Meet Mei Lian

Acting now for the success of tomorrow!

Sometimes life throws us curveballs, and our paths don’t exactly go as planned. Not only had I not expected a career break, but I also ended up taking a rather long one due to a slew of challenges on the home front that avalanched one after another. As time passed, my self-confidence and courage slowly eroded. Time and again I was reminded of the challenges, the sense of self-satisfaction and achievements and of the teamwork and camaraderie that seemed a lifetime away when I had stepped away from my electronics engineering career in the field of semiconductors. I wanted to show my daughters that we should always strive for what we believe in, despite the circumstances that are thrown at us. The further the reach, the stronger the desire, but where and how would I begin all over again?

I still vividly remember the Roche career comeback workshop, one of several comeback workshops that I participated in. The principles and goals of this company touched me deeply. The company tagline of Doing now what patients need next and the respect and appreciation for its people was truly meaningful. It was utterly inspiring for me personally. I finally joined Roche in January 2020, just a short time before the pandemic struck us.

Although the role I accepted at Roche was totally different from my past experience, I was thankful that my industry knowledge, soft skills and work attitude were valuable enough to grant me the opportunity to learn new things in a field I was not familiar with. I was genuinely surprised at the amount of trust I received from my teammates, despite the big break I had taken and the fact that my experience was in a different territory entirely. The learning curve at the beginning was steep but in time, I caught on and it felt extremely rewarding.