As part of a series of stories profiling people of influence from around Beca, we asked Technical Director - Building Services Irene Yong to tell us about her career journey and life outside of work.
Tell us about your childhood – where did you grow up?
I grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in a modest family. We were not well-to-do. I think I was an easy child to raise. My parents would probably have said I was obedient and quiet. I liked to be on my own.
You could say that ethnic Chinese are a minority race in Malaysia, so you have to strive harder to achieve what you want. That was one of the things that made me decide not to stay in Malaysia to pursue my studies and I moved to Singapore for university when I was 19.
I didn’t know anyone here in Singapore, but it was an adventure as I got to meet new people and made new friends, many of whom were also from Malaysia.
How did you decide what to study at university?
I had no idea at all what to study! As a child, I remember having to write essays about my ambitions. My childhood friends from primary school (who I’m still friends with more than 40 years later) reminded me that I wrote that I wanted to become a street hawker – like the ones I saw outside school, selling snacks. It seemed so fun!
Later on, I knew I was good at science and maths – but I didn’t want to be an accountant because I imagined that would involve sitting at a desk all day and looking at numbers. It was my brother who inspired me. He pursued electrical engineering, and I thought, I could do that too. I chose mechanical engineering.
When I graduated, it was not a good time to look for work because of the financial crisis, but I needed to support myself. So I did some part-time tutoring work and then hastily took a job in a manufacturing company, which didn’t last long. I didn’t enjoy what I was doing.
A lot of your work relates to green buildings, and you won the Professional Leadership in Sustainability Award from the Singapore Green Building Council. How did you become interested in sustainability?
My second job was with an energy services company. A lot of what they did was about making buildings operate more energy efficiently. It was a new thing then – Singapore wasn’t even talking about sustainability. It really sparked my interest, and when I left that company, I knew I wanted to learn more about buildings, and that was why I came to Beca.
For the first few years I was doing typical building due diligence and condition surveys. In 2005, when the Green Mark standard came out, that was when Singapore really started its journey towards sustainability – all new buildings need to achieve this certification. I was a junior engineer, but my director said, ‘You came from an energy background, you should champion this’. So that’s how my journey started.
Do you find the work rewarding?
It’s really rewarding when you go into a building that’s not energy efficient, you look at the building data, and how much the client is paying for electricity. Then, you plan and execute a retrofit, you look at the data again and calculate how much the client has saved on their electricity bill. That is so rewarding – that you can measure what you’ve done. It’s very positive for the building owner and for the environment as well. You design for a certain outcome, and then you go back and verify that you achieved it.
What keeps you at Beca?
This is my 21st year at Beca. It’s the people that keep me here. I feel that Beca operates like a family. People support you – they have your back.
It’s also the culture – I notice that we don’t run away from problems. If a client needs to contact us, we are always there. Even many years after a project is completed, if they have a problem, we still respond. That shouts integrity to me.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
My friends would say my hobby is household chores - but believe me that’s not true! I just struggle to find spare time. On Mondays, I always make time to volunteer at the homework clinic after work. Spending time with the children helps me to de-stress.
The homework clinic started out as an ‘experiment project’ by some like-minded people. We were doing house visits to low-income families to check on their needs, through the People’s Association (a Government initiative which involves various clubs and grassroots organisations).
We noticed that, if you have a lot of people living in a one-bedroom apartment, it’s hard for the children to study. There’s no space for them – they would be doing homework on the floor. We said to each other, if only they had a space to study, and someone to guide them. So with that thought, we started looking for venues and volunteers to support our project.
We’re now in our fifth year. It’s a safe space where children can study (and also play, after they study!). It’s really rewarding because you see them grow up. When they start coming, they may not be able to count very well, and you see them grow over the years until they are mastering times tables, division and complex questions.
Do you have children?
I have two wonderful and cheeky daughters. The elder one is at university in the UK, studying computer animation. The younger one is still in Singapore and is doing robotics and mechatronics engineering. They keep me young-at-heart with their non-stop chatting and funny antics.
If you hadn’t become an engineer, what do you think your alternative career path might have been?
Perhaps teaching. My brother and I looked at setting up a preschool. That idea has taken a backseat for now, but maybe it’s something to go back to when I retire. I don’t know if I’m a good teacher, but I am passionate about passing on knowledge to the next generation.
How would your friends describe you?
Probably as a happy-go-lucky person. They would use the word ‘zen’ because in any situation, I will appear very calm – even if I’m feeling jittery. They don’t see me as someone who’s quick-tempered or gets angry easily.
What are your favourite childhood memories of Malaysia?
The food. All my favourite foods are Malaysian foods. And family holidays. Even though we were not from a well-to-do family, our parents would make sure we went to the beach with the entire Yong clan. Those are very fun memories. We would have 30 or 40 people squeezed into one house – everyone sleeping on the floor and eating together and playing all sorts of games. That’s my favourite memory, those big family vacations.
Now, I take my kids back to Malaysia for holidays. We always go for a week at Chinese New Year, so they associate Malaysia with fun family holidays too.