07
September
2021
|
15:45
Asia/Singapore

Championing female success in the NUS community

Staying connected, close to 100 NUS alumni tuned in to a recent webinar – and were rewarded with nuggets of wisdom on being empowered and successful as a woman in today’s landscape. Held on 1 Sep, WoW: Ignite – TIES (Technological, Informational and Education Sharing) featured three distinguished alumnae who excel in their various vocations and industries.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Science ’98), member of the NUS Alumni Advisory Board and founding chairperson of WoW (Women of W – wonder, wisdom, wealth of experience and other words of empowerment that start with ‘w’), was the moderator for the panel discussion.

Be agile in a digital economy

The first speaker was Nominated Member of Parliament, Ms Janet Ang (Business ’82) with 37 years of experience leading in the information technology sector. Sharing her views on building trust in a digital economy, Ms Ang shared about corporations’ technological efforts to enable and create a fair and non-discriminatory workplace. She also spoke on harnessing the power of digitalisation and globalisation, especially in the current context with the day-to-day redefined.

“We need to build digital-ready skills, but more importantly, we need to have the mindset and capabilities to be agile and resilient in the new normal of the digital global economy. The talent can work from anywhere; we are no longer competing with foreign EP holders but talents who can be from anywhere in the world. Companies don’t have to invest in Singapore - unless Singapore is part of the solution,” said Ms Ang.

Write your own chapters

Building on Ms Ang’s enlightening sharing, the next speaker Ms Goh Yiping (Design and Environment ’05) enlivened the session with personal anecdotes that provided refreshing learning points to inculcate a right mindset for new breakthroughs. A partner at Quest Ventures and a board member at Female Founders Network as well as the NUS Alumni Advisory Board, Ms Goh is also an e-commerce whiz who advocates female entrepreneurship.

 Working to level up the playing field for women in tech entrepreneurship, Ms Goh took the chance to encourage everyone to constantly challenge oneself and leverage opportunities that arise in the Southeast Asian market.

She said, “Courage defines a big part of my life. Most importantly, we have to set our own paths. We truly are the ones who write our own chapters. Every page we turn is an opportunity to redefine who we are. I call myself a self-destructor – I like to reinvent myself, add new skills and push limits to see what else I can achieve.”

Ms Goh urged the audience to embrace confidence and stand up for their beliefs and goals. In particular, she called for women to speak their minds, let their voices be heard and offer intra-gender support that can inspire one another.

Future-proof your career

Ms Trisha Suresh (Public Policy ’11), Public Policy and Economic Graph Manager at LinkedIn, introduced useful and practical tools to advance and pivot one’s career. A public policy professional with over a decade of experience in building partnerships, Ms Suresh works with policymakers to shape policies on technology and the future of work.

Emphasising the importance of developing both soft and digital skills, Ms Suresh stressed that a linear career path is not necessarily the default trajectory one should work towards. She explained that consistently upscaling and underdoing training is the way to go in order to future-proof one’s career and meet the challenges of the ever-changing workforce.

“The World Economic Forum predicted that in the next four years, 85 million jobs are going to disappear and 97 million jobs will be created. We have to collectively create a skills-based future and have the mindset to continuously learn and pick up skills, no matter where we are in our careers,” Ms Suresh informed.

Rounding up the insightful session, Dr Intan facilitated a rousing Q&A which saw enthusiastic attendees seeking advice from the panel, as well as thanking them for an uplifting evening that championed and celebrated female success.

The webinar, organised by NUS Alumni Relations, was in support of the Year of Celebrating SG Women.

 

By NUS Alumni Relations