Student Stories

“It is very important to do what you like rather than how much it pays.” – Yi Luan

Briefly share the highlights of your current career portfolio.

Not long after I had completed my local polytechnic diploma, I was recommended by my lecturer to attend a job interview with Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) as the statutory board was looking for graduates to join them at that time. As I had no luck in finding my own job, I decided to give it a try.

Fast forward to the present, I have been working as an Infocomm Officer for more than 10 years with the board. My main job scope includes day-to-day maintenance of the system, system enhancements as well as analysis of system behaviour whenever there are user queries. On top of these, this job requires me to be on standby 24/7 to solve any issues whenever there are amendments done to the system, as it may take as long as 24 hours for the backend coding to be in running order.

What were some of the most valuable take-aways from the programme you took at PSB Academy and what were the challenges you faced during your studies?

On top of gaining new industry knowledge, I am able to better understand what and why things happen the way they do in the system via our programming. This not only helps me to improve my overall work performance, but also allows me to better explain in detail to users (internal backend staff and counter staff) whenever they have queries.

As a part-time student, managing time to juggle between work and studies was the biggest challenge I had to face. As a programmer, the company requires us to be on standby in case any issues occur. This means that although I may have a class in the evening – if there’s a system error, I will have to stay back in the office to fix it and give the class a miss. Thankfully, I have a team of colleagues who are understanding and are willing to cover me should such situations happen. Furthermore, the tutors and lecturers are always there to assist and explain to us whenever we have queries regarding the lectures and assignments. It was a great help as I was able to catch up on my studies when I had to miss a lecture due to work.

What were the key factors that made you refer your younger brother to his degree programme with PSB Academy?

My brother is also in the IT industry and he had plans to upgrade himself since he started working. He did some research on private schools that offer IT degree programmes before asking for my advice on the study experience in PSB Academy.

Personally, it was a great one for me despite having to juggle everything during the whole course of study. The lecturers and tutors were most helpful to answer my technical queries. Not only that, the programme offered in PSB Academy by The University of Newcastle, Australia (UON) is very applicable and relevant to the industry. Hence, I strongly encouraged him to consider the programme with UON.