Low Guanming

To be candid, all I had in mind when I was 18 was that I wanted to teach. I saw that the PSC scholarship could offer me a good opportunity to broaden my horizons by going abroad for my studies and trying out different public sector roles. I thought these experiences would enrich my contributions in a classroom. 

Today, my heart remains close to education even as I contribute in other roles, and I carry the hope of bringing these experiences back to some form of education some day. I find having that accuracy and clarity of purpose is important in taking up a PSC scholarship because it is more than a chance to study—it’s a commitment to serve the public from the public sector for a good chunk of your life.

The regular job rotations have given me experiences spanning frontline service delivery, strategy and policy development, and “back-end” corporate work. The development programmes have allowed me to meet colleagues working on different issues across the Service, which helped me learn through their experiences, and fostered collaboration when we worked on projects later on. I’ve also been given the chance to sharpen my leadership skills by leading teams of different sizes, and through working with team members with diverse skillsets, dispositions, and aspirations. 

These experiences have given me more exposure to skills needed across the public sector. They have helped me better appreciate the complexities of “policy making”—which many PSC scholarship holders see themselves doing. This goes far beyond understanding the issue you want to address and identifying a solution you think might work. Policymakers often find themselves securing buy-in among stakeholders with contrasting needs and perspectives that the problem is worth solving, the solution appropriate, and the trade-offs manageable. Among other things, they also need to work through implementation details with operational units, which may include creating new processes, training delivery partners, and unlocking resources needed to smoothly deliver the outcomes. This also taught me the value of well-functioning corporate support, without which it would be phenomenally difficult to get things done. 

A senior public officer I know and respect once used the term “cut and thrust” to describe the lives of public officers. That’s a fair description of how the work feels. Public officers are often faced with questions that have great impact but defy easy answers. The restless world changes, indifferent to our plight, forcing us to move in double quick time to balance contrasting needs. One moment we are atop a riffle, the next, coming down a rapid, and then swinging round a meander’s curve.  

In my ten years with the Public Service, I have experienced this dynamism as I taught in (and out of) a classroom and shaped various policies at the Ministries of Education and Trade and Industry (such as STEM in higher education and support for businesses during COVID). I tussled with questions of governance at the Public Service Division, where I also worked on HR tools to strengthen skill development in the public sector.  

I’ve encountered work with immediate deliverables, and more long-term, exploratory projects, often in the same day. This can be a challenge because each requires you to exercise specific skills and habits of mind, while holding back instincts more suited to the other. Someone who cherishes the rewards from task completion might too easily dismiss an iterative long-term planning process as dawdle.  

These requirements may also evolve rapidly over a project’s life cycle, pushing us to learn and adapt. An initially more exploratory endeavour to strengthen governance spun into an effort to enact legislation, which at one point compelled me to text that same senior public officer for legal advice on Christmas day as I was going home from the supermarket. In such instances, having a great team that is prepared to go the extra mile really helps. A PSC scholarship offer is essentially that: an invitation to go over and above in service of Singapore. 

Some people think that book smarts will carry you far in the Public Service. That’s one thing they look at when offering a scholarship, but there are other factors too. An officer needs much more than intellectual prowess and individual achievement to contribute meaningfully to public service. These include being empathetic, action-oriented, resourceful, courageous, street-smart, and resilient, and being able to connect with and partner stakeholders from all walks of life to achieve outcomes. As in any other job, officers need a balance of abilities to deliver outcomes in challenging circumstances. Find ways to start developing these skills and practising them in different settings while you are studying. Good public officers—both junior and senior—make effort to improve these skills throughout their careers. 

Don’t be distracted by the prestige and glamour of the scholarship. Instead, think of it as a doorway to a career. Consider how you’d like to contribute to society, and whether roles in the private and people sector will allow you to make greater impact given your skills and dispositions. Before deciding on a public sector scholarship, talk to as many people as you can with first-hand experience working in public agencies, and others who work in the private sector. Compare what energises them about their work, what frustrates them, and what they’ve had to give up. Inoculate yourself from survivor bias by trying out one or more internships. This will give you a taste of the work and help you think about whether public sector roles best allow you to contribute to society given your skills and inclinations. It will connect you with networks of people to speak with. 

Bear in mind that there will be times in public service when you are called upon to serve in roles you do not expect—job rotations are competitive and the organisation has needs. It’s vital to keep an open mind, and to allow yourself to discover purpose as you encounter perspectives, concerns, and values different from your own. There’s no better time to start cultivating such dispositions than now. 

All the very best in your journey!