How an Engineer Became Dell's Talent Acquisition Leader

Sometimes, all it takes is a small spark of interest to start something new. Peh Yin Chee, Talent Acquisition Leader of Dell in Singapore and South Korea, started her career as an engineer but decided to make the switch to HR after her interests swung from dealing with machines to people. After her career switch, Yin Chee stayed in talent acquisition for more than 10 years and has moved across various functions.

From Engineering to HR

When she was an engineer, Yin Chee’s responsibilities included finding solutions for technical issues. She found solutions for customers through technical know-how or the use of machines. Having done that for about 3 years, Yin Chee then started thinking about how she wanted her career to grow. She knew she wanted to switch into a role that impacted an organisation through people, and that she wanted to learn about finding solutions through people, communication, and influence. That was when it struck her that the fastest way to do that was through a career switch.

It was close to impossible to move directly into an in-house HR role from an engineering role so Yin Chee took up a job with an external headhunting firm, where she was hired to help customers to look for engineers, drawing upon the knowledge and experience from her engineering background. According to Yin Chee, that was the best decision she made.

While Yin Chee first started her recruitment career with a retainer search firm serving industrial customers, Dell took a chance to hire her although she lacked tech hiring experience, and ever since she joined Dell, she never looked back.

The HR Experience

“Grit is a must have for any retainer search consultant to walk the path of success,” Yin Chee says. “You need the persistence to find a ‘gem’ and this may mean exploring channels that may not have been used before, and finding a way to get the best suited talent for your customers.”

When Yin Chee first joined a retainer search firm, she started her headhunting journey with engineering positions, which made her transition into HR easier. She says she was lucky to have great mentors and managers along the way who were providing her the guidance she needed. Not just that, but her manager gave her opportunities to work on challenging and niche roles along the way that may not have been handled by anyone in the firm before.

Recruitment is not rocket science, Yin Chee says. However, for recruiters to do well, they to be passionate in what they are “selling”, she explains, which is the business their companies are into. Other than that, having a strong business acumen and the ability to influence are key factors to being a successful recruiter.

Working for Dell

In Dell, Yin Chee had no formal mentor, but she says that working there gave her an opportunity to work with the smartest leaders, peers, and people, whom she has learnt so much from. She says that the people she works with are amazing, which includes her team members and her peers in the APJ leadership team, all the way to the global talent acquisition team. According to her, these people are passionate, proactive, result-oriented, and yet they collaborate so strongly to make sure no one falls behind. Everyone’s aim is to make sure everyone is successful in what they do, which ultimately results in the success of her organisation.

“Dell’s open culture allows you to approach anyone, to ask for advice, and to collaborate across functions and geographies, which made my stay in Dell really amazing,” Yin Chee shares. “My leader has given me a lot of room to grow, and opportunities to learn like a sponge. We are empowered to do that in Dell. It really is about how hungry one is to grow and learn over here.”

Tech Know-How

According to Yin Chee, we are living in an era where we are stepping into artificial intelligence and machine learning, more so than before. The pandemic has sped up digital transformation, and the most fundamental requirement for all is to embrace technology. Some job functions will likely stay with the help of technology, which will help people become more productive in today’s world. However, the question is how people can scale and value add differently from machines.

For example, if you are in HR, there are certain solutions in place that are often used to solve problems faced by employees at work. Machines can learn these solutions easily and provide them to employees on the HR’s behalf. The question here is then how can you value add by making use of your ability to anticipate problems, and make recommendations to your organisation to ensure the problems does not arise in the first place? Yin Chee says that it is important to be a strategic consultant, rather than an operational administrator.

“Technology never stays the same—it’s the continuous innovation and transformation that helps our world to progress that is inspiring to me,” Yin Chee shares.

Gender in Tech

The tech industry has been a male-dominated industry for a long time. Yin Chee explains that we cannot have similar kind of people working together if we want to drive innovation. When women enter the tech scene, it does not just benefit them but men as well as the ideas that are generated from a diverse pool of people can be inspiring.

Yin Chee’s opinion on the gender issue is that we are progressing, more so in some parts of the world than the others, and moving in the right direction. Her stand is that commitment needs to come from the very top. Dell Technologies took a step to start the diversity and inclusion agenda several years ago, and it was a difficult start. There were investments put in place in making sure their leaders were aware and conscious about how bias can happen in work through Many Advocating Real Change (MARC) trainings.

Michael Dell took a bold step to make a moon-shot goal statement that by 2030, 50% of employees and 40% of people leaders will be diverse. This is an example of a statement that needs to come from the top, accompanied by leadership support to make this happen. It will take the effort of everyone in the company to make it happen.

Yin Chee’s advice to all the women who want to step into the tech industry is: “It is not as hard as it looks, and you’re better than what you think. Be bold and take the first step, and you’ll never look back again.”

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