Zui Young was born with high astigmatism in his right eye and is only able to see with the right eye. But he never once lost sight of his passion for all things digital.

This GovTechie’s interest in computers started during his primary school days when he was introduced to coding with the HTML language and Microsoft FrontPage. That led him to learn programming in secondary school, then to a Diploma in Business Information Technology at Singapore Polytechnic, and Bachelors and Masters in Information Systems at Singapore Management University.

You might not have heard about it, but GovTech has this thing called the (Digital Technology Attachment Programme, or DTAP for short, that allows staff to get seconded to industry partners – while remaining as GovTech staff, of course.

We spoke to our very own Stephanie Yeo, a senior delivery manager at GovTech who through the DTAP programme, spent some time at VMware Pivotal Labs, an American multinational software company as a Product Manager (PM).

It is easy today to imagine that everything can be placed “on the cloud” and have them run properly without a glitch.

Tech is usually thought of as gizmos, gadgets, machines, and computers. But really, it is the human talent that makes the biggest difference and gives tech its focus in making our lives better.

No sugar coating it, the past year or so has been tough on everyone as Singapore continues its fight against Covid-19. Front line workers have worked extra hard to keep the virus at bay. Businesses have felt the strain on their bottom lines. And social and family ties have been tested by heightened alert and safe distancing measures.

This year’s National Day Parade has even been postponed to Aug 21, with a simpler observance ceremony on National Day itself.

NGL (Not gonna lie, try to keep up), the early 2010s were quite a crazy time to be alive. Believe it or not, iPhones didn’t come with four cameras. Memes used the font “impact”. And for a while there some of us believed that the world was going to end in 2012. (Ashton Kutcher, we’re looking at you.) Spoiler alert: It did not.

When it comes to jobs, it’s a great time to be in tech. As a tech hub, Singapore houses the regional headquarters of tech giants from the US (such as Google, Facebook) and China (like TenCent and ByteDance), while Southeast Asian unicorns (Grab and Gojek, to name just two) maintain large offices here as well.