Feby Siahaan - Communication Enthusiast!

SIAPA AKU? 

Black shirt and pants; that is what you will see most of the time with Feby Siahaan.

First Chapter

Born in 1972, she is the fifth from six children in a Bataknnese family. Growing up in a democratic family where they get to ask questions about nearly everything, Feby grew up questioning the world and always keen to find the answers. But never let her appearance deceives you. Although her look might be a little rough for your taste, her set of skills and knowledge are like the red diamond; unique, difficult to come by, and cost a lot to get hold of.

Feby wanted to continue her high school in SMA 3, one of the top notch High School in South East Asia. Despites all of the arguments that she had with her family, she still went to Bandung for her high school. Born in Medan, she was the first on her big family to move out of the house at the very young age. After graduated from SMA 3, she went on to get her bachelor degree in Parahyangan Catholic University majoring in Civil Engineering, the major that was chosen by her father.

She had her first job on second semester in the university. She was running out of pocket money and did not want to ask her parents for it. Instead, she put up an advertisement in Pikiran Rakyat, a local newspaper in Bandung that said she was good at Math and willing to tutor students. Not long after that, she had three students and was paid hefty sum of money.

It was 1997 when she graduated as Bachelor of Engineering. Indonesia was facing monetary crisis at that time. There was no building to be built, and all kind of developments were being terminated. Feby, liked other graduates at that time, could not find a proper job. As a very strong-willed and very dynamic kind of person, Feby applied to all the jobs there was and went on to any interview she could get her hands on.

Second Chapter
There was this job she interviewed. Having not known what kind of job or the company she was being interviewed in, Feby found herself at the last stage of the interviewing process. When the interviewer asked her the reason why she wanted to be a journalist, she simply said “who wants to be a journalist?” And strangely enough that was how she got in as a finance journalist in Indonesia most prestige news company, Tempo. Although it severed her relationship with her father for years, journalist was the job that got her to Australia.

Working as a journalist led her to meet, interview, and build connection to many people that will take important part on her later year. She met Kimberley, the liaison from World Bank that offered her the chance to represent Indonesia in Asia Pacific Journalist Exchange held in Australia on 2000. For over a year she spent her time in Melbourne working at The ABC Network and in Sydney working at The Sydney Morning Herald. In Australia, she learned how to create radio broadcasting and newsroom; the later would be used to create the first newsroom in Tempo.

Feby did not have any interest in business, economy or finance. For her, mastering business, economy, and finance was part of the job; and also she does not want to look stupid in front of her interviewee. In 2003, she was offered a scholarship in Rotterdam Business School majoring in journalism. By that time she already had 10 years of experience as a journalist. She rejected the offer and asked for a scholarship in Finance and Accounting instead. Rotterdam Business School was famous for its Business and Finance. It has a long history, and great graduates come out of that school such as Bung Hatta, Kwik Kian Gie, and Radius Prawiro. The university took her request seriously and flew down two of their high ranking officials to interview her. They had doubt on her ability because she graduated as Bachelor in Civil Engineering. In 2004, she had a Master Degree in Finance and Accounting from Rotterdam Business School. It was not after another 10 years or so that she went on and completed another Master Degree in Communication Science, and this time it was in her home country, Indonesia.

Third Chapter

During this course of her life, she had also worked as Senior Consultant of Media and Investor Relation at Weber Schandwick, lecturing on the subject of communication at Kwik Kian Gie University while simultaneously in charge of Training and Development Division in PB Taxand, as well as taking up job as trainer and speaker on various events. It is safe to conclude that her skill, among many other things, revolves around communication, media, and people. It includes media handling skill, strategic and interpersonal communication, writing skill, and teaching and mentoring as well as people development. After quitting her job as Training and Development Manager at PBTaxand, Feby will start her job as lecture at Pelita Harapan University teaching 1)Technology on Information & Communication 2) Mass Communication 3) Media & Pop Culture and 4) Ethics & Communication Philosophy on January 2019. Currently she is busy teaching children in 29 districts in Papua Province for a programme called BANGGA PAPUA. Aside from those routine, she also hold the position as the head of Teaching Team in Independent Journalist Alliance (Aliansi Jurnalistik Independen).

Her job as trainer and speakers was given to various backgrounds such as banking, commercial company, school and university, and even governmental department. Her trainees range from student, staff and manager, board of directors or top management, police and ministers. There are a few organizations who had engaged on her training, including high profile clienteles, such as Permata Bank, Nestle, Kantor Staff President, Semen Padang, Pertamina, Komnas Perempuan Republik Indonesia, Ministry of Health, PT First Media, Tbk, Heineken, Ministry of Trade, Otoritas Jasa Keuangan, Komnas Perempuan, and Densus 88.

Aside from her daily hustle and bustle life, she still manages to spare some time to do her hobbies. These include riding her Vespa around the town, swimming, travelling, and writing. In fact, she had published three books, two of which was from her travelling experience to Tibet and Yunnan. Her choices of places for travelling might not be the place that most people will visit, that is why she wrote her journey down on a book to give another traveller more insight on those two places. Another book contains tips and trick to face the media. It was from her undercover experience when she was working in Tempo.

But really, this narrative can only cover so much. You cannot expect a thousand words to tell you all about Feby Siahaan. To know more about her, you might want to ask her out for a cup of Americano. You can try dropping her an email at feby0602@gmail.com or you can contact her at 081511010166 or 08118810166.