Employer
PwC Malaysia
Job
Associate, Digital Trust & Cybersecurity
Qualification
Bachelor of Technology Business Information System (BIS), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), 2018
Has been with this company for
1 year and 3 months
Can you tell us what you generally do in your job?
I am part of a team that helps clients with their cybersecurity needs and provides services pertaining to cyber risk.
Since I joined PwC Malaysia, I have been involved in various jobs such as third-party security assessments, security compliance work against regulatory requirements, and conducting cyber drill exercises, amongst others.
What would you say is the coolest daily task?
I don’t have a daily task per se as no two engagements are the same. However, I had the opportunity to visit a client’s data centre during one of my engagements. I went there to evaluate their setup in terms of infrastructure design. I also assessed that it was able to host systems at an optimal level to meet business needs.
It was pretty interesting as I got to experience the inner workings of a data centre. One such data centre had multiple layers of security and it was fascinating to observe how certain risks are mitigated.
What is the greatest lesson you’ve learnt from your probation period at work?
I joined PwC Malaysia just before the first Movement Control Order (MCO) was announced back in March 2020, and one area I had to pick up quickly was on communicating with clients effectively.
I was lucky that I got to be one of the points of contact for an overseas client, so that helped a lot in building my client management skills as I got to learn first-hand from my seniors.
One piece of advice I could offer for graduates in their probation period is to try and adapt to the company culture as quickly as possible by taking the initiative to make friends with your colleagues and peers and asking questions about the company to get some insights.
How do you motivate yourself when the going gets tough?
Being in an audit firm, it’s no secret that there’ll be busy periods – which can be challenging especially when working from home and your team members are not physically around you to provide moral support. However, I am glad to say that we don’t just go through tough times together, but our relationship also extends beyond work.
As a team, we often plan and carry out fun activities together when we are not working. This helps get me through the day (and night) and I can proudly call my colleagues my friends as well.
If you could go back to your university days, what would you do differently?
If I could go back, I would definitely make more memories with my friends by getting involved in more events and taking more group holidays. That was a unique time in our lives because although we still needed to study, we had time after classes and the semester breaks to spend together.
The four years flew by so quickly and most of us are now busy with our own lives in different cities. It’s increasingly difficult to catch up with everyone and every time I look back, I wish I had spent more time with them then.
What is your advice to fresh grads who are having a tough time finding jobs?
I went through a tough time trying to secure an internship placement back then. Out of over 100 applications sent, less than 20 of them got back to me. This might sound cliché, but my advice is to just keep on trying.
Career websites are one channel, but remember to also check in with your connections to see if there are any potential opportunities they might know of.
Job seeking can be draining, so to the jobseekers out there who are reading this, I wish you luck, and remember to take care of both your physical and mental health.
