Back in 2012, we marvelled at Nur Shabnam’s ease at switching worlds. At school, she was a chemistry major. After class, she would shrug off her lab coat and swap them for sky-high heels as a fashion model.

Her transformation did not stop there. In the nine years since she graduated from NTU, armed also with a technopreneurship minor, she has worked in two companies in two vastly different fields, completed another degree in business management, attained a postgraduate certificate in data science and business analytics, and is now even the co-founder of a data analytics consulting firm, which she runs alongside her day job as a technical analyst for Mastercard.

The jump from alchemy to analytics was propitious, spurred on by her first full-time job where she was exposed to data for the first time at Agilent Technologies.

“I was intrigued by the stories data could tell if handled well. I noticed that my team’s performance could improve drastically if I used our performance data to highlight our strengths and weaknesses,” says Shabnam.

“It is exciting to me because what the data displays may dictate the direction an organisation takes. My global exposure when I was an undergraduate, which included an exchange in France, has made such a huge difference. Today, I’m comfortable working with clients, partners and teammates from all over the world,” she adds.

This story was published in the Oct-Dec 2021 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.