Career summary

Faye Leck is a PR professional with a passion for people engagement and event management. In 2018, she completed her Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Communication and Media Studies, at Monash University.

Since graduating, Faye has successfully executed numerous PR campaigns for notable FMCG brands, including Mission Foods, New Balance, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Bvlgari. Furthermore, she has led the PR launches for reality TV series, The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition, luxury boutique hotel group, Garcha Hotels, and luxury hotel booking app, HoteLux, during the pandemic.

In her current role as Account Manager at Petrie PR, Faye works with a global portfolio of luxury hotel brands, bringing to the table a wealth of media and influencer relationships and a vast experience with international clients. At the same time, she continues to stay connected to her Monash roots as President of Monash University Alumni Singapore.

Career pathway

2023 – Account Manager, Petrie PR
2022 – Junior Account Manager, AKA Asia
Present – President, Monash University Alumni Singapore | 2018 – Committee Member
2021 – Senior Public Relations Executive, R.S.V.P PR. EVENT. DIGITAL
2020 – Senior Account Executive, DIFY Singapore
2019 – Public Relations Executive, The Good Folks
2018 – Corporate Communications Executive, Cityneon | 2018 – Intern
2018 – President, Singapore Association of Monash (SAM)
2016 – Administrative Assistant, Cengage Learning
2016 – Bachelor of Arts, Monash University
2015 – Intern, Strategic Public Relations Group
2013 – Writer, Musichel
2013 – Integrated Events and Project Management, Singapore Polytechnic

Why did you decide to study a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University in Australia?

I've always been really interested in literature, art, and languages. So, when it came to university, I was really hoping to find a degree where I could learn some more soft skills that I could apply in my future career, whilst also exploring the topics that I was passionate about.

I’d already completed a three-year diploma in Singapore prior to university, so I managed to get Recognition of Prior Learning for a few units at Monash, which then allowed me to condense my studies into two years. This meant that at Monash, I could gain the experience that’s so sought after by the PR industry in Singapore, whilst being able to get back into the workforce as soon as possible.

As an international student, how welcoming was the Monash community to your cultural differences and what sort of opportunities did you have to celebrate them? 

From the get-go, Monash offered an amazing orientation program. I was also living on campus, so I felt a really great sense of community around me.

They offered a lot of opportunities to get together with other students, so I immediately felt welcome, and I wasn’t as homesick as I had imagined I would be. The Singaporean community at Monash is also quite large, which helped put me at ease. It was nice knowing there were other Singaporeans around, and if I ever needed support from someone who could relate to me.

I only ever had positive experiences. There were so many clubs and societies that welcomed me with open arms too. I joined the Monash Singapore Association when I started, and I ended up leading it as the President before I graduated.

How would you say the Bachelor of Arts prepared you for your career in the PR industry?

The soft skills that I learned at Monash were really crucial in getting my career started in Singapore – from the creative thinking that my lecturers encouraged, to listening to different points of view from my peers, to learning to take my communication abilities to the next level. Living in Australia by myself also taught me a lot of independence and problem-solving skills. All of these skills have proved really transferable and still help me today with my work in PR.

I also learnt some more technical things at Monash, such as understanding the history of media, learning about best practices, and comparing the media landscape in Australia to that in Singapore.

The PR industry in Australia is slightly more advanced than what we have in Singapore, mainly because people in Australia are able to be much more creative and open-minded. In Singapore, there’s often a lot of red tape around what you can or cannot do, and many of my clients are not willing to challenge conservative thinking in their ad campaigns.

Overall, my experience of being in Australia, observing social media campaigns and understanding the kind of news that the Australian media covers, has really helped me with my career today.

How do you use the skills you learned in your degree in your current role as an Account Manager?

At the moment, I’m working on a couple of regional accounts, so I occasionally work with Australian agencies. I think that because I’ve got that experience in Australia, it’s easier for me to understand what they may want and adapt to their working style, which has been great.

At Monash, I also gained a lot of experience working alongside people from different cultures, which has really helped my communication with other foreign agencies.

Tell us about your internship experience. What led you to those roles and how have they benefited you in your career?

As part of my Diploma in Integrated Events and Project Management at Singapore Polytechnic, I had to do an internship for six months at a company of my choice. Most of my peers went for internships at event companies, but I decided to try PR because I love writing, and I love social media as well. That was my first step into PR, and it helped me to realise that PR was what I wanted to do.

Of course, PR is an industry that values experience, connections, and networks, so I took up multiple internships at PR agencies throughout my semester breaks while I was at Monash. Each of these helped me to foster the media connections that I needed when I started my career after graduation.

What sort of extracurricular activities did you participate in at Monash?

While at Monash, I was on the committee for the Singaporean Association of Monash.

In my first year, I was the Events and PR Director, so I helped the club plan events and create all the marketing collateral, which really helped build my experience and prepare me for a career after graduation. In my second year, I became the President, which was another great experience in itself.

What does it mean to you now to be the President of Monash University Alumni Singapore? 

For me, it’s an opportunity for me to give back and stay connected to the community. All my peers from Monash who are back in Singapore agree that those were the best years of our lives. We all studied different degrees and we’re all working in different industries, but the Alumni Association is a platform for us to come back together and reminisce about those times. We also use it to discuss how we can potentially work together in the future, so there's a lot of synergy there.

All the Monash alumni we have in Singapore are doing great work. They each have great positions, they give back to society in Singapore and they volunteer when they can. Basically, we're just a group of people who enjoy giving back and enjoy connecting.

Would you recommend doing the Bachelor of Arts at Monash University?

Of course. When I chat with my other Singaporean friends who didn’t have the opportunity to study overseas, I see quite an obvious difference in the teaching styles and the university experience they had.

In Singapore, it’s very results-focused and it's all about the theory. Whereas at Monash, I was given the opportunity to be creative, and everyone was so much more open-minded. I really appreciate the experience that I got from Monash, and I think that anyone else would too.