While in her previous job as Senior Sales & Marketing Executive for Eng Wah Global, Athalia Ho noted the growth and developments in IT over the years and became interested in what IT has to offer. For Athalia, that interest slowly developed into the possibility of entering the IT profession.
“The developments in IT made the IT industry more accessible and less daunting for newcomers to enter the field,” she said, “I strongly believe in lifelong learning and adopting technology to achieve progress in the world. There was a desire to improve myself that motivated the career move.”
With little skills and experience in IT, Athalia wanted to select a school and curriculum that would help that progress from scratch, “I chose to take up the NUS-ISS Graduate Diploma in Systems Analysis (GDipSA) as it had a curriculum that is rigorous, thorough and with a timetable that suited me. Above that, the institute is reputable and had many outstanding members of faculty.”
“The programme provided vast exposure to many different types of programmatic languages and project management principles that has built a foundation which allows me to jumpstart from my arts background into IT,” she continued.
The GDipSA programme is designed for non-IT graduates intending to craft a new career path in the IT industry. IT graduates and professionals who wish to advance their careers in their current field and recognise the need to equip themselves with the latest IT knowledge and skills to stay relevant may apply as well.
Having graduated 42 batches of students, this programme is going into its 45th intake. Many of our graduates are now prominent senior IT professionals, who have benefited from this programme.
It includes a 5-month internship where students are assigned to companies to work on real-world projects, giving them hands-on practice and industry experience.
For her internship, Athalia was assigned to Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) as a Data Analyst, working on a new Business Intelligence programme that RWS was implementing. “It was a steep learning curve as I was a novice in the areas of finance and data analytics and I had to overcome it by researching papers and reading up on the subject,” said Athalia, “but it was great experience working at an organisation as large and prolific as RWS! I was given many opportunities to learn and the chance to study how a successful organisation like RWS runs.”
The skills and knowledge which Athalia has gotten from the GDipSA programme eventually helped her secure a job with Meltwater as a Media Analyst, before her graduation. “I’m excited with the opportunities that the programme has opened up for me, which allowed me to make the career move into IT I wanted,” said Athalia, “I am now working on big data and business intelligence and creating insights into quantitative data to formulate prescriptive and predictive analytics, which I enjoy very much!”
For others who are contemplating a career switch into IT like herself, Athalia advised, “Do it! Find something you are passionate about, take the plunge and see where it takes you. It would definitely be a rewarding experience.”
In the same spirit of lifelong learning that has launched her IT career, this is not the end of the road for Athalia. “Once I grow into my current role, I hope to eventually embark on the Master of Technology programmes at NUS-ISS,” she smiled.
The February 2018 intake for the Graduate Diploma in Systems Analysis (GDipSA) programme is now open for application till 15 Oct. For more information on the GDipSA programme, click here