Alumni Spotlight: Pattra Reakatanan, MISM 2005
Dec 13, 2011
PATTRA REAKATANAN, MISM 2005
Founder and CEO, Jubkoo.com
Please describe your current occupation and industry:
I established Jubkoo (http://www.jubkoo.com), an online dating website for Thai people, in 2009. The number of Jubkoo members has been growing well since its first launch. Currently, it has the highest traffic compared to other web sites of its kind in Thailand.
Describe your daily duties, roles and responsibilities.
My daily duties are to make sure that everything in the website runs smoothly, customers are satisfied with the service and employees are happy with their jobs. I also spend time doing some more research on technology every day to improve the website.
Why did you personally choose this line of work?
I chose an online dating service for Thai people because most Thai people are not fluent in English, so a dating website in Thai language would be helpful. At that time, the other dating websites in Thailand were not user-friendly. Additionally, the number of people using the Internet is growing too. Therefore, I decided to start Jubkoo and make it simple to use.
How did your Heinz training help lead you to your current occupation and how does it support your work?
Studying MISM at Heinz School was vital to creating Jubkoo because I did not have any IT background at all. I came from a medical background and knew zero IT before attending MISM. All my IT knowledge stems from my time at Heinz College.
What was the most valuable thing about your Heinz experience?
I obtained a lot of business and IT knowledge from my professors and classmates. The courses were well-designed. The environment was very encouraging and fun. By the way, I would like to thank Professor Michael McCarthy. He was very kind and helpful. I have learned the most from him.
How specifically did Heinz College prepare you adequately and uniquely for your current position?
Heinz College equipped me with excellent IT knowledge so I was very confident to start a business related to IT.
Please share an interesting bit of information about your life (personal or professional) that your fellow alumni might not know:
Carnegie Mellon is so rich at everything. You can learn whatsoever you like. Believe it or not, my most interesting course at CMU was Speech and Phonetics, at School of Drama. It was excellently taught by Natalie Baker Shirer. I have a plan to create a website sharing my English Phonetics knowledge to help Thai people to improve their skills at communicating in English.
Feel free to add any other comments relevant to your time at Carnegie Mellon:
Carnegie Mellon takes very good care of its students. The staff works their best for the students. I had two surgeries while I was attending CMU and the health insurance department gave me good advice about health care providers and insurance claims.
I am glad that I had a chance to attend Carnegie Mellon University.
-------------
Interested in supporting Heinz College students and initiatives like those featured in this story? Click here for more information.