Passion and Persistence Pays Off
Setting off to study R and Python programming may seem sexy and exciting, but Siew Ling is quick to admit that she had her own mixed feelings at first, despite having a personal interest in the subject.
"It's been a while since I last learned something that's truly different from what I specialise in," she shares. "So the first thing that came to my mind was whether I had the ability to pick up new skills, especially such technical ones like programming and statistics. Naturally, the fear is there."
And because her PCP was one year long, Siew Ling was also concerned whether she could manage her workload while keeping up with her studies.
But she persevered, powering through thanks to her strong support system at work.

"I really have a very supportive boss," Siew Ling says, gratefully. "She actually helped me with all the work prioritisation, so that at least when I'm away in training, I'm not distracted by work and I can put in a hundred per cent of my time and my heart into my lessons."
She also calls herself "lucky" to have the camaraderie of her fellow course mates and OCBC's Employee Development team, who consistently checked in on her to see if they could help with any challenges she was facing.
"In OCBC we are really like a family, so we support each other in terms of all the organisation needs and goals."
For Siew Ling herself, having persistence was key to not getting demoralised whenever she faced difficulties in her coursework, especially with Python. "I think persistence is something that you need in order to see yourself through to the end. Otherwise, it's quite easy to give up because you'll get stuck on an error," she reflects. "But the wonderful thing about Python is that there's a lot of resources online, and there's this great online community with experts out there who actually take time into giving you a helping hand."
And persistence pays off—she's successfully completed her PCP after 12 months, and she's now better equipped than ever to thrive in her profession.
