ITHB: The Path to a Management Career at a Top Bank in Singapore Begins Here

Santi Junita is an ITHB Information System Program graduate from class 2008. Currently, she works as a Technical Business Analyst for DBS Bank in Singapore. Santi is one of many ITHB graduates who succeeded in developing a global career. Santi has made her alma mater proud because DBS Bank is one of the biggest banks in Southeast Asia with over 100 branches in many countries. Yet, the road to her present career was not easy. It took everything she had to get to where she is now.

Since still a student, Santi was no stranger to challenges. She once could not follow a final term examination due to family economic difficulty. She almost had to quit if it had not been for a friend who invited her to sell ITHB merchandise. Thanks to this loyal friend, Santi was able to pay her tuition fee in installments. Santi also had an opportunity assist a government official from Maluku who was taking his doctoral study. She helped write a computer program for him and the money she received from this project was used to finance her study until she finally graduated. It might never have occurred to Santi that it was all these difficulties that taught her to overcome obstacles in life.

Santi began her professional career as a software tester and business analyst at TelkomSigma. In 2010, she joined Ernst & Young, one of Jakarta’s big four accounting firms, as a Senior Consultant. When she thought that she had sufficiently contributed to Ernst & Young, she moved to CIMB Niaga as a project manager, developing a cellular phone billing application, which was the first model of mobile banking in Indonesia. At CIMB Niaga Santi learned how to communicate with many stakeholders and began to understand government-monitored non-technical regulatory system. The program was a big success, but Santi resigned because she wanted to assume bigger responsibilities in smaller organizations. She then was recruited as a Project Management Group Head by Q2 Technologies, a subsidiary of Anabatic Technologies. Her unquestionable competence soon brought her to a position of General Manager: Sales, Marketing and Principal Management, where she was responsible for the satisfaction of all the company’s clients.

Moving further, in April 2016, Santi accepted an offer from DBS Bank in Singapore. Her skills and experience developed so fast that she was soon entrusted with a big responsibility that required the combined skills she has learned from her previous career. She was in charge of analyzing business processes, managing projects as well as on- and off-shore developers, and measuring efforts, costs, and management reporting. For Santi, it was a dream job, a job that took her to a regional career. Santi will never forget that ITHB took a significant part in preparing her to have the courage to go international. ITHB has not done this to her only. Many other ITHB graduates are now successful people with international careers in Europe, the US, and other developed countries in Asia.

High winds blow on high hills. Handling international stakeholders is not at all easy. It needs a high level of communication skills. But, the higher one climbs, the more (s)he sees. Santi feels thankful for having once being educated at ITHB, the campus that has changed her from a silent to a very eloquent person who never hesitates to express her opinion. “Not every student in other universities has this valuable opportunity. At ITHB I learned presentation, communication, and leadership skills. Three key foundations that make managing work and team much easier than they actually are.”

Today, many C-level clients preferred her to discuss projects because of her communication and analytical skills. “My boss and colleagues at work have known me well and because of that, they now take ITHB graduates very seriously. ITHB had taught me how to stand out among others.”

Santi Junita Dewi

Technical Business Analyst – DBS Bank, Singapore

Information System graduate 2008