Her Story
About Anna
I've always known I wanted to be an architect ever since I was young. After getting my degree in architecture, I joined my first firm out of college based on personal relationships and networking. That's when I first encountered the retail side of architecture, which wasn't what I had planned, but I instantly fell in love with the fast-paced nature of retail projects and have been doing retail architecture ever since. Throughout my career, I gathered diverse experience through multiple firms before joining my current firm, which is a pretty big firm with a vast network of really established global companies that are innovative and ahead of the curve. It's been really exciting working with these brands and navigating with them the changing landscape of retail. As you can imagine, with the pandemic and everything, the state of retail has changed significantly and continues to evolve, and that's what keeps me energized and excited about my job. In my current role, I lead the regional retail business for the Northwest U.S., focusing on business development, helping clients strategize, and strategic thinking. One of my most notable achievements is a project I completed last year in Daly City, California - a Korean grocery and restaurant food destination similar to Eataly. This project was personally meaningful because my parents are from Korea, and I spent time there when I was younger. I've always viewed my dual background as a challenge, having two second languages and navigating different cultures, but this was the first time that background really led me to a successful project. I was working with a client base in Korea, leading meetings in Korean, and navigating a very different cultural landscape where they view women and race differently. The fact that I was able to navigate that political landscape in a work setting because of my background felt like life paying me back for all the struggles I had to go through as a child. The project turned out successfully, bringing the Korean American communities together with local communities, generating local jobs and revenue for the city. In the past year since opening, we've won four design awards so far, making it professionally and personally very rewarding.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Anna
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My dad, who worked all his life as a salaried man and then did his own business, asked me a question when I started working at a firm. He asked if I had something urgent to do and I looked at people in the office and saw somebody super busy and someone idle, who would I give this important task to? I told him obviously the idle person because they have the time and bandwidth. He said no, you give it to the busiest person because that busiest person is busy because they can do that job effectively. People that are busy can prioritize, maintain, and get stuff done, and I should be more of the get stuff done person than the idle person. I know this is probably controversial because it's not fair and promotes less than ideal work-life balance, but I always try to be the busy person in the office. I can really pride myself in being really good at multitasking and prioritizing and not working overtime. I've always been able to get a lot of stuff done given the time that I had, just give it my all and make every second count. And then once I step outside the threshold and I am no longer at work, I shut it down and try to focus on my family.
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