Since February 2020, Ema Setyawati has been appointed as the Director of High-Risk Food and New Technology Supervision. Previously, Ema has had a long career journey. For 20 years, Ema has been in the secretarial world. According to her, the world of work that she is engaged in is not sustainable with her major during university.

After graduating from Airlangga University, Ema followed her husband, who was assigned to Jakarta. At that time in 1994, there was a government policy for compulsory undergraduate work, so Ema moved from Surabaya to Jakarta and carried out her compulsory work as a teacher at the Army Health Pharmacy High School until 1996.

In March 1996, Ema was then accepted as a CPNS and got her first placement in the PPL (Program and Report Preparation) section, which at that time was the Directorate General of Food and Drug Control - not yet BPOM (Food and Drug Monitoring Agency). From there, Ema had to learn many things. Starting from how to compile plans, how compile budgets, create indicators, compile tools for evaluation, to how to analyze data.

Then at the time of the change of Dijenpom to BPOM, based on Presidential Decree No. 166. In 2001, Ema was appointed as the youngest Head of the Sub Division. This means that it has been 5 years since she became a CPNS, and at that time, Ema was also taking a master's degree in the Master of Planning and Public Policy program at the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia.

There her career began to run. At that time, she was still a 3B civil servant, she should have been a 3C subordinate, but the policy at that time was that the subordinate could be appointed one level below the lowest level. It was called an optional promotion. Ema became Head of the Sub Division in 2006.

During her career, Ema had many achievements. She was appointed as the youngest Sub-Department Head, became a committee for receiving goods and services in 1999, and was promoted from 3C to 3D in just one and a half years when it should have taken 4 years.

In 2006, she was appointed as Head of the Division. At that time, her rank was still 3D, while to become a Head, the lowest rank should be 4A. In four years, Ema moved heads four times. Ema herself did not know what caused this to happen.

In 2012 Ema was promoted to become Head of the BPOM General Bureau. Her grade was still 4B at the time, meaning one level below the lowest grade. It should have been 4C. It wasn't until 2016 that she was moved to the technical section. The technical part was in the food section, not Pharmacy, namely in the Directorate of Product Supervision and Hazardous Materials. From there, Ema admitted that she could learn a lot about chemistry.

In 2018 she entered the Directorate of Medium and Low-Risk Processed Food Supervision of BPOM RI, and in 2020 was appointed Director of Medium and Low-Risk Processed Food Supervision.

Planning and Delivering the Best 

"If I plan something I also have to think about who will implement it. From my PPL, I learned a lot about human resources. Starting from work relationships, indicators, budgets, competencies, how many pharmacists should be, and others. Maybe that's what allowed me to accelerate my career," said Ema.

"Because I work a lot outside of technical or my major, which is a pharmacy, I can actually enrich my mindset. I learned a lot about human resources. In 2006 when I became the Head of Division, that's where the competencies were planned and developed, already knowing how to manage human resources, etc. I felt more comfortable learning about HR. I felt more comfortable learning about secretarial work. Maybe it's because I took HR as my master's degree and I like reading HR books. The planning mindset is very strong", she continued.

Ema has even estimated and made plans for the next 10 or even 20 years. Ema is one of the BPOM Quality Management System (QMS) development teams, workload calculation system developers, and many more.

According to Ema, world knowledge is katon or can be seen and learned. That is the principle. Many life motivations are carried out by Ema. She also said that as humans, we must always be grateful for what we have.

"My mother always says, lek diwenehi enak ojok kurang kepenak. (If you've been given something good, don't feel bad). Also, for me, making other people happy and satisfied is a great feeling. When my boss asks me to be something, then I have to learn a lot so as to make my boss satisfied with what I do. Life is only once. If we don't do good now, then when. So do your best now. Because if not now, then when?” Ema said.

Everyone will always be tested with problems. The same goes for Ema. During her career, Ema was plagued by some pretty tough problems. It made her lose a lot of weight. What Ema believes is that Allah is the Most Good, Allah can help in many ways. And thanks to Allah's help, the problems that happened to her can be passed.

"My motivation for sure is that I have Allah. Whenever I have a problem, whether it's light or heavy, the main thing is to complain to Allah. And that's a true experience. Allah is good, and that's for sure," she said.

Alumni are Harmonious and Helping Each Other

The most unforgettable impression when studying at Airlangga University was Ema's thesis which was completed in 2 years. According to her, it was really unforgettable. At the time university, Ema and her friends were very proud because they could make and mix drugs in the laboratory at that time.

The laboratory was near the Kapasan area for the purpose of practising making medicine. "If I could get a bottle of ointment, I was very proud. I can show off to my friends too. And when practicing, you also have to bring a book that weighs 4 kg. So when it's time to practice, it's like bringing junk," she joked.

The message Ema conveyed to younger siblings who are still in university is that as a student, you must be confident and must not be out of touch. Because according to her, she met a lot of UNAIR alumni who lacked PD and also Kuper. And this is very unfortunate.

"When given the opportunity to do an internship, please utilize it to actually work. Apprenticeship is learning to work. Working at first will definitely feel unfamiliar. But if you are not ashamed to ask questions, PD and not kuper, you will get many benefits," Ema emphasized.

"Don't be a butterfly, don't lack PD, and don't feel the best. Don't be ignorant and don't ask questions. Being active in student activities is important. Because many companies look from there. You do have to have a good GPA, and that is important. But a good GPA is not a guarantee. Because there is still a lot of knowledge out there that you can gain. And make the campus proud!" continued Ema.

Ema also advised the alumni, especially the young ones. "Be open with fellow alumni. Help each other and provide information. To become a big person, don't think that other people are enemies. But think of them as colleagues, customers, and even mentors. If you can help, why not help? We have to help each other." Ema said at the end of the interview.

Source : The Footprints of Airlanggas's Knights Edition V