Why I chose to intern at GovTech twice?
About Me
Hi! My name is Darice, currently embarking on my final semester at the National University of Singapore, majoring in Economics. Somewhere along the way in my university journey, I discovered my interest in UI/UX Design and decided to apply for an internship with GovTech under the Government Digital Services (GDS) division in 2022. After an interview with my friendly internship supervisor, I was subsequently offered the role of a UI/UX Design Intern with the Whole-of-Government Application Analytics (WOGAA) team, where I interned from July 2022 to December 2022. To put it briefly, WOGAA monitors the real-time performance of government websites and digital services.
After my fulfilling internship with the WOGAA team, I applied for a second internship with GovTech and interned at the GatherSG team as a UI/UX Design Intern over the summer break from May 2023 to August 2023. During my time in GatherSG, I was tasked to work on a very meaningful product called Gather Care, a case management system built for active ageing centres (AAC) and community nurses to manage seniors, particularly the seniors’ health vitals like blood pressure. Towards the end of my internship, I also got to help out in the HDB Contact Centre project.
Why GovTech? Why intern twice?
I knew I always wanted to intern at GovTech as it was a really cool government agency that had some semblance of how startups work. I had previously interned at various startups in the private sector and was looking for a change in environment. Interning at GovTech would allow me to work on meaningful projects for the public good! Indeed, my time in GovTech not only saw me working on real projects with meaningful impact but also provided me with various learning opportunities. One of the things I regularly went for was the DCube (Digital Design and Development) Design Studios and UX Chapter activities where I got to work on my skill set and learn from more experienced designers on various topics such as workshop facilitation and UX research!
As to why I interned twice at GovTech, I would say that I just had a really enjoyable experience in my first stint and wanted to contribute more to #TechForPublicGood! During my first internship stint, one thing that particularly stood out for me was how much an intern like myself could contribute to the projects and make a significant impact! I got to work on actual designs and features that were shipped out! This made me feel that GovTech was a place that really cared about its interns. However, I felt I still had much to learn in terms of design skills after my first stint and wanted to challenge myself more. :)
What I did during my internships
During my internships in both the WOGAA and the GatherSG teams, I was involved in design enhancements of the products the team was working on. I also got to work on a new announcements feature for the WOGAA team and the re-design of the assignment module for the GatherSG team.
Beyond working on design enhancements and new features, I was also incredibly blessed to hone my user research skills by helping out in a couple of research activities. For instance, during my first internship with the WOGAA team, just a few weeks after joining the team, I was fortunate to be involved in the accessibility testing for one of WOGAA’s products with a few persons with disabilities (PwDs). I am also fortunate to have an amazing reporting officer (RO) who gave me the opportunity to synthesise the research findings after the accessibility testing, and I then presented my findings and recommendations to the entire WOGAA team during the sprint review.
During my second internship with the Gather Care team, I had the amazing opportunity to conduct in-person user interviews with a few AAC staff to better understand the problems they face in managing the seniors under their care. After conducting the research, I mapped out the service journey maps for the respective AACs with my RO. Later on, I also got to briefly work on the HDB Contact Centre project, helping to come up with some of the initial user flows. One of my core memories of working on the project was visiting the Amazon office as well to see how their project could be integrated with the solution we were coming up with. I really like how in GovTech, we also work closely with companies in the private sector and tap into existing products in the market to create better products for the public good!
Beyond UI/UX design work, I also had the chance to help out in events such as the Digital Services Award event in 2022, where I got to meet with many public officers from different government agencies. It is during such events that I get to see how my team members from different functional roles like marketing, software engineering, data science, UI/UX design, work together to make the event a successful one!
My time in GovTech wasn’t just all work! My team organised several team bonding activities like BBQ nights and hiking trips. There were lots of fun times spent with my colleagues which allowed me to form closer bonds and helped me work better with them.
I also met many interns during my time in GovTech and even organised a volunteering event with Lions Befrienders for Christmas!
Tips for those who want to intern at GovTech
For those who are inspired to intern at GovTech after reading this article, I would strongly encourage you to apply if you have the heart to work on meaningful projects for the public good! Having the willingness to learn and knowing what you want to learn is very important as well. The people whom I’ve met in GovTech have been really friendly and helpful — I know I can always ping my RO or teammates if I have questions or if I need help! If you are looking for an internship that allows you to learn and work on challenging but meaningful projects, do consider GovTech!
To find out more about GovTech Internships, head to go.gov.sg/govtechinternship.
