After leaving UTAR in May 2014 upon completing my internship at Public Bank Berhad, I had decided to pursue my dream that is to further study at UM in the field of Applied Statistics. But, I have problem financially as I require around RM4000 for my first semester. Therefore, I decided to apply for a contract job as a HR admin assistant at SEGi College Kuala Lumpur to fund for my first semester at UM.

With proper financial planning, I manage to accumulate up to RM4000 to finance my first semester. Besides, after obtaining an offer letter from UM, I immediately apply for MyBrain15. Luckily, it was approved and that help me pay off my tuition fee for the next 3 semester at UM. Although tuition fees matters had been solved, I still require some money to finance my daily expenses such as transportation cost. Taking that into consideration, I decided to work and study at same time. This is where I started to work at an E-commerce company named I-Serve Online Mall for around 2 years doing content quality control and content writing.

Working and study at the same time never been easy. Most of the days, I went to office when the sky is dark and later back from university when the sky is dark. The most challenging part of it is coping with assignments, final and midterms while juggling with your work responsibilities besides maintaining a good CGPA. Sometimes, you will feel giving up especially when you are stressed out from both work and study due to pressure and tiredness. However, I always convince myself that after went through all the hurdles; my future will definitely be brighter. Successfully, I manage to do it and graduate with distinction.

Completing master is just the first step; the next step is to build my career. As a graduate from the field of Applied Statistics, definitely the first choice is to be a statistician or data analyst. But, time had change where most of the positions require someone that knows a programming language be it R or Python rather than SPSS. Looking at this trend, I grab the opportunity by signing up for ADAX Data Star program for graduates in 2017. After going through 2 tests and an interview with ADAX, I am offered to join the program in Data Science track that is fully sponsored by HRDF.

Via this program, I pick up programming skills in Python, R and SQL. Furthermore, since I am in the data science track, I able to learn Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing. These are a good opportunity for me to learn something new and add on to my skill set. Moreover, as part of the program, I am being offered an internship opportunity with The Center of Applied Data Science, the training partner for this program.  At there, I was assigned to come up with a Data Science project and also be a teaching assistant for Statistics and some Machine Learning classes for second cohort.

Using all the knowledge and skills gain throughout these 4 years, successfully, I am being offered a job opportunity as a data analyst with A Job Thing, an e-recruitment startup that handles various famous job platforms such as Ricebowl and Maukerja. What makes me happy is, I am able to utilize my knowledge from Economics, Statistics and Data Science in my daily job.

Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to my ex lecturer from UTAR, UM and trainers from ADAX Data Star program. Without them, where am I today? To those who had started working, remember to keep learning as things change very fast. To those who are still studying, always remember whenever there is a will there's a way. Never give up on your dreams!