Martin is currently a Global Automation Development Lead at P&G. Before this, he was a consultant in Accenture’s ASEAN Intelligent Automation team and was a management consultant at Ernst & Young (EY) Advisory.

As an undergraduate, Martin was a Dean’s Scholar and was actively involved in a variety of committees, such as the Data Analytics Committee of the NUS Business Analytics Consulting Team

Q: What made you join NUS Business Analytics Consulting Team during your undergraduate days?

My first exposure to technology was in primary school, where I was involved in Lego robotics competitions. Since then, I have always been fascinated by all things digital. Furthermore, I worked extensively on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripts during my internship with Credit Suisse. I realised that I get a great deal of satisfaction doing automation and coding related work. It was this experience that convinced me to join the Business Analytics team as they had ongoing programs to the broader community to develop VBA skills.

Q: You were involved in private equity investments during one of your internships, did you consider pursuing that career after graduation?

Having taken many finance modules in university, I always thought that private equity (PE) was a fascinating field. I was fascinated because of how PE was fundamentally different from the ‘mainstream’ financial products most people are familiar with.

I was fortunate to be able to learn more about it during my Field Service Project (FSP), experiencing what it is like from the inside. As part of the project, my team had to compile a research paper on PE investment opportunities in Asia. Although I enjoyed my time there, I did not choose to pursue it further as I realised I am more interested in technology-related work.

Q: What made you switch from EY to Accenture after one year?

During my time at EY, I picked up Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which involves building software robots that mimic human actions across digital systems. I had the opportunity to build robots for several clients and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. Given Accenture’s digital proposition, my growing inclination towards deepening my expertise in emerging technologies led me to make my first career move.

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed my time at EY, and I am thankful to have been able to work on a variety of projects and make many friends. The people at EY are very friendly, collaborative and good at what they do.

At Accenture, I was based in Bangkok and was on the onshore technical lead for the RPA implementations there. My responsibilities there include solution design, robot development, infrastructure setup, technical support and training.

Aside from the above, I also learnt a great deal from the overseas exposure and my mentorship of several others who were new to RPA’s capabilities. Overall, helping the client build up everything from scratch is a highly valuable experience, and I am proud to have been part of it all.

Q: What is one of the toughest challenges you faced over the years?

I always knew that my strengths were in numbers and logic, but I also knew that I was not keen on pursuing accounting related jobs. It was very challenging to position myself, a fresh accounting graduate, for technology-related positions.

For a start, I picked up some technical skills such as VBA and Python to demonstrate that I have a genuine interest and knowledge in such fields. I continued to hone my technical skills and focused on RPA as my key specialisation. Fortunately, some companies took a chance on me. Since then, I have been learning more and more about things that I never heard of in university.

Q: What skills should we prepare for a role in consulting?

Soft skills are of utmost importance. Handling clients, managing communications, working with anyone and everyone; these are all fundamental to daily consulting work. Of course, having a specific specialisation that you are well known for would be greatly beneficial too. Furthermore, the innate passion to learn, teach and help others improve will make one a great asset within any team.

Q: Are there any final tips you have for students?

Do not restrict your career based on what you have studied, do not allow one choice to decide your entire professional life. Always be true to yourself, and be open to what works best for you. One way to figure out what works for you is to keep trying different things, and internships are a great way to do so. I made it a point to try an entirely different field for each internship I had. Slowly but surely, you will find the path you ought to take.