Can you give me a brief description of your NOC journey?

I went to New York City for a year where I worked as a Solution Consultant at a fast-growing tech start-up called Workato. Concurrently, I attended classes at New York University (NYU) and took modules under NOC-NUS. A considerable part of my NOC journey was also taking part in hackathons, product management related courses and tech-talks. Apart from all these things, I also had so much fun making new friends and exploring the US.

What made you decide to go on NOC?

I have always had an interest in entrepreneurship. I loved learning about how businesses start and the struggles they faced on their journey to be successful. As cheesy as it sounds, I always wanted to create my own start-up and find ways to provide something of value to others.

While talking to an ISE senior, he introduced the NOC program to me. I found that it was the perfect programme for me as I can be around like-minded individuals who were “entrepreneurial”. It also gave students like me the chance to work and learn from the start-ups that we were interning at.

Being an ISE student, we are always curious about how we can apply our problem-solving skills in various sectors. That curiosity cultivated in ISE translated into motivation to put myself out there and apply my ISE knowledge overseas to help start-ups grow.

How is the work culture different from Singapore? 

Not to give a politically right answer but every company (whether it be MNCs or start-ups) and its location will have a different work culture. So it is definitely difficult to compare.

But I found 2 aspects really interesting in the company that I worked for:

1. I was never treated like an intern. I was tasked to handle clients alone and ensure project success. Having the autonomy to make these decisions was daunting at first but being challenged every day made working there fulfilling.
2. Everyone is objectively vocal. Opinions and ideas are shared freely and objections are made constantly. I was encouraged and expected to make my views heard, which was definitely different. In Singapore, most internships involve you doing tasks assigned by your manager, whereas, in the US, they want you to grow and think more critically.

What was your greatest challenge during NOC?

TIME MANAGEMENT.

I can't stress this enough. Many people think that spending one year overseas is all fun but unfortunately you have a lot of things to do and focus on. I got burned out the first month I was there, trying to do everything and anything. Personally, I felt that it was arduous to focus on the 5 pillars that I am going to mention. After weighing my options and looking at what I wanted out of my NOC experience, I decided to prioritise on 3 of these pillars.

1. Full-time internship
2. School Work (partnering university modules & graded NOC modules)
3. Travelling (exploring things to do around the country or city)
4. Networking + Events (Hackathons, Tech Events and others)
5. Personal Venture (working on your own start-up & pitching to NOC professors)

What was your most memorable experience during NOC?

There are many to choose from but if I had to choose one, it would be traveling to the company’s HQ in Silicon Valley (SV) with my co-workers for 2 weeks. Everyone across the various office branches came to SV. We had conferences in the morning and in the evening, it will be a full out party. Those 2 weeks, I learned a lot from these conferences and met plenty of co-workers while also partying and having fun at night. It was the true definition of “work hard, play hard”. Not to mention, I also hung out with the NOC SV people and it was a refreshing experience being around familiar faces as we stayed up the whole night talking about our NOC experience and just chilling.

What was your biggest takeaway from NOC?

My biggest takeaway would be my growth as an individual. I feel that I have grown to see things from many different perspectives, including areas such as what my passions are, my skills and my purpose in everything that I do. My views in terms of life, in general, have changed drastically. It has definitely opened my mind up in terms of how other people from different countries think, operate and work.

How did ISE prepare you for NOC?

ISE helps us look at problems in a different way, we have a more system-oriented way of looking at issues and thinking of ways to solve them. As an ISE student, you will learn how to break down big problems into a system of small problems. ISE has built a mindset of systems thinking within me, this has helped me during my NOC interview, the technical job interview and also during my internship. As mentioned earlier, ISE students are problem solvers as we constantly look at ways to improve systems and processes. This is a very valuable skill set that can be applied throughout your life.

What advice would you give to Pre-University students who are looking for a global experience in university?

NUS definitely gives students plenty of opportunities to explore global experiences in university. My advice is to first find out more about the different programs that are being offered such as Student Exchange, Summer/Winter Programs and NOC and see which ones interest you. Next, you can start talking to seniors who have done these programs to find out more about their experience. Lastly, prepare for and apply for such programs.