School of Communication Alumnus Kenny Tung Discusses Building Your Resume While Studying

School of Communication alumnus Kenny Tung never let his grades define him. Despite not excelling academically, the resume he continues to build upon is impressive, as he works towards a career in product management and entrepreneurship. 

“I’ve always considered myself a bad student,” he says.

In fact, it took him multiple attempts to get into university, eventually transferring into SFU after a stint at Langara College.  

Tung’s first success came as a drop shipper after his first year at SFU, which he only started doing because he couldn’t land any internships. He created content on TikTok to promote his products, consistently cycling through his inventory and re-investing his profits in advertising. He was so successful that he was interviewed by a TikTok product manager, who asked him about the platform and his experience advertising on it.  

Tung flipped the script on the interviewer, however, asking him about his role as a product manager and what the job entailed.  

“For the first time in my life, I finally knew what I wanted to do,” says Tung.  

Right away, he started researching and applying for product manager internships, landing one in the oil and gas industry. Learning a lot and continuing to build his resume, he was then able to land an internship as a product manager in the tech industry. Through these internships, he understood what it takes to be a product manager and was motivated to continue to work towards this career path.  

At this point he came back to SFU and transferred into the School of Communication, which he felt was a better fit for him.  

“The ability to take classes that were technology-focused, through a communication lens, gave me an opportunity to engage with things that were relevant to my career, but also what I wanted to study,” says Tung.

At the same time, he wanted to continue building his resume while taking courses, and partnered with SFU computer science student Kenny Bui to build Pondr, an application that helps you save webpages and schedule a time to revisit. 

To raise funds for the startup, they competed in SFU’s Idea Prize competition. Not only did they win first place and $5,000, but they also got the attention of other SFU students who wanted to join the Startup, and quickly assembled a team of engineers, designers, and marketing staff. 

Around the same time, Tung was chosen to participate in the Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship eCo-op program, which provided him with a $10,000 work-term salary, 1-on-1 mentorship over the summer and business development services for Pondr and its co-founders. This support allowed him to work full-time on building Pondr while also growing as an entrepreneur.

Tung also reached out to venture capitalists in the Silicon Valley area, catching the attention of an analyst of Jason Calacanis’, one of the most successful angel investors in the world. Through meeting with people in this space, the team learnt a lot about how to continue building their idea and how to receive funding through technology grants in Canada.  

“I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do this if I hadn’t done drop shipping first, which gave me the ability to just dive headfirst into something that I wanted to do but didn’t know anything about,” says Tung.

“I was developing a muscle for stepping out of my comfort zone and just doing things despite it being a huge feat or biting off more than I could chew. Over time that became less and less daunting, albeit each new venture was harder than the last.”

During this he completed his degree at SFU, graduating from the School of Communication.  

His career goal is to continue working up the ladder of product management, a path on which he is well on the way. He is currently working as an Apprentice Product Manager at Shopify, an extremely competitive role in which less than 1 in 1000 are selected. Tung is proud to be the first Apprentice Product Manager at Shopify selected from SFU, where the majority of his colleagues are students from Ivy League schools.

Tung offers encouragement to students who may not be excelling academically. 

“Don’t let your grades define you, there are a lot of things you can be doing outside of grades to build up your resume,” he says. 

“Your degree is a must, but if we’re talking about being employable, the absolute most important thing you can do as a student is go after internships. The value of your resume is your work experience.”