Joanavene Tan Qie Ven is a Scholastic Award Holder and also a First-Class Honours student with a CGPA of 4.00 in BSc (Hons) Information Technology (Computer Networking and Security) from the School of Engineering and Technology.

During her time at Sunway University, she was a Sunway Sports Scholarship holder which rightfully meant she was very involved outside the classroom. She was the President of Sunway University’s Chess Club where she organised Sunway University’s Inaugural Chess Tournament in 2018. The event drew the attention and participation of not only locals but also international chess enthusiasts like Russia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. 

She also represented Sunway University at Masiswa’s biannual inter-varsity Chess tournaments in 2017 and 2019, where Sunway University emerged as Champions in the woman’s category.

Today, Joanavene is a Product Management Associate of the Regional IT Risk and Compliance team in Shopee Singapore Pte Ltd. She works with a sub-team in overseeing the IT Risk and Compliance aspects for various digital banks based in Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines where she is responsible for evaluating digital bank product risks, ensuring digital bank product compliance and overseeing the change management process of go-live digital bank systems, new features of digital bank systems, vendor as well as in-house developed digital bank software/applications to prevent audit findings.  These areas are very new and specialised, which are challenging and can be daunting too. 

After graduating with a BSc (Hons) Information Technology (Computer Networking and Security), she started as a Cybersecurity Analyst at United Overseas Bank, Malaysia (UOBM). She used her knowledge gained at the University to advance her learning curve which otherwise was quite a steep one. Her exemplary work was well recognised and was then promoted to the position of Manager within one year, a remarkable achievement for the youngest employee ever to be promoted to that position in UOBM.

A curious and adventurous person, Joanavene swims and loves chess while constantly staying abreast with the latest technological advancements. She is a true team player and still keeps in touch with her coursemates. She believes that the holistic approach at Sunway University has not only equipped her with academic prowess but has also developed her soft skills to demonstrate complex problem-solving abilities in addition to having strong communication, great teamwork and leadership. 

 Reflecting on her Sunway journey, it all started at the Sunway Education Fair when she met Dr Lau Sian Lun, who was the then HoD of the Computing Department of the School of Science and Technology (SST). He opened her mind to the limitless possibilities of taking up various computing courses during the education fair and when she explored the events, surroundings and facilities at Sunway University, it was clear that this would be the place for her to leverage a promising career prospect.

The career path that she has chosen has been an eye-opener and surely an inspiration to the current batch of students. It is based mainly on her interest, in addition to the global demands and requirements. It must be noted though that things will not always work according to plans. She first received a job offer from Deloitte as an Auditor Associate in the Cyber Risk department. Sadly, the hiring process was frozen due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Staying positive, her career path worked out better than expected. Within one month after the hiring freeze, she was offered a job position as a Cybersecurity Analyst at United Overseas Bank, Malaysia (UOBM). Her rise to excellence was further demonstrated when she was headhunted by Shopee Singapore Pte Ltd. 

She believes that as upcoming professionals, young people should always have a hunger for knowledge, and be flexible to adapt to different situations. A positive outlook and perseverance are big plus points that will help them overcome various challenges encountered in their career development.

Such wise insights from someone at this age are truly inspirational and going by her quote, “Nothing is impossible. Always remember… ‘I’ ‘m’ ‘possible’!”, she surely is a role model for the younger generation of graduates to follow.