Alumnus Success: Haswar Hafid, Indonesia

24 Mar 2022

Haswar Hafid is Head of Brand Partnerships at ByteDance in Indonesia and has more than 15 years of experience in monetization, commercialization and advertising across technology, media and e-commerce industries. He studied a Bachelor of Information Technology at The University of Queensland (UQ). 

What was the highlight of your experience living in Queensland?

I found Brisbane in particular was an ideal environment for me to study, especially in terms of population density, facilities and weather climate. I lived in walking distance from St. Lucia campus and most of the important vicinities, e.g. campus library, convenience stores, etc.

How has your experience in Queensland helped you with your career?

The community of different nationalities and ethnicities that Queensland has helped me in understanding the importance of diversity in a workplace. 

Can you share your student journey (why did you decide to study what you studied and why did you decide to study in Queensland)?

I’ve had so much affection towards technology since I was 5-6 years old when my Dad allowed me to play around with his laptop, and since then I've been quite interested in the technology of things. That was probably how I decided to take Information Technology as my major. I love to see how technology can advance human lives, be it apps or even hardware like our mobile devices.
 
Studying in Queensland was part of a double degree program that University of Indonesia has with University of Queensland. I took 5 semesters in Indonesia and the remaining 8 semesters in Australia.

What career-advice would you give future students thinking about studying in Queensland?

Queensland is such a great state for taking your university degree. Queensland also has some of the top universities in the world, including my alma mater, University of Queensland (#36 in 2021 US News Global Ranking, #46 in QS World University), QUT and also Griffith University, among many others. Population density, facilities, social vicinities and also weather climate are great.

What's the easiest way to develop a social-life in Queensland?

There were plenty of social clubs in the campus that helped me develop my social-life in Queensland. I participated in Indonesia students association (UQISA) and also joined a couple of other clubs like football (soccer) and gaming.

What are you doing now in your career?

I now work for ByteDance in Indonesia as Head of Brand Partnerships. In the past 15 years of my career, my key roles and responsibilities are around monetization, commercialization and advertising in technology, media and e-Commerce industries.

Why did you decide to follow your chosen career path?

When I graduated, I took my first year as a freelance web developer and managing couple of projects. I realized that a sense of corporate structure and management was something that I needed to expand my experience. Hence, since then I worked mostly in multinational technology companies in sales and marketing related roles. My study and experience at The University of Queensland has definitely helped me to land roles in the likes of Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and now ByteDance.

Posted by: Study Queensland