“I don’t have a degree in IT,” admits Vincent Quah, a regional head at Amazon Web Services. During his tenure at university, he studied microbiology.
Today, he works for one of the world’s top cloud computing companies. So how did he make the jump?
This event’s attendees are not only invested in tech – they’re invested in employment in general, to the effect of packing a convention hall on a Saturday afternoon to figure out how to get ahead at LIT ASEAN Careers, an event co-organised by Young NTUC and Temasek Foundation. The event is designed to help professionals, some still in school, to look beyond their borders to the region at a time when the world shifts more and more toward globalization.
Singapore has a reputation for being an advantageous place to do business is nothing new. However, as globalization continues to shift the way that the workforce operates, how can job seekers maximize their opportunities and knowledge?
The answer poses several voices at the event, lies with an exchange – sending Singapore’s already-strong talent pool overseas to work in diverse environments to contribute to the growth of the region. The hope is that they’ll come back with stories and newfound experiences on cultures and economies to inspire others.
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But even as a broad range of ASEAN-related career topics arise – infrastructure and coal in Indonesia, textiles in Thailand, and machinery in Vietnam – the conversation returns to tech: how fresh graduates can break into it, how to grow a career in it, and how to work specifically within the ASEAN region, where successful tech companies tend to be able to both hyper-localize and execute business plans on a regional level.
The good news is that stories like Vincent’s aren’t uncommon in the tech world, which changes so quickly that employees often pick up skills on the job, rather than in the classroom.
For Lien Choong Luen, general manager of Go-Jek Singapore, his position as country head at the regional unicorn followed a career in the army that took him on different missions around the world.
“It requires you to work hard and try new things,” he says. At the end of the day, that would be enough translatable experience to propel him into the tech world.
Here, Choong Luen shares his experience from an interview he had in China for an internship, where he had to answer three questions:
1. Why should I choose you instead of someone else?
2. What is your industry or market expertise?
3. What is your long-term commitment?
It’s not that the job required exact answers for these questions, Choong Luen details, but it’s a useful framework around which to craft your approach to job hunting and interviews.
The industry needs people of all backgrounds in these areas that Lien Choong names as the areas where talent can make the most impact right now.
1. Data science
As globalization pushes companies to compete on larger and larger playing fields, being able to draw out stories and actionable insights from giant sets of data – customer data, lifestyle data, etc – has become a necessity.
While data science degrees are available from universities, the world of data requires those working in it to keep on their toes and continue learning, as the field develops new applications every few months that stretch even into traditional industries like accounting. The field is growing rapidly within tech, and it requires talent globally.
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Data science is a field that can require its employees to have skillsets ranging from higher mathematics, Python coding, or the ability to tell stories with numbers.
2. Cybersecurity, trust, and safety
Depending on the company, gaining users’ trust on an app can look like stellar customer service skills or legal know-how when it comes to dealing with law compliance across Southeast Asian countries with slightly different regulations around national safety and a developing regional approach to privacy.
Building customers’ trust with a brand, especially one that handles sensitive information like their credit card numbers, requires more than just developers. It requires marketers who know what tools to use to find their audiences and programmers who know how to work with teams – from customer service to lawyers.
That means that this is a field that has a wide range of opportunities. Those looking to break into cybersecurity teams can look to hone their developer skills for systems design or protection.
However, this is also a field that requires communication – within companies, with customers, and with company policymakers – to help communicate that trust and move tech companies forward.
3. Leadership
Not every leader in tech has a background as adventurous as Choong Luen’s, or one that involves a pivot like Vincent’s. However, their careers are testaments to the number of different experiences needed to take tech companies to the next level.
But how does that translate into leadership? When one needs to lead a cross-discipline team where talent may span from product development to testing to developing, what kind of experience does that manager need to bring to the table?
Tech leadership is a field where several different backgrounds can apply – just be ready to talk about how and why your certain skills and experience apply to management in the interview.
Finding the right path is up to you
Many roads lead to tech, but it’s up to job seekers to steer themselves moving forward. When in doubt, take the harder choice, which often results in more growth.
“Seek the path of most resistance as you are learning, and assume the greatest risk that is possible for you, given that you are young. There is no sort of perfect market opportunity. Within each market, find one that you love, and go for it,” Choong Luen concludes.
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Image Credit: Kiyun Lee
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