Staff StoriesComing Home To Cango

A wife, mom, self-confessed die-hard foodie and passionate traveller, Anchen holds a BA Degree in Visual Communication Design and spent several years living in China and Vietnam. But long before those adventures, Cango Wildlife was where her professional journey began.

“It was my first grown-up job!” she says.

What stands out most when she looks back on those early years is not a particular project or campaign, but the people and the environment she was surrounded by. Cango became one of her first examples of what a workplace could feel like, with a strong sense of family, plenty of fun and people who played an important role in shaping her during the early stages of her career.

Years later, the opportunity to return presented itself. By then, both Anchen and Cango Wildlife had changed considerably. She was drawn by the chance to once again be part of an organisation that was continuing to evolve, grow and expand, while reconnecting with some of the people who had been part of her first chapter here.

Although she had never imagined herself returning, the timing felt right. Walking back through the doors as a staff member again was an interesting mix of old and new. The core beliefs, familiar faces and certain spaces were still there, but Cango itself was moving at an entirely different pace.

There was plenty to catch up on, and Anchen admits the rate of change initially made her head spin. Despite that, the feeling of being back was immediate, helped by an enthusiastic and welcoming team.

There is also a significant difference between the young graduate who first joined Cango and the person who has returned as Digital Marketing Assistant. Fresh out of university the first time around, Anchen remembers being nervous, inexperienced and determined not to disappoint. Today, she brings greater confidence, experience and knowledge to the role, even if, as she says, she is still fundamentally the same person.

The marketing landscape she has returned to is almost unrecognisable from the one she left behind.

When Anchen first worked at Cango, Facebook was the organisation’s only digital social platform. Today, there are multiple channels, formats and audiences, each providing new opportunities to tell stories and connect people with wildlife and conservation. For Anchen, that evolution is exciting. Her new role allows her to share news, animal updates and conservation stories with a far broader and more diverse audience, with even more developments on the horizon.

But despite the platforms changing, one part of marketing remains her clear favourite: storytelling. She particularly enjoys video and the opportunity to witness the work taking place behind the scenes before translating those moments into stories that people outside Cango can experience and understand.

Education is an equally important part of that process. Whether the subject is the conservation status of a species, an interesting fact about one of the animals in Cango’s care or something people can do to help the environment, Anchen sees digital content as an opportunity to make conservation knowledge more accessible.

Having been part of Cango before also gives her an unusual perspective. She has watched the organisation navigate different seasons, seen animals at various stages of their lives and witnessed the commitment of the people caring for them.