Welcome the The Glass Hammer’s “Spotlight on Asia” week! We will be highlighting successful women working in Asia all week long!
Deborah Ong believes that enjoying what you do will help you work efficiently, gain opportunities and rise up the ladder. “I’m very fortunate that I enjoy my line of work, and so I’m still in the same company I first joined as a graduate!”
“I joined the firm on graduation as a trainee and was fortunate to receive many opportunities during my early years to gain exposure and experience in the whole gamut of development – from general audit to more specialized internal and IPO-related audit, to liquidation, insolvency and investigation,” she explains.
“I am very happy I got to contribute significantly to the People journey at the firm. As Human Capital Leader for ten years, my team and I worked very closely with the business to identify and retain talent, train and develop them to the future leaders of the organization. Personally, I am a strong believer in nurturing talent through a coaching culture and I’m proud to say that our mentorship programme is still going strong today.”
Another leadership role she has acquired is PwC Singapore’s Risk & Quality Leader. She still holds this role, which gives her the responsibility to understand and assess the risks associated with each of their service offerings.
Ong describes her journey as colorful. “During my time as the firm’s Human Capital Leader, the firm saw significant shifts in managing the people agenda. I’m glad that I was able to champion the firm’s training and development programmes, and to personally facilitate and share my experience on how to deal with some of the practical challenges of being in the profession with managers and senior managers. I’m a firm believer of nurturing talent through coaching, and I hope that I was able to encourage ongoing growth and development.”
“Being the firm’s Risk & Quality Leader, it is my job to understand and assess the risks associated with each of our service offerings, and with each of our clients. This involves judgment, which is not an exact science but which requires a mix of technical skill and practical experience,” she explains. She has the opportunity to interact with clients and to learn how they view and assess risk, and how they help their businesses solve difficult scenarios.
Career Challenges
Ong believes that most of women’s challenges in this industry are based on time management because their work is organized in projects, which creates tight deadlines and time pressure. “At a certain stage, some women may feel the need to make a choice between career and other aspects of their life, such as family or children, and select to give up their careers.”
To overcome this challenge, Ong advises women to “have the right conversations within the organization with the right people, exploring alternative roles and/or work arrangements and for each person to be aware of the value they bring to the profession.”
She advises young women who are entering the industry to learn developing project management and people management skills. “In order to progress up the career ladder, the support of your team is crucial,” she explains. “You need talented people who can deliver results in a timely manner, and this involves significant investment into their development.”