• Perspectives
  • 17 December 2020

Grooming talent for a digital future

Digital disruption has been transforming businesses as well as jobs for a number of years and COVID-19 has added pressure to many organisations to accelerate their digital roadmaps.

To meet the evolving needs of our clients, we introduced our Technology Associate programme last year as we saw an increasing need to groom specialists to drive technology transformation within the Bank. 

Technology Associates undergo a two-year programme where they are rotated to teams which focus on transforming how the Bank works as well as those which maintain its operations and processes. The programme includes extensive training, rotational opportunities, a mentorship programme, as well as a structured career progression.

 As part of a stringent selection process, applicants have to undergo a series of assessments such as coding tests and one-on-one interviews.

Once they have completed the programme, the Technology Associates can explore career pathways in roles such as technical leads, business analysts, project management and IT security managers. 

We spoke to two colleagues who joined us recently under the Technology Associate programme to find out why it appealed to their career aspirations.

 

Chloe Zheng is looking forward to developing products and services which will benefit colleagues and clients in different parts of the world.

The opportunity to work on scalable tech projects with a big impact on overseas markets.

That is the reason why Chloe Zheng, 24, joined the bank, after hearing a university professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design explain how the finance sector is at the forefront of technology and innovation.

The professor, who taught fintech principles, had previously worked for the Federal Reserve, which is the central bank of the United States.

Chloe said: “He was able to inspire us by sharing interesting stories of the investment world from a first-hand perspective. I was sold.”

She is currently working with the product team which maintains the digital platform used by our relationship managers to access client information and portfolios, and will eventually join our Emerging Technology Team, which looks at implementing new technologies, once she completed the programme.

She said: “I am confident that opportunities will arise for me to drive large-scale tech projects from inception to implementation. As I am based at our Singapore headquarters, I am looking forward to developing products and services which will benefit colleagues and clients in different parts of the world.”

Tan Tian Fu is keen to get good exposure to different parts of the bank to understand how tech is used to optimise various processes.

Tan Tian Fu became keen on investing in his early 20s. With a degree in electrical engineering, he decided to pursue a career which marries both his interests – finance and innovation.

So when he learned about the Technology Associate programme through a campus outreach event at the National University of Singapore, he jumped on the opportunity.

He said: “Fresh graduates are usually clueless about how things are done on a practical level in a real-life working environment. The programme has allowed me to get good exposure to different parts of the bank through rotations and to understand how tech is used to optimise various processes.”

At his current job stint, Tian Fu works closely with the COO Office team to find ways to improve the digital platform used by our relationship managers.  At the end of the programme, he will be posted to work with a DevOps team to learn about software deployment and build automation.

Looking back, he recalls how his start at the Bank in late June felt surreal. Singapore had just entered Phase Two of its lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and Tian Fu began working from home, going through the paces of virtual onboarding, undergoing courses, and speaking to colleagues – whom he had never met before - via video conferencing.

“It was only three weeks later when we started heading to the office that I finally got an opportunity to meet my colleagues in person. I have learned that they are really approachable, and I don’t feel uncomfortable stepping out of my comfort zone to ask questions,” he said. 

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Version: July 2020