Hulma, one of our colleagues from the Data and Analytics team in EY Consulting talks to us about how she became interested in data analytics and how her curiosity led her from playing with data to becoming a data engineer at EY.
Embarking on a career in Data and Analytics
After I graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Mathematics, I was very fortunate to be offered an internship with the EY Technology Consulting team. During my internship, I learnt a lot from my seniors and from then on, I knew I wanted to start my professional career with the Data and Analytics team at EY.
My prayers were answered when I finally got the offer in 2019 to join EY full-time as a data engineer and I have been enjoying every second of my time here since then!
Working as a data engineer at EY
My line of work requires me to check for defects, fix them and debug any errors in the production pipeline system so that they will not affect the clients’ platforms when they need to use the data. Besides that, I am also frequently involved in brainstorming sessions with my teammates regarding algorithms that our data scientist colleagues can use to provide good output to clients.
Reasons for pursuing a career at EY
The main reason I chose EY as the place to pursue my career in Data and Analytics is because of the global exposure the organization has! There is always an opportunity to learn from highly experienced subject matter experts and industry thought-leaders covering virtually every sector. I find it fascinating that a professional services organization has touchpoints in almost every industry in the world!
EY also offers various upskilling programs and one of the programs that excited me the most is EY Badges. It is a great program for EY people to acquire new knowledge and stay relevant through new expertise and experiences. I am currently doing a Bronze badge in Data Science and in order to complete the badge, I’ve really had to think outside the box and be creative in giving back to the community. It’s definitely not been an easy feat, but I know that the effort will be worth it, and I can’t wait to flaunt my badge as soon as I complete it!
Another reason why I chose to pursue my career at EY is the flexibility it offers. I personally appreciate the flexibility where I am able to take on different roles whenever there’s a new project, so I am not restricted to purely doing data engineering. Plus, I can be myself and freely pitch my ideas during brainstorming sessions knowing that my opinions are always valued. It shows that EY celebrates inclusivity and recognizes everyone’s contributions, regardless of rank.
Being part of the Data and Analytics team
We are definitely one big family in the Data and Analytics team. Under the strong leadership of Adrian Chew, the EY Asean Data and Analytics Leader, we are very fortunate as he understands the needs of our team and is always concerned about our well-being. We also have colleagues of different nationalities, ethnicities and backgrounds which truly amplify the inclusive nature of our team’s dynamics as different people bring different ideas and energy to the team.
Apart from work-related discussions, we also organize fun activities such as playing Scrabble and other board-based virtual games to shake off stress and just connect with each other.
Advice for aspiring data engineers
I can say that enthusiasm and the desire to learn and gather as much knowledge as possible are two important qualities that you need to have if you want to be a successful data engineer. I started off as a person who did not have any knowledge about source systems; but while delivering my work as a data engineer, I picked up the knowledge and turned it into valuable insights for our clients to apply in their business. As for technical knowledge, some experience in programming would be helpful, but the main thing is to have an interest in data engineering.
You can always do your own research on data engineering since the information is out there on the Internet for anybody to learn. Have the curiosity to learn, because to me, that is the most important thing.
An exceptional career in technology.
It’s yours to build.
