Life at Nettium: Women at Work

It’s International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate women’s rights to everything; vote, hold public office, work, fair wages or equal pay, have reproductive rights, own property and education. These seem like a no-brainer but you’ll be surprised at how much limitations the modern society still places on women.

At Nettium, we pride ourselves on our culture of diversity and inclusion, while providing the opportunity for all our people to make a difference in the world and in their lives through our volunteer activities, and leadership and development courses, which differentiate Nettium from other companies in the technology services industry.

In the spirit of the celebrations, we interviewed some of Nettium’s software engineers, including Sin Dee, Li Yi, Xin Yuin and Pui Teng, to gain insight into why they choose Nettium as the place to build their careers.

1. What is your current role at Nettium?

Lee Sin Dee: Software Engineer

Li Yi Foong: Software Engineer

Pui Teng Lim: Software Engineer

Phua Xin Yuin: Senior Software Engineer

2. What factors affected your decision to choose Nettium as your employer?

Lee Sin Dee: Nettium encourages me to be more creative and perform better, plus I heard very good things about the company before I joined.

Li Yi Foong: The company with a culture of many young people working here let me know that it is more open towards diversity.

Pui Teng Lim: The company has a performance-driven culture.

Phua Xin Yuin: I joined Nettium as a fresh graduate student. The company provides a lot of opportunities for us to improve both soft skills and technical skills. Besides that, since it is a performance-driven company, Nettium hugely encourages us to be more creative, innovative and high-performing people.

3. What do you enjoy most about your job at Nettium?

Lee Sin Dee: I enjoy working in a team which requires me to use new technologies. As a mobile team developer, we are provided with the opportunity to learn React Native which is one of the current trends for mobile cross-platform development. Managers care and giving prospects for us to learn as newbies during the on-going projects.

Li Yi Foong: I get to be involved in different tasks that use different technologies and I learn new skills.

Pui Teng Lim: There are always new things to learn when new tasks are assigned to me.

Phua Xin Yuin: Nettium has a good working environment, and the people I work with are wonderful. Nettium also encourages us to “Work Hard & Play Hard”.

4. Who inspired you to become a software engineer?

Lee Sin Dee: I would say, my mom. During high school, I always thought that computer courses are only about learning to repair computer (hardware), but after choosing this course I realize the excitement and a lot of future promise in this field.

Pui Teng Lim: I studied Computer Science and Statistic double major course because of statistics. I liked programming after I learned about it. Thus, I choose this as my career after graduation.

5. What would you say to a female high school student considering computer science/software engineering as a profession?

Lee Sin Dee: I would say everyone should give themselves an opportunity to learn programming, especially women. In the future, most jobs will require programming or computer science knowledge. Many traditional professions like law, accounting and medicine will soon be replaced by computer science theory (machine learning and artificial intelligence). Never have the mindset that the computer science field is only for guys.

Li Yi Foong: Go for it if you are interested and have the basic requirements/skills, like logical thinking, creativity.

Pui Teng Lim: I think software engineering is the same as other professions. It may not suitable for everyone. There are many online sources to learn about coding. It is good to start with self-learning and find out whether it is a suitable profession for yourself.

Phua Xin Yuin: Technology industry is no longer being a man’s world. If you are interested in technology, embrace your choice!

While opportunities to improve as a person and the company’s young and vibrant team were some of the reasons why they joined Nettium, Sin Dee, Li Yi, Xin Yuin and Pui Teng stayed on for the career advancement and the chance to work with new technologies, good working environment and support from their teams and managers.