Introduce yourself in three words or phrases.
Curious data-driven architect!
What do you like most about your job?
I love that we’re solving real-world challenges with technological breakthroughs that often feel almost unreal to our customers. When they see a demo of our product or organise testing with EnglishScore for the first time, there’s always that ‘wow’ and ‘this is unbelievable’ moment.
The world of English testing in non-English speaking markets is incredibly exciting – how do you balance quality with affordability? It’s a tough equation, but we’ve managed to deliver on both fronts by fully dedicating ourselves to building best-in-class mobile technology. This allows us to offer quality products at a price truly within our customers’ budgets.
We understand that institutions operate with tight budgets, and our mobile-first approach makes the cost of switching to EnglishScore minimal or even negligible, all while significantly upgrading their English testing capabilities. It’s a very different conversation that I have with EnglishScore’s customers – because it’s a dialogue of understanding “yes, we do understand the issues, and here’s the solution”.
Best work trip/Worst work trip?
One of my most memorable trips was to Peru with EnglishScore. It was my first deep-dive into the Andes region, and it was a truly eye-opening and humbling experience.
Peru is a country rich in cultural and historical diversity. As a Southeast Asian, I felt a sense of familiarity and warmth from the people. The Peruvians are wonderfully strong-minded in their pursuit of excellence – our clients in Lima and Trujillo were incredibly passionate about improving their students’ English skills.
Whenever I travel, I make it a point to explore local spots to better understand the economy and the people. Our goal is to help graduates prepare for work in their home country, and what better way to learn than by immersing oneself in the market? My colleague took me to Gamarra, a bustling textile hub for Latin America with over 30,000 businesses. It was chaotic, but you could feel how vital the textile industry and exports are to Peru.
Lastly, I love exploring cuisines, and the food in Peru is simply divine. Every business lunch felt like a mini vacation – from the various shapes of corn to the Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei cuisine! I also managed to squeeze in a 2-day trip to Machu Picchu and Cusco, which was nothing short of surreal. It was literally breathtaking I almost experienced hypoxia and needed oxygen in Cusco!
If you could learn a language instantly, which would you pick and why?
Spanish. I traveled a lot to Latin America for work (and now for pleasure too). It’s a beautiful and very useful language.
What makes you get up in the morning?
I hate being beaten by the sun! Jokes aside – most of my meetings (and life) happen quite early in the morning and it’s just become a natural occurrence for me now.
Champion/cheerleader which we should all follow and why?
This is an interesting one. I think very often about the work that some in the international education community such as CANIE has been doing to minimise carbon emissions from short travels and trying to apply it myself with my work and our staff members. Make work travel more meaningful – can you stay longer and minimise going back and forth? Do you have to make the travel? Make your schedule more efficient. I like how we’re being forced to be more accountable as an industry.
Best international ed conference and why?
I love the APAIE – it’s always full of good thought leadership pieces and great people. My most memorable one was perhaps the one in Singapore a few years ago at the Marina Bay Sands.
Worst conference food/beverage experience?
I went to a conference in a remote place in Mexico which was super exciting because it was attended by almost all technological schools. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of food choices as it was held in a very remote location with no catering option.
Book or podcast recommendation for others in the sector?
Perhaps more general, but I recently read the book called Noise by Cass R. Sunstein, Daniel Kahneman, and Olivier Sibony. The ‘people’ nature of our work means that we have to make a lot of decisions without realising the amount of ‘noises’ that may cloud our judgment. That book really made me stop and think, and systemise a lot of my work.
Describe a project or initiative you’re currently working on that excites you.
Our tech/product team and the operations teams are working to launch a really exciting security feature that will be very instrumental for our clients. I can’t say much about it for now – but it’s very tech-pioneering, I’ve not seen anything like it before. We did a demo test with a select number of our clients and they were pleasantly surprised!
Aside from that, I’m personally preparing myself to go on maternity leave which I suppose has been a personal project on its own!