KitChan.com

By Boon Chan

ST PHOTO: ALAN LIM

SINGER Kit Chan is looking corporate in a pleated knee-length black dress, a black leather watch and black heels.

But this is not a new role in a musical or her latest image as an entertainer. Meet Kit Chan the public relations consultant.

Speaking to Life! at the National Museum’s Novus Cafe, the 34-year-old says that she has been ‘re-integrating into society’ since leaving the pop music scene three years ago.

She adds that while she loves performing, ‘I don’t like the lifestyle of an artiste, I don’t like the fact that I’m segregated’.

So she has been exploring her options for a second career, though she admits it was ‘not your typical look-at-Classifieds job hunt’.

She is starting work today as a campaign specialist for Hill & Knowlton, one of the world’s five largest public relations firms.

Her job involves coming up with campaigns and messages for the public sector and for corporations.

‘At first, I thought I knew nothing about PR, but I found I could draw analogies to entertainment,’ she says. ‘You are communicating stories and messages through your work, which is what I do as an entertainer.’

While her Singaporean banker boyfriend is ‘a bit worried’ about her career move, he is also supportive and has bought her a bag for work.

She hasn’t said goodbye to showbiz though. She says that she ‘has an understanding’ with her boss Jimmy Tay, the firm’s chief executive for South-east Asia, about acting or singing engagements.

She adds that he is supportive of significant projects which would help promote Singapore, such as singing for the National Day Parade.

Clearly, she is excited to be embarking on this new phase of her life.

‘The idealistic part of me wants to influence people in a good way and you can do this in PR, for example, by educating the public on policy changes.’

She is also quickly learning what her new job entails.

She contemplated ’secretly going to work for six months’ before saying anything to the media, but Mr Tay told her she has to change her mindset.

‘He said to me, ‘As Kit Chan the artiste, you are used to the press running after you for a story, but as a PR professional, you chase the media and give them the story and manage the story’.’

source: The Straits Times Life

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