°®Éñ´«Ã½

At °®Éñ´«Ã½, we celebrate our people, our cultures, and we recognize the value of diversity and inclusion. In May, we’ll focus on Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month while shining a light on one employee at a time.Ìý Today’s Q&A is with Thandar Phyu, HR Generalist, Diplomacy & International Development, Critical Missions OMSS.

How did you come to join °®Éñ´«Ã½?

I joined °®Éñ´«Ã½ through the acquisition of PAE.

What is your professional and personal background? 

After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in 2008, I received an opportunity to work as an Administrative Assistant in one of the PAE projects in Kabul, Afghanistan. This opportunity helped me grow my career in Human Resources starting as the HR Specialist in the later part of 2010. I worked in HR for the American Embassy Kabul project for 11 years until the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021. After evacuation, I was transferred to the Operations & Maintenance Support Services (OMSS) Iraq Program. Currently, I am working as an HR Generalist for the OMSS program in Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center in Iraq.

For my personal background, I am from and currently residing in Myanmar. I have a loving husband and two sisters. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Systems from London Metropolitan University. I love travelling, reading, experiencing new things and challenges and improving myself in my career and knowledge.

Describe the work you do and how you think it makes a positive impact.Ìý

I am responsible for providing HR clerical and technical support for functional areas in support of the HR department.

What are some of your accomplishments and/or what has been your proudest career moment? 

I would say my accomplishments or proudest career moment would be successfully transitioning to an HR career and developing myself in the area by mainly learning from my managers, career development courses and reading.

What do you enjoy about working for °®Éñ´«Ã½? 

Some of the reasons I enjoyed working with °®Éñ´«Ã½ are being able to work with a diverse workforce which enable me to learn different cultures and backgrounds, collaborating with teams. Additionally, management empowered us to perform our tasks and responsibilities and assisted and coached us whenever necessary.

What are you passionate about? 

I am passionate about listening to others and assisting them, analyzing and overcoming new challenges and obstacles. As well as learning new things for improvement.

What’s your career advice? 

Be a team player, be genuine, true to yourself and look for improvements and challenges.

What does safety mean to you or do you have a favorite safety tip? 

Safety is everyone’s responsibility. The Safety awareness should start from myself, and everyone should have the awareness and the ability to speak up when things are not safe.

What’s the best invention in the world and why? 

I would say Information Technology – Internet and VOIP software. With the assistance of the modern technology, in addition to the business advantages, we can keep in touch with the family even though we are working away from home and loved ones. While we cannot be home, for so many of the occasions, with the family physically, Information Technology enables us to be involved virtually.

What does Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month mean to you? 

Nowadays, with so much uncertainty and fights, it is always good to be living harmoniously among diverse group of people and learn diverse culture, traditions and history and honor the diversity.