Personal Introduction
My name is Ponnapat Rattiwan. I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts. Currently, I am working as a Risk Operation Analyst at Grab. My responsibility mainly focuses on preventing any fraud that might occur on the Grab application because, in finance-related industries, there might be some illegal issues about taking advantage of others for their own benefit.
How do you get into the Tech industry? Or is there any situation you considered was the turning point?
Previously, I’ve worked in other industries outside of Tech before. I once worked as a Project Coordinator for a year and then became a Marketing Consultant. At that time, I realized that I didn’t belong in marketing, so I just searched for a new job and saw this advertised position. Since the position title seemed attractive, I decided to apply for it. They called me the next day and I got to interview with my team lead. He said that if I am willing to learn, I can do it. And here I am. I don’t know whether I can consider this as a turning point or not.
Compared to other companies I have worked with, this organization is very big, which has changed me into looking more through a bigger picture. I started to set my personal goals and to try to build my new career journey. So, I became interested in the Tech industry and would like to grow my career path here.
What is your challenge in stepping into the Tech industry?
When I was a new joiner, there were only 4 people on the team, where we needed to support each other a lot both in learning and operating. I also didn’t have direct knowledge of this before and didn’t know what I really needed to do which made my first few months quite confusing. However, I have learned many new things including the details of my responsibilities. Then, when all the dots were connected, I started to see the clear big picture and the job became more fun.
The challenging part is to learn new interesting things. I learned to use special tools for work which made me realize that I can actually do something I have never done before or the thing I thought was impossible. For example, I never knew that, if we do the same task every day, it would become automation to make our lives easier.
What did you significantly realize when you got into this industry?
First of all, it changed my perspective on technology. I realized that human beings can do a lot of things. As a kid who grew up in the analog era, I saw lots of developments that made our lives so much easier and more convenient.
Any suggestion to those with a non-tech background but want to join the Tech industry.
What I would say is Don’t be afraid. If some things are expected to be disrupted or need to change, you still can learn to do a new thing even if you have a non-tech background. You just need to believe that you can be nurtured, then it will make you learn and grow up.
