Ranging from data entry to server administration to vacation projects, I have an invaluable first-hand insight about the day-to-day operational capabilities and resource management of an institution that heavily relies on information systems. Notably, I have coordinated and deployed virtual images for the different purposes of the faculty on an ad-hoc basis. This proved to be a personal feat for me as I was required to balance my work tasks alongside my academic workload. Through this, not only have I gained technical expertise pertaining to Unix, I have also gained a lot of insight and advice about life and the industry from the teaching faculty whom I have worked with in the course of my work.

Centered around the training of the client company’s employees on using the developed system, my job scope included the documentation of the system features in training guides and data preparation with legacy systems alongside the developed system. Last but not least, I facilitated the actual training delivery as a teaching assistant, helping the chief instructor and assisting the client employees during the training sessions. This experience reinforced a great breadth of my skills, ranging from learning to learn, to creating effective teaching aids, to composing timesaving database queries and to being a ambassador for the company.

My primary tasks included assisting the development of programmes targeted at IT professionals and students with the objective of building skills that add value to partners and customers. In addition, I assisted in the cementing of a social media presence active on Facebook that was tightly integrated with IBM developerWorks for ASEAN IDR. Notably, I pioneered the in-house development of Facebook apps for ASEAN IDR — the Download2Win Facebook App, and I was part of the successful orchestration and execution of dw Live! on Campus, the flagship event of IDR Singapore to showcase the strengths of the various IBM solutions. Apart from honing my web development skills, this internship opened my eyes to the importance of domain knowledge in the various industries, for IT pervades differently in them all.

With the implementation of the LearNet system, I was appointed by my Officer Commanding to be the IT Specialist of my company. My appointment required me to constantly circumvent and find means of resolving critical problems that hinders any training and lectures. Through my communications with the LearNet technicians and end users, I have consolidated 60 means of improving the system amongst 740 suggestions. This appointment has helped me to improve my technical knowledge and, more importantly, learnt the importance of constructive feedback.

As the Section Commander and concurrently appointed as the Assistant Platoon Sergeant, I have taken more than 4 batches of recruits. I had helped to produce a Company Best Recruit, a Company 2nd Best, and the Platoon Best. Throughout my tenure, I constantly faced challenging situations which had built up my resilience and my professionalism in my work, which I am confident that my colleagues and recruits would agree.

I am a pioneering member of the Direct Enlistment Tour Guides for BMTC School 1. The tours bring visitors around the island and introduce them to the training and safety systems along with the training facilities on the island. To date, I have taken more than 40 tours, one of which included a tour for the Director for Manpower from the Ministry Of Defence and a group of Colonels.Throughout my tour of duty, I have acquired critical skills such as public speaking and problem solving. I learnt to improvise and react positively to any possible situations. I have also picked up administrative skills such as taking minutes for a corporate meeting. As a senior member, I also mentored my junior tour guides and helped to build up their presentation skills.

My primary role in SOTA was to teach SOTA students Media Education and provide the teaching faculty technical support on the Macintosh platform. In the teaching of Media Education, which covers both media literacy and infocomm (ICT) skills, I learnt the importance of using analogies to simplify technical concepts which helped students to improve their understanding and ICT skills.