Over the last summer, I completed a 4-month internship with GovTech, in the Sensors and IOT team. During that time, I also had a wonderful opportunity to share about my experience — albeit a different one given the WFH situation — with the GovTech publicity team. Here’s the transcript for the full sharing, and I hope this will shed light for anyone looking for an internship at GovTech!
What is your job scope i.e. what do you do on a daily basis, work spaces, working hours etc?
A: Every day starts with a cup of Teh Tarik from the office (or home-brewed), and that’s the only regularity across my work. There’s something different every day, from going to deployment sites to set up equipment, to tackling sudden bugs and crashes in our systems, to working on brand new features with a development phone by my side.
The Smart Gym team works together very closely despite the WFH situation, so while each of us have our areas of expertise (mine being front-end and mobile application development), we very quickly take on various other tasks based on our familiarity and interests. This leads to a very dynamic and exciting work experience, doing what I enjoy most.
· Describe your internship in 20 words
Dynamic, meaningful and exciting challenges, working alongside driven, inspiring folks. Much more than I ever expected. That’s < 20, right?
· What do your friends and family think you do? Any misconceptions?
I’ve received a ton of Grab deliveries for devices and equipment I get to work with every day, and my family has no idea what I really do. They probably think that I do some complicated hacking, with green text on black background as a matrix of numbers scroll past. It’s much simpler than that, working with databases, virtual machines and developing mobile interfaces.
Oh, and everyone thinks that programming is a lone-wolf job, sitting at home all day, coding rapidly under low light, wearing thick glasses. The glasses part is true. But there are actually a lot of meetings and discussions, with stakeholders and team members. As part of GovTech’s Agile process, we build fast, get user feedback and repeat the process. It allows us to best deal with changing needs, and focus on what’s most important at that point.
· Why did you/what made you decide to join GovTech?
For me, GovTech’s focus on whole-of-government product development, and its focus as the lead agency driving public sector digital transformation, made it a real no-brainer. I see a lot of gaps in digital integration across the public sector, from our data, applications, sensors and all other technological endpoints. And I believe I can contribute best by being at the frontlines of this movement, making an impact on the larger picture of streamlining public sector services.
· What are the three tools and/or equipment that you’ll need to do your job well?
A favourite morning pick-me-up drink (for me, that’s teh tarik/thai milk tea), a sleek additional monitor (for additional screen space) and my rubber duck for debugging.
· What was the happiest/proudest moment of your career?
Well, I’ve only been interning for 3–4 months. My proudest moment, I think, was when we completed our first round of deployment successfully, after months of frantically scrambling across Singapore, checking every day whether our services were still up and running. We finally got to see our first real users, and it was incredibly exciting to see people gain utility out of what we have built.
· What was one challenge that you’ve faced during your internship and how did you overcome it?
One of the largest challenges, for me, was integrating into a team while in this WFH situation. Being the newest intern, I was very scared of breaking any systems, and communication felt very challenging through the static screen. However, my teammates at the Smart Gym team have been incredibly welcoming, and very patient and kind with their onboarding and check-ins. It’s taught me a lot about crossing these boundaries and restrictions, through taking initiative and holding empathy for others. And I’ve really made some good friends and mentors during this experience, that I hope will carry across, so we can actually meet up some time in real life. I still barely know how most of them look like sometimes!
· What are three key traits that you think is necessary to do your job well? Why?
Curiosity, boldness and persistence. I think curiosity is how we can take away more from our internship. Through asking questions about the systems we use and the implementations chosen, I get a much better sense of thought processes that go beyond our code, to the decisions made behind software due to stakeholder or developer limitations. And that is very important to account for, when managing projects. It also gives you a chance to explore various possible best practices, and present them to the team later. I’ve had great fortune working with such an open-minded team, ready to try anything out. And I’d like to think I’ve contributed with that incessant curiosity.
Boldness. Especially with the WFH situation, interactions become inherently more formalised by their platforms, such that you can’t just tap someone’s shoulder at the office anymore to ask questions, or figure it out over lunch. Daring to step out of your comfort zone and still build these connections, defying these barriers. These are challenging, but extremely rewarding decisions.
Persistence. I mean, I think good programming is quite challenging, and finding the best practice when you feel completely out of depth is how developers grow. I’ve grown a lot through relentless searching through solutions on Stack Overflow, reading documentation and trying many different solutions. And that persistence in continually trying to find different implementations, focusing on the best ways, differentiates someone who just does their job, from someone who does their job well.
· How does one stand out in your role?
If you think you know everything about a particular software, you definitely don’t know enough. Ask questions about what your colleagues are doing, and learn from them.!
· Any technical tips to share with the community in your role? e.g. when using a particular tool or prog language or developing certain process, project, etc
Git Gud! Seriously, understanding version control helps so much, and it’s something we definitely tend to overlook too often.
· What’s great about working at GovTech?
The focus on personal growth and fit is one of the best parts. Throughout my time, I’ve had incredible opportunities to find mentorship and work in teams with people all striving towards not just building products, but learning and exploring in the process. The guidance provided, and opportunities for you to develop yourself, really is something I cherish a lot.
· What advice would you give to someone keen to join your team or GovTech?
SmartGym? We’re looking for interns! You can take over my role, if you’re keen, or find your fit in a variety of challenging tasks. Take a leap of faith, have some courage, and drop us an email!
· What is your biggest takeaway from GovTech?
Build fast, fail fast, learn fast.
tl;dr — had an unexpectedly wonderful experience, despite the COVID-19 situation. Feeling revitalised and ready for school again, and the next internship!
