4.9 out of 5 rating, so I guess that's a yes.

My next thought was: How can I add this to my résumé?

Obviously, I couldn't, but I thought it might be funny if I could — and perhaps that might help me stand out, especially because I was trying to apply for a role in marketing. And that's how the idea of tweeting came about.

Be intentional with what you write online

Wee on her last day at the Uber Singapore office in 2018, which was also the day Uber exited the country.

Cherylyn Wee

I left Uber after a year — when the company exited Singapore — but working there was eye-opening because of its startup mentality.

It did feel a little weird switching from being the person tweeting at Uber to becoming somewhat responsible for what went up on Uber Singapore's social-media accounts.

For the next few roles I applied for, many employers looked at my LinkedIn profile. And because I had written about the whole experience of landing my first job with the help of a tweet, these employers would reference it in our interviews.

They appreciated the creativity and that it landed me a gig.

People who I've caught up with years later still say to me, "Hey, you're that Uber girl who got the job because of that tweet."

Ideas are great, but it's all about follow-through

The one piece of advice I have for people who are job hunting like I was when I tweeted is not to overthink it and to follow through.

We're a little too hard on ourselves and think what we're doing isn't good enough to be shown to others.

When I posted my idea for the mock résumé on Instagram, my friends loved it. And I probably wouldn't have asked for a job from Uber that way if I didn't get the feedback and encouragement from my friends.

So just do it — put it out there, get feedback, and refine it over time.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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