FOO SU LING LIKENED ENGINEERS among the NTI pioneers to Tony Stark, the lead character in the movie ‘Ironman’. Although the chief executive of his high-tech empire, he remains a hands-on engineer, designing, testing, maintaining and improving the gadgets that support his noble deeds. Su Ling said, “Kudos to our classmates who continue to be involved in the bolts and nuts of engineering –– you are the real life Tony Starks making a difference in the real world!”

Su Ling chose a path less travelled. After 18 years in the hectic IT industry, she took up a course in Southeast Asian Studies. She is now the curator at the National University of Singapore Museum. “The seduction of a new experience in a completely different arena became too intense to ignore,” she said.

Reasons vary for the decision to do something different from engineering. Sometimes, the pull of young ones plays a part. Evelyn Tan Shu Hun and Koh Ai Li were in their family businesses before marriage. When the children came, they chose to become full-time homemakers. After a career in the semiconductor industry, Teo Boon Ching became a stay-at-home mum to spend more time with Lyndon, her only child. Her husband's work requires the family to live overseas. They have lived in the United States and Taiwan. Now, they are in China.

Ee Poh Ngoh, a Malaysian, taught at Ngee Ann Polytechnic for four years. She returned to Malaysia and became a life insurance agent with Prudential Assurance. Today, she is a will writer with Rockwills Corporation, the first company in Malaysia to specialise in personalised and professional will-writing. “I have placed priority on family over career over the last 10 years,” said Poh Ngoh.

While careers vary, the pioneers agree that their NTI engineering training make them versatile. Cheong Yoke Yin was drawing a six-digit annual salary in a “comfortable” job when love came knocking on the door. Her New Zealander husband convinced her to follow him. “Some close friends tried to talk me out of it but I decided to follow my heart,” she said. She uprooted to New Zealand where she chose to work as a weight loss consultant with the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research.