It's been a long time...

It's been 5 years since I posted a review or do anything with Devil In The Skull...

I was away for five years because I was uninspired to maintain a blog and social media accounts like Instagram have been much more accessible to share my views about films. If you have been following me on my personal Instagram account (@crushedtiggy), you would know that I still share my reviews on stories but not a full post or writing under Devil In The Skull. The film enthusiast in me never died, only improve and refine my film criticism over the years silently.

While I was away for four years, here are some things that I found worth sharing on the blog:

1. Graduated with Diploma with Merit in Business Information Systems
1. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was elected as the valedictorian for my Class of 2020 cohort and was to deliver my speech but the ceremony was cancelled. Graduating with a Diploma with Merit in Business Information Systems was surreal at that time, given I spent four years in polytechnic including doing my polytechnic foundation programme during the first year. I am still proud that I graduated from Republic Polytechnic and am thankful that my skills and knowledge gained from my polytechnic have been useful in my subsequent years after.
2. Matriculated into my first university choice
1. I graduated with a GPA of 3.58 from Republic Polytechnic, making this hard to enrol into a university at that time because it was impossible for most of the students to get a spot in the university of their choice. I was grateful that I was offered two choices - Singapore Management University and Singapore Institute of Technology. Both choices were computing-related degrees. As Singapore Management University was my first choice, I chose to matriculate into this university to study Bachelor of Science in Information Systems (Major in Smart-City Management & Technology).
2. To study a degree that was unusual at that time was a gamble because there was no concrete evidence or studies as to what jobs the students (who graduated from the Major in Smart-City Management & Technology) have gotten or accepted. I chose to pursue this major because I was fascinated with learning smart-cities after my hands-on experience with my first internship and I was thinking of a long-term plan when it comes to crafting my own learning experience. Choosing to study Major in Smart-City Management & Technology allowed me to open more doors by taking modules from disciplines within Major in Information Systems easily and not vice versa.
3. Experienced imposter syndrome after completing my first term in university
1. When I completed my first term in university, my GPA was 2.88. This was far different from the first term in my first year of polytechnic where my GPA was 3.20. It was demoralising at first - how could my skills and knowledge led me to do so badly in university? Was Information Systems not for me?
2. I was almost about to quit my university studies when my mother talked me out of this decision-making. She told me that it doesn't matter if the GPA is good or not good. More importantly, it is about the learning that matters and enjoying the university life. She was right - university was a different ball game from polytechnic. My current GPA is 2.91, not a GPA that could give me any honours but my learning experience was amazing because my school offered many modules that were worth exploring and I took them to become more specialised and valued in job prospects.
4. Joined several CCAs in university
1. It was no surprise that I joined activities in school. I joined CCAs in university because I wanted to be useful. One CCA, Uni-Y, left me a profounding memory because it was not only the CCA that gave me an eye-opener to community services, but I was also serving as a Vice President (Internal Affairs). It was daunting, but looking back - Uni-Y was the beginning of the subsequent years to come in challenging my doubts and beliefs. I was naive back then when I encountered problems within my friendship circles and anxiety. Today, I can sit with the uncomfortable feeling that I did the right thing; to do what I did in order to complete my job as Vice President.
2. My friendship circle have expanded when I joined Christian Fellowship after the end of my executive committee tenure in Uni-Y. Christian Fellowship is a society of like-minded Christians across different denominations, who come together every Tuesday or Thursday to worship the one and only God through bible studies and corporate sermons. This society had shaped my spiritual belief in Christianity and had got me hooked on trying to crave for more of God and who He is. I do not mean it in a delusional, cult-like manner. I mean it as someone who is in serious need to grow as an individual and be challenged in order to be where I am today. Since 2022, I have been serving Christian Fellowship's audio-visual (AV) crew to assisting in their events and activities. I can confidently say that my tenure in AV crew has helped me a lot in troubleshooting most event stuff in workplaces and classrooms.
5. Experienced profounding life change
1. As mentioned in my previous point, I am Christian. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had time to explore Christianity and to get to know about churches, etc. I went back to the church where I attended their kindergarten and was immediately placed into the baptism class after just few weeks of attending church services. I was baptised four months later on December 20, 2020 in front of the church congregation.
2. Despite my struggles over the years physically and mentally, making the decision to attend baptism class and being baptised over the course of four months was never a regret. I am a Christian who learn on the go and I am more confident than ever in my own skin and identity. What I wished I could have known long time ago was how I should not expect to know everything in one day about Christianity. I used to admire a lot about people who knew their stuff especially quoting the Bible and knowing the worship songs. It was very intimidating as a newly baptised Christian, but over time, I learned that this instinct and knowledge comes over the course of two years into my Christian journey. It soon becomes a habit and I was able to catch up with other Christians especially in expressing my views and relating back to the doctrines and teachings.
6. Embarked on several internships, shaping my view on workplace
1. I took up three internships over the four years of my university studies.
2. I experienced the time when I decided to hustle by taking on a part-time internship at Shopee while I was a Vice President (Internal Affairs) at Uni-Y and doing five modules for my first term of second year. It was tough and afterwards, I made my mind up not to hustle anymore because there is no concrete purpose behind hustling except to look good, but then again while my friends were suffering from hustling and busy workload in their third year, I was comfortable with the busyness and able to manage my time.
3. Subsequently, I embarked on a difficult internship as a Project Management Intern at Keppel during the summer of 2022. Although the internship was difficult, I had an enlightenment about work-life balance and workplaces. I learned that work is never meant to be easy and it is supposed to be hard. This was in accordance with the Bible where Colossians 3:23-24 talked about work as not pleasing for others but towards being honest as how you would honour God in keeping your conduct well and do good. This was a time in my life where I relied a lot on God and Bible to keep myself sane while my supervisor continued to berate me because I had "zero project management experience" as I came from a computing background. All was well after nearly two months of internship and I ended my time in Keppel happily and she liked what I do to coordinate the tasks that she assigned to me.
• 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
4. My time in Keppel had taught me well to manage a project when I embarked on a 10-weeks internship programme with Nomura called 2023 Information Technology Summer Internship Program. This was the first internship I had that was curated specifically to students who were keen to learn about banking industry and the technologies used in banks and subsequently, to gain employment with the company based on job performance and appraisals. I was assigned to work in International Wealth Management IT team where I learned the job scopes within business analyst capabilities while maintaining a project to help transform the helpdesk ticketing process into a streamlined one to simplify production support's email inbox and how they managed case-by-case basis of the software troubleshooting issues. Completing the project helped significantly to improve the production support operations and be able to focus on critical issues that need urgent fixing. Similarly, I helped to create dashboards on both production support and management levels that will enable decision-making and observe performance of production support to manage tickets especially what are the critical issues raised by department when using the software.
7. Got 'A' for my university degree capstone project
1. I worked with two friends since 2022 and into 2023 on a research project about walkability in Singapore for Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). It was a capstone project to fulfil our degree requirement of project experience. Using ArcGIS and Python, we had to establish an index that can measure the walkability of the paths in Singapore. By measuring and giving an index ranging from low to high, urban planners can zoom into the walkability scorings to see what is impacting the index so that the walking experience can be improved especially for aging population in Singapore.
2. This project was a fun experience for my team because we were venturing into the unknowns to work out on a suitable model to measure walkability based on existing case studies from Brazil and many more countries, and adjusting the weightings of the walkability factors in the model to create a realistic result that could help the urban planners. My role in the project was a programmer, where I was tasked to build the model based on my teammates' calculations and weightings of the walkability factors to calculate walkability. This was achieved over the course of one month and a half where we managed to build up a model from scratch including options to choose the weighting type of calculating walkability.
3. The challenge faced was to export our files including fixing up metadata and codes to ensure they worked during working hours at URA as we were not allowed to bring home company laptops. Overall, presentations for school supervisor and URA went well, and we were awarded 'A' for our efforts in successfully completing the capstone project.
8. Went on local and overseas university exchanges
1. I had the opportunity to study both local and overseas university exchanges.
2. For my local university exchange, I chose to do this at Singapore University of Technology and Design because the university offered design-centric modules that suited my major. I took up a module called Transportation Technology and Policy in Urban Progress, where I learned about policy-making and implication on transportation technologies. It was a cool module because I initially went in, thinking that I was going to study about transportation relating to my capstone project but surprisingly, came out with knowledge of how politics and economics come hand in hand to implement or design transportation or use transportation technologies.
3. For my overseas university exchange, I went to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (香港理工大學). I stayed in Hong Kong from August to December last year, where I was immersed into the world between East and West, and exposed to the use of Cantonese where I learned some useful phrases to survive the four months of studying and mingling with the locals. I studied four modules during the exchange, ranging from sociolinguistics, tourism and hospitality, and business management. It was a roller-coaster experience for me as this exchange was an eye-opener to Hong Kong culture and education. I could appreciate the beauty in the chaos and understood the apprehension and fear among the locals when the year 2047 approaches. The exchange was also the first time that I experienced living in a dorm life.
4. I made a video on YouTube about my exchange experience for both local and overseas exchanges.
9. Graduating in April 2024
1. I am graduating after four years in Singapore Management University and looking forward to my last term here in university. I will be studying three modules this term where they focused on preparing me for my full-time job, except one of the modules is more of a personal pursuit.
10. Starting my first full-time job in July 2024
1. I was offered a return offer from Nomura to continue working with the same team that I was assigned to during the summer of 2023. I have accepted the return offer where I will be working as a Business Graduate under the 2024 Technology (IWM) Graduate Program. I will be starting my full-time job on 1 July. This job entails responsibilities that I have been carrying out since the summer internship and I am very honoured to return to the same company to continue doing the work that I am satisfied and excited about.

That was a lot to write about!

I am not sure if I would come back to blog about films or something interesting. I am still open to writing film reviews. I hope that 2024 will be a year of more possibilities and particularly for me - welcoming the world of adulting and more responsibilities!

Have a good year ahead!

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