Vincent Ng, 29, production engineer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

A DESIRE to do something different drew Mr Ng to the pharmaceutical sector.

'The familiar path at that time was to go into the oil and petroleum industry if you had a degree in chemical engineering,' said the 29-year-old.

But in 2005, the biomedical sciences industry was growing, and Mr Ng was excited to be able to ride the crest of that wave.

He joined GSK after attending a National University of Singapore career fair.

But now as a production engineer, his role is less engineer and more manager. He brings together the different departments such as logistics, maintenance and quality control to ensure they run in coordination - necessary to get production flowing smoothly.

He said: 'A lot of the skills come from on-the-job training. You don't really need a background in pharmaceutical production to join the industry.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.