Q: Tell us more about your current role, and what a typical day is like at UOB?
A: My current role at UOB is a combination of Compliance and Data Analytics. Compliance mainly deals with Anti-Money Laundering risk and Counter Financing Terrorism risk (AML/CFT) that is related to the bank. It involves dealing with how criminals move money and during such investigations, a combination of data analytics and finance knowledge will be utilised. My day at UOB is typically 9am-6pm unless something comes up, requiring my team and I to deal with it urgently. We mainly work in SQL, R or dashboarding (Power BI and Qlik Sense), although some of our work is in Excel.
Q: What skills do you think are valuable in the workforce now?
A: Networking – Knowing how to make an impression and present yourself well was crucial in helping me secure a place Deloitte’s Risk Analytics department. Being able to collaborate with others is another important skill, which I acquired at NUS Business School (thankful!). I did not have the luxury of choosing my groupmates in some of the modules I took, which forced me to learn how to work with different types of people. This serves me well in my current role, which requires me to work in cross-functional teams and with people from other units often.
Q: You took up an analytics role in Deloitte as an intern, which led to a full-time job there. Could you share more about your role and how it has brought you to where you are today?
A: For the Risk Analytics internship at Deloitte, I was new to Data Analytics but still decided to go for it, even at the expense of taking a Leave of Absence (LOA) from the regular semester. It was through this internship that I discovered my passion for data analytics, which has led me to this point in my career. On this note, I would encourage my peers and juniors to take a leap of faith to do an internship that you are interested in rather than a seemingly safer fallback option. Internships mostly do not require prior experience, but it would be good acquire relevant background knowledge by taking the right courses. Embrace any opportunity to learn something new! Of course, do not jump into something that you have no interest in.
Q: Why did you decide to join UOB?
A: Prior to UOB, I had interned at Deloitte and eventually took up a full-time role in Risk Analytics. Risk is a very broad area – it encompasses credit risk, market risk, internal controls risk, etc. My team supports any risk aspects that involve data analytics. At Deloitte, the Risk Analytics department performs a more advisory role. This provided me great exposure to the field of risk management. I even got to work on the development and implementation of Deloitte’s advisory project! After two years, I decided on the specific area that I hoped to specialize in and further develop my skill set. This is when I joined UOB as I get to come into banks internally to learn and further expand my knowledge in the combined areas of financial crime and Analytics.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your current role?
A: I enjoy the Data Analytics component of my current role immensely. It is a happy middle, where I am able to deepen my knowledge in both technical and business domains. I did not major in Computer Science or Statistics, so being in this space allows me to learn from colleagues with extensive knowledge in IT and software development. At the same time, I get to contribute business and financial perspectives, which is my area of expertise.
Q: Did you encounter any challenges making the transition from Accounting and Finance to Analytics?
A: At the beginning, it felt like a big jump. However, the more projects you engage in over time, the more comfortable you get. Programming languages are mostly structured the same way – most of them have “for” loops or “if-else” conditions which are usually similar, differing only in syntax.
Different people learn differently. Some people take online courses, others learn best on the job and from their peers. I belong to the latter group. When given a piece of code, I will try to understand it and learn how it works. When I encounter problems or errors, I will then Google for help. Most programmers I know have a Google tab left on their browser to troubleshoot issues as they arise. So being savvy with online searches is another important skill.
Q: Are there other skills that students acquire if they wish to pursue a career in Analytics?
A: I would advise students who are interested in Analytics to go for internships. During your internship, ask yourself important questions on how you can value-add and optimise a process. For example, if you are given an Excel file, and tasked to combine certain data, should you combine it manually? Would you have to replicate it again in the future? If yes, you should probably build something to simplify the process and eradicate repetition. The proof of concept is also very important as it provides you with hands-on experience, and a chance to hone your skills.
Q: In closing, can you share some industry trends, opportunities or threats and how one can leverage on these?
A: There is a real chance that the role of data analytics will become obsolete. Designing an analytics-supported process is a one-off project, as long as the application runs automatically thereafter. Data cleaning, which is currently a huge part of data analytics will (hopefully) become smaller as the quality of data input improves. A data analyst’s role might then move towards advanced analytics and Data Science, such as Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). These spaces still need teams to build models, and define the data that goes into the model. So for those who are new to coding and programming languages, the first step should still be to learn fundamental analytics, and actively consider how it can be used to improve day-to-day processes. At the same time, we should keep up to speed with the latest trends. The future of Data Analytics will go beyond SQL, or Dashboarding. Even I’m still learning from my peers in the industry.