Studied computer science at National University of Singapore. Spent more time on side projects than coursework, which paid off and hurt my marks at the same time. Joined the coding club, lost most contests, learned to read others code.

Felt behind classmates who had been coding since school. Hostel life, tight budget, and a creeping sense that the syllabus did not match what real teams shipped.

Reading code matters more than writing more code. Asking dumb questions in tutorial is cheap; staying silent is expensive. A weekend project beats a perfect resume bullet.

Graduated with a campus offer and one open-source contribution that mattered more than any certificate.

Ship one small thing every semester that is your own. It compounds.

Data structures, algorithms, OS concepts, DBMS, Java, Python, team projects

Joined Sea Group as a junior engineer on a customer-facing product. First six months were mostly bug tickets and reading legacy code. Slowly took on small features.

Imposter syndrome was loudest in design reviews. Estimation was a guess. Production incidents at 2am rewired what I thought engineering was about.

Code is a means to a user outcome, not the outcome. Senior engineers are not faster typers — they delete more code. Logs are love letters to future you.

Owned a small module by month 14. Earned trust through small, reliable PRs.

Git, Agile, code review, JavaScript, React, Node.js, REST APIs, unit testing

Promoted after two years. Started mentoring interns and owning end-to-end features. Began writing RFCs and reading production metrics with intent.

Letting go of writing all the code myself. Saying no to scope creep without sounding like a blocker.

Design reviews are negotiation, not just architecture. Clear writing beats clever code. Your calendar tells the truth about your priorities.

Led a customer-facing migration on schedule with zero downtime. Hired two engineers I am still proud to have backed.

System design, mentoring, code review, observability, TypeScript, PostgreSQL

Switched to Spotify for scope and equity. Owning architecture for a platform serving millions. Cross-team collaboration is now half the job.

Onboarding to a new org humbles you fast. New jargon, new politics, new on-call rota. Trust takes months, not weeks.

Senior is not a coding title; it is an accountability title. The best lever is sometimes saying the boring thing in a meeting nobody likes.

Set technical direction for two squads. Wrote the on-call playbook the team now actually uses.

Pick managers, not companies. Title inflation chases bad managers.

Cloud architecture, distributed systems, leadership, stakeholder management