In 2022, a platform called MalaysianPAYGAP (MPG) quickly went viral, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers in the span of weeks, if not days. Its approach was simple — in a country where talking about salaries was taboo, it made salaries transparent, complete with a dashboard that lets you filter by industry and experience and sort from highest to lowest.
Four years later, it is still changing employee mindsets and attitudes about talking about wages openly.
Not long after MPG’s initial fame, the spotlight shifted to the person behind it: Prestine Davekhaw, a 20-something, can-do-it-all entrepreneur who won thousands of dollars to start this project.
But even before starting her own company, Davekhaw was already very resourceful. She had to be, because she needed the money to stay afloat while pursuing a PR and advertising degree in the US.
Imposter syndrome at a private Malaysian college
Growing up in Penang in a Chinese school, Davekhaw wanted to study journalism in Taiwan.
But she ended up going to Chicago, a pretty far cry from her original dreams.
The truth was, Davekhaw admits, her mum was never exactly the keenest on education. Despite her older sister’s superior grades, her mum didn’t support her medical school ambitions.
But when it came to Davekhaw’s turn, her mum was dating someone who had sent his kids to the US and was now confident that anyone would benefit from an education that prioritises critical thinking.
“He was trying to convince me that if I go to the US, I would have a global academic passport and I can work in any country. If I went to Taiwan, I could only work in Taiwan,” she says.
With that, she got into the American University Program in INTI International University, which marked her first time meeting “smart students who spoke English so fluently”.
Many students go abroad and feel imposter syndrome. Davekhaw felt it even in her home country.
She muses, “That gave me a lot of stress; I felt like I never fit in.”
So, when she was choosing schools, she picked something no one else did. Many chose state schools, so she picked a private school with smaller class sizes – DePaul University, where she pursued a PR and advertising degree.
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Studying abroad when your family can’t afford it
But she didn’t realise how much more expensive the tuition for private schools would be.
She thought she had made a good choice by choosing Chicago over New York or Los Angeles, but the windy city can still be quite expensive.
Her mum wasn’t mentally prepared for it, either.
“The first two semesters, she was giving me a lot of small complaints about the financial situation,” she says. “That gave me a lot of stress, so I just told her that I’m going to try to make it out on my own.”
And that’s how she started using TaskRabbit, an online marketplace matching freelance service workers with people who need household help.
And thanks to a scholarship, Davekhaw had a social security number and was permitted to work. She put that social security number to good use, applying for a credit card so she could help students pay their tuition while she earned credit card points. (A social security number issued by the US government to track earnings, report income to the IRS, and manage government benefits. It’s needed to apply for a credit card.)
“I was being really resourceful,” the PR and advertising degree student says.
It wasn’t even her own idea to do it, but other international students gave her tips and ideas. Specifically, it was a lot of the Chinese students with whom Davekhaw could communicate in their native tongue.
“Being bilingual in that university benefited me a lot,” she says. “They trust Malaysians, because they know we are talented in languages.”
Davekhaw is based in Malaysia but often travels to other countries to document interesting stories. Source: Prestine Davekhaw
Venturing into photography
To get the best jobs on Taskrabbit, you’d have to stay on the app and bid for work as soon as they come through.
“While I was in class, I would just keep tapping on the app, and I would schedule all the work between classes,” Davekhaw recalls.
Most tasks, like sending flowers, would pay around US$15. But she noticed photography gigs would pay more, with a rate of US$100.
She didn’t even have a camera, but she would borrow it from friends so she could capture those opportunities.
She was so good at it that some international students even recruited her to help in their photography classes. One student liked Davekhaw’s photography so much that she encouraged her dad to buy her a Leica camera for Davekhaw to take more photos.
“It was crazy lucky [for me],” the PR and advertising degree graduate admits. “All of my friends at that time, they were very generous in lending help to enable me to do the things that I was doing.”
Part of it comes down to being honest about your situation and being receptive to help in the first place. If people don’t know what you’re going through, they can’t help anyway.
And speaking to Davekhaw, she does come off as someone without airs. She’s honest about her weaknesses and is receptive to receiving help – traits that are rare of a successful entrepreneur.
Disappearing Cultures is an effort by Prestine Davekhaw that has also garnered plenty of attention. Souce: WiT Singapore
“Am I wasting my PR and advertising degree?”
Through her photography gig, Davekhaw became connected with a fashion influencer from Malaysia. They worked together for many years, even after Davekhaw left the US, having become quite tired of her hustling ways.
But over the years as she worked with various fashion clients and influencers, she would wonder, “Am I wasting my degree? Why am I not working in a company?”
But her internship days had also left her doubting a career in advertising.
“I saw how everybody was working so hard to promote toilet paper. And I thought, what a bizarre life,” she says. “I like the creativity, but do I like to sell things to people? I don’t think so.”
And she had the same nagging feeling while shooting fashion. “When I’m on a shoot, there are a lot of bad things that happen. Influencers and models might have bad tempers and throw tantrums. But I can create beautiful images to sell things you don’t need.”
Although that world was no longer fulfilling, photography was still a big part of her life. In fact, it was what led to MPG. Davekhaw was searching futilely for freelance photography rates – and that resulted in her creating a one-stop platform, MPG, for freelance rates and salaries.
The PR and advertising degree graduate never expected MPG to become as successful as it is now. When she started, it was only to serve her own interests, but it’s now grown into the only platform to share wages and salaries in Malaysia.
Outside of MPG, Davekhaw has found a place where she can let her creative inclinations shine. She does this with Disappearing Cultures, a platform that captures professions, cultures, and people whose stories would otherwise be lost to the wind. Think a Maldivian midwife, a charcoal factory worker, and the last traditional market of the Arab world. It’s a platform that has amassed tens of thousands of followers and has even secured brand deals.
Davekhaw’s experience is a reminder of the power of photography, a field seen as frivolous and unlucrative, but served as a key path for a PR and advertising degree graduate to find her footing, indirect as the journey may have been.
