I started my career as a diplomat, representing Indonesia in regional and multilateral negotiations across countries and regions. It was meaningful work — high-stakes, deeply human, built on trust and relationships across cultures.
Then I got posted to Berlin, and a friend introduced me to programming.
Something in my brain clicked. There was something about building things from scratch with just my fingers — the logic, the craft, the immediate feedback of code that either works or doesn't — that lit me up in a way I hadn't expected.
I knew, with unusual clarity, that I wanted to do this instead. So I did. I left diplomacy, went to New York, completed an intensive coding bootcamp, and came back to Berlin as a software engineer.
I spent several years as a software engineer at different companies before something else happened. At one particular company, my CEO and Head of People saw something in me before I saw it in myself. They asked if I'd step into an engineering manager role. I hadn't been thinking about it — I was focused on being the best engineer and teammate I could be.
But I said yes, and on the very first day of my new role I knew it was right. The impact was different. Bigger, in a way that surprised me. Less about what I built directly, and more about what I made possible for others — unblocking a team, improving how people worked together, shaping an organisation that people actually wanted to be part of. I loved the cross-functional view. I loved that I could contribute to the work and the lives of the people doing it.
That realisation led me to Chief of Staff work — where the multiplier effect is even larger. I've partnered directly with CEOs, built frameworks across departments, covered product management during hiring gaps, delivered board updates, and worked on M&A strategy and business acquisitions. I was doing the work no single function owned — and that turned out to be exactly where I thrive.
Every pivot I've made has followed the same logic: not what's trending, not what pays the most, but what genuinely energises me. When I decide to do something, I go all in. That's true of diplomacy, of software engineering, of operations — and it's true of the work I do with founders today.