S’pore fresh grad didn’t expect to wait outside flat with lawyers to recover deleted data in her first job

Shanice Tang recalls the day when she had to wait outside somebody’s flat with lawyers at nine in the morning.

According to the digital forensics diploma graduate from Temasek Polytechnic, the employee in question was suspected of stealing data from their client.

Tang added that the person was “shocked” upon opening the door to see their presence.

“It was quite an interesting case to me. It almost felt like I was a police (officer)...(and) it stuck in my mind,” she said.

Deleted data can still be recovered

Tang added that her colleagues were eventually able to successfully retrieve the evidence via image collection – a method that can be used to collect data that have been deleted.

Such a method is just one of the routine procedures that she conducted as part of mobile forensic investigations during her time as a trainee at Kroll Associates, a risk advisory firm, under the SGUnited Traineeships programme.

For those who are not in the know, mobile forensic investigations involve the retrieval and analysis of data from digital devices, such as phones or computers, to support an investigation.

“Sometimes, clients want to retrieve (deleted) data because it may be due to some employees selling data to other companies and stuff like that. So we will do some sort of investigation,” she added.

Wasn’t entirely sure about what she wanted to do when she graduated at first

Tang shared that she had been introduced to the SGUnited Traineeships programme as a result of her performance during her internship.

Prior to this, Tang said she “wasn’t really entirely sure” what she wanted to do following her graduation and still found herself asking, “Where am I supposed to go next? And like, what am I supposed to do?”

What Tang knew, however, was that her internship had made her realise just how impactful and interesting cybersecurity could be.

As Tang recounted, it was at her internship where she was first exposed to real-life scenarios and given the opportunity to learn to respond to incidents.

“It actually feels much more meaningful and engaging as I see the case-based scenarios used in school coming to life,” she added.

Her subsequent experience of joining Kroll Associates as a trainee also came to feel like the next logical step up from her internship.

Apart from even more chances to work on more “real-world cases”, Tang was also given the opportunity to collaborate with the firm’s global team to work on some automation tasks to help improve the company’s workflows, and learnt how to simulate cyberattacks, which was something new.

Professional exposure

The experience eventually convinced her that cybersecurity was her future.

“It really provided opportunities to gain hands-on experience and apply what we have learned in school to these real-world situations,” Tang added.

The programme also helped her, as a fresh graduate, decide whether she wanted to pursue this career, whether it aligned with her studies, or if she might have other interests rather than cybersecurity.

More importantly, the programme also exposed her to workplace culture and gave her opportunities to work with professionals outside of the cybersecurity industry as well.

She highlighted:

“I (got) to work with lawyers, insurers, different people, and also (had) opportunities to help me build my network as well, so it (helped) me make the transition into a full-time job much smoother and (with) more confidence.”

Following her time with Kroll Associates as a trainee for eight months, she joined the firm as a full-time employee in September 2020.

Enjoying the process of investigation

Tang has since moved to Ankura, another advisory firm, where she is involved in broader work, including cybersecurity incidents and client employee investigations.

When I asked her what she enjoys the most in her new role, Tang shared that she gets to see a wide variety of cases due to each client having their own specific setup, systems, security policies and objectives.

She is also deeply invested in the problem-solving process of each case.

“It’s really interesting to actually figure out how these threat actors actually enter through (the clients’) network, and so we get to help them to improve their security, to prevent future incidents from happening,” Tang said.

All of these have come together to give her a sense of satisfaction at work as she helps her clients to strengthen their systems, even if she fails to catch the culprits.

When I ask Tang if she has any advice for fresh graduates who are considering whether to take up the traineeships programme, she said:

“I think it's a great opportunity for them, especially for those who are still unsure (about) what to pursue in their career. I think it's a great way to gain real world experience as well as exposure to work culture.

Thanks to the traineeship, I was able to explore, learn and figure out what I truly wanted to do. So as long as you're willing to learn, there's so many opportunities that will come.”

Fresh graduates can now take part in the GRaduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) Programme. Starting with a capacity of 800 traineeships, GRIT is a new scheme that offers traineeship opportunities for fresh graduates for three to six months across various sectors.

You can find out more about the GRIT Programme here.

This sponsored article made the author search up more of MOM’s schemes to help people in their careers.

Top photos by Shanice Tang