Seven name tags from five different companies, spanning eight years of work in retail and F&B. That was what Bunga, 37, posted on Threads, along with a simple caption:
“Every company has its own story. Grateful for every experience.”
The post accumulated over 10,900 likes. People recognised something in it that career advice rarely says plainly: that retail and F&B, industries many Malaysians treat as temporary or embarrassing, can take you somewhere, if you stay long enough to learn what they have to teach.
How it started
As told to SAYS, Bunga began her working life as a cashier at an AEON Mall. In 2018, she joined FamilyMart as a store supervisor with a starting salary of RM2,100. From there, she moved through Elews Mart in 2020 and then Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus until 2022. Each role added something to what she knew, about operations, about staff management, about how the industry actually works from the inside.
In 2022, she joined ZUS Coffee through a six-month trainee programme, worked her way up to outlet manager, and stayed for two years. In 2024, she joined CHAGEE as an area manager. Her salary today is RM9,000 a month. She oversees more than 20 outlets of the Chinese milk tea chain.
What she says progression actually requires
Bunga is measured about what got her here. She does not frame it as luck or as a simple matter of working hard and waiting. When SAYS asked her what she believed set candidates apart in this industry, she was specific.
“Knowledge about F&B itself and your achievements throughout your time in the industry are very important,” she said.
According to her, employers evaluating candidates for management roles will look at audit reports, depth of understanding of standard operating procedures, how a person manages staff, and how they handle outlet problems and customer service situations. A strong sales figure matters, but it is not the whole picture.
“Whether an outlet has high sales or not, you need to know how to manage the staff and solve outlet problems,” she said.
As an area manager, Bunga’s work now extends well beyond any single outlet. She monitors performance and operations across more than 20 branches, ensures that the managers under her understand their responsibilities, and travels frequently to visit outlets personally because she finds she cannot assess a situation properly without seeing it herself.
“I’m the type who needs to visit the outlet myself before I’m satisfied,” she said.
She is not calling it success yet
Despite everything her name tags represent, Bunga does not use the word success to describe where she is. The post, with its collection of uniforms from companies she has moved through, is not a victory lap but a record of a person who treated each stop seriously enough to take something from it before moving on.
“To say that I’ve succeeded is still too early. But the effort to reach this level has definitely not been easy. There’s a lot that we need to know and learn,” she said.
For anyone looking at the F&B and retail sector and wondering whether there is a real career to be built inside it, Bunga’s name tags are a better answer than most.
Submit your story to ym.efillaerni@olleh and you may be featured on In Real Life Malaysia.
Read also: ‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman – In Real Life
https://inreallife.my/i-gave-up-my-family-to-pursue-my-dreams-shares-34-yo-msian-woman/
‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman
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