Want to find a career path that fits you like that last piece of a puzzle?

When joining Singtel, Umar wanted to find a role that is aligned with his passion to help others. Outside of work, Umar was already pursuing this passion through Mendaki Club, where he is now the Vice-President, and leads a team of more than 100 volunteers to run educational and developmental programs for Malay/Muslim secondary school students.

Through the Management Associate (MA) program, Umar was able to find his calling as a Lead Product Manager in the NCS Transformation team, where he is involved in driving digitalisation efforts and improving IT systems and processes. “Through the efforts of the team, we hope to make working easier for NCS staff and gear up the organisation for sustained growth,” he adds in an uplifting tone.

He shares with us more about his role and achievements as part of the #SingtelLife. He highlights his key takeaway - building by understanding the needs of customers.  

Q: Tell us more about your 2-year experience as a Management Associate.

A: Singtel is able to provide me with an extremely wide range of exciting opportunities within the tech industry in my two years as an MA. In my first rotation, I was involved in seeding opportunities, delivering projects and bidding for tenders in Video Analytics, Access Control, Retail Digitalisation and IoT. Now, I am in charge of building an internal web platform and leading IT improvements within the company.

If you are looking to explore this industry, this would definitely be one of the best places to do so! Singtel has also provided me with the support to grow professionally, as we are given career coaching, soft and hard skills training and the opportunity to work overseas.

On top of that, I am also blessed to be able to work with kind, supportive and talented team members and a wide network of MAs. These factors definitely make the #Singtellife experience not only one that gives me the chance to learn and grow, but also an enjoyable one!

Q: What has been your proudest achievement at Singtel?

A: In my second rotation, I was given the opportunity to lead an internal mobile friendly web application to gather external and internal insights for our Client Service Unit (CSU), a team that drives delivery and sales for our key clients. It was an exciting opportunity because I was given a lot of independence to determine the scope of the development and manage a team of developers, an IT Manager and a UI/UX designer to execute the plans.

We took a user-centric approach to gather requirements by having regular check-ins with members of the CSU to understand their pain points and validate our solutions. Creating a solution that benefits others is what motivates me to not be confined and think outside the box.

In our first release of the product, it was very satisfying when we received good feedback from the team, including their senior leader, because we were able to build something that helps them with their line of work! We are still developing this product, and I hope that it can become more and more helpful to the CSU!

Q: What is your one memorable #SingtelLife moment?

A:  One of the best moments would definitely be when I was posted to Optus, together with several other MAs. We got to meet other MAs in Optus and all the MAs often gathered to share our experience and thoughts. Everyone was really nice and approachable, and it provided me with the opportunity to learn about the Singtel Group as a whole. As I like to understand the big picture in Singtel, it was a very exciting and memorable experience.

Q: Do you have any tips for incoming MAs?

A: Coming out of university, it is rare to be extremely certain about what you want to do in both the short and long term. And that is absolutely fine! There are so many opportunities and possibilities out there, and within the short time frame of university, it is not possible to explore all of them! Thus, you should find a role that will enable you to explore as much as possible, and I believe that the Singtel MA program can not only help you to do that, but also provide you with the exposure that will be useful to you throughout your career!

MAP caters to individuals who are passionate about serving the needs of our customers. Customer focus is one of our most treasured and important values. If you would love to be part of our customers’ seamless experience, apply now here!