She Chose Not to Go Viral. Her Audience Grew Anyway. | Ainul Md Razib

When Ainul Md Razib first started posting about tech careers on TikTok, almost nobody in Singapore was doing it. No blueprint, no local creator to follow, no way of knowing if it would land.

In this episode, Ainul - cybersecurity engineer at IBM and one of Singapore's first career-focused tech creators - opens up about what it actually takes to build something original in a space that doesn't have rules yet. We talk about why she's never done a salary breakdown video (it comes down to her faith and Malay cultural values around wealth), how she navigates telling her manager about her social media before starting every new job, and what the viral hits taught her about what she actually doesn't want to become.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Introduction

(01:21) Being taken seriously

(04:39) Creator pressures

(07:50) Complexities as a Muslim creator

(13:35) Setting parameters

(17:36) Doubting your own work

(20:35) Reviewing Ainul's past content

(24:33) Balancing a full time job with content creation

(29:37) Chasing external validation