Where the rubber meets the road

“I genuinely enjoy the challenge and excitement of contributing to real-world situations and solving practical problems.”

It is this mantra that spurred Year 3 Data Science and Analytics student Henry Khoo to actively pursue immersive learning opportunities. He’s all for taking several internships and experiences like the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme as they are an opportunity to put the knowledge and skills he acquires in the classroom to use - where the rubber meets the road.

For Henry, internships are not just a part of curriculum requirements; he believes that they are also the keys to many doors that include workplace exposure, professional connections and greater career clarity. 

He says, “New competencies are constantly emerging. What we learn today may quickly become outdated, so I was motivated to pick up skills that are currently in demand in the workplace.”

Henry is currently a Product Manager Intern at GovTech, where he works on product discovery and prototyping efforts through stakeholder engagement and rapid solution iterations.

Prior to this, he was a Software Engineer Intern at Re:Drink GmbH where he built and deployed a real-time monitoring dashboard to enhance client visibility; a Senior Product Manager Intern at SimpleAI working on market research, strategic roadmap planning and end-to-end product development; a Data Analyst Intern at VIPSHOP where he automated pricing workflows and developed ETL (Extract. Transform. Load) pipelines that improved sales insights; and a Data Analyst Intern at UOB Thailand where he devised a fraud detection application that significantly reduced manual work.

His deep interest in entrepreneurship took him a step further - to NOC Munich, which is known for its growing ecosystem of deep technology, sustainability startups and strong public-private collaboration.

Henry says, “I’ve always been drawn to the idea of challenging conventions, questioning norms and building things that have never existed before. The prospect of taking a raw problem statement and turning it into a real product from the ground up is incredibly exciting.”

NOC was the perfect platform for personal and professional growth - the experience would challenge him, broaden his thinking and help him to become more globally savvy.

Academically, the exposure to real-world product development proved relevant to his coursework in data science and analytics. “I saw firsthand how machine learning models came to life in actual business contexts. It also gave me clarity on how to apply theory to solve user problems,” he says. The NOC courses on entrepreneurship further complemented this, giving him a stronger foundation in business models, user discovery and startup operations.

One of the biggest challenges he faced at NOC - navigating ambiguous scenarios -  turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Starting with a vague problem statement initially left him overwhelmed. However, this experience proved to be one of his most valuable learning experiences; he learned to break down ambiguous problems into manageable parts and to proactively seek feedback and alignment with his team.

“Over time, I began to appreciate the autonomy and trust that came with this level of responsibility. This experience strengthened my confidence in navigating uncertainty and taught me how to bring structure to chaos - an essential skill for anyone working in fast-paced, product or startup environments,” he says.

Henry also participated actively in local networking events and conferences, such as the MunichAI Conference and AgriFood Demo Day at Urban CoLab, which allowed him to meet founders, researchers and innovators in various industries across Europe. Learning how challenges are tackled from different cultural and technological perspectives, being placed in a high-impact role at a startup, experiencing how product and engineering teams operate in a European work culture - these are experiences no textbooks can fully capture.  

Looking ahead, he aspires to build products that not only serve business goals but to also “make the world a little better”.  

In particular, he is looking forward to sitting at the intersection of technology, business and user experience to build impactful products in the future. This is where the takeaways from his internships and NOC taught him to appreciate different ways of thinking, helped him discover the kind of work that energises him and gave him the confidence to hold his own in a professional environment.  

He says, “These lessons deepened my sense of purpose and they will continue to guide me as I grow professionally.”