Spill The T: Intern who’s Creating Change
Spill The T: Intern who’s Creating Change
In this series, we take you behind the scenes of what it’s like to be a part of Team Temasek. Hear why we love doing what we do from interns who have learnt the ropes, mid-career joiners who have made the switch from other industries, and those who have risen within our ranks.
The buzz of big tech retains its pull on many aspiring software engineers. But for 26-year-old Terence Tan, the dream isn’t to just make technology products – he wants to make an impact.
“At technology companies, you often work on a small piece of a big puzzle. At Temasek, I get to work on technologies that solve real problems – and I am aware of how my work contributes to the whole,” he says.
Over the last six months, the product management intern with Temasek’s Digital Technology department has been working on additional features for a system called Winnow, which borrows its name from the agricultural process where chaff is blown away to yield valuable grain.
The AI-driven platform similarly filters for high-quality internal and external data, insights and intelligence on the investments Temasek is considering, including ESG – or Environmental, Social and Governance – factors, an additional lens through which the company scrutinises deals. It is a critical but tedious process, and one that used to be done manually.
“It’s quite clever,” says Terence, who is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Technology Entrepreneurship at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). To demonstrate, he pulls out his laptop and punches the name of a company into a dummy. The dashboard responds with a unified view of both risks and opportunities, with data that comes in useful for screening deals and due diligence. The platform can also be used for post-deal monitoring and reporting.
“We automate some of the legwork, and this frees up investment officers to spend more time on the ground doing the brainwork,” says Terence, who also got to experiment with how Generative AI could simplify workflows.
He brims with excitement, and it is hard to imagine that just four years ago, he couldn’t see this job as something he’d be able to do.
Slow build of confidence
Terence’s journey to Temasek began in 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, when he first met his current boss, Mark Lim, Managing Director of Digital Technology.
“My friends and I were roped in to create a software code for the vending machines Temasek used to distribute masks and hand sanitiser. Basically, we needed a way to verify a person's identity and dispense the right number of masks, while keeping their information protected,” he says.
Impressed by Terence’s technical skills, speed and dedication to delivering on the project, Mark proposed that he apply for an internship – but after thinking about it, he decided not to.
“I was interested but didn’t have the confidence,” he recalls. “I didn’t know enough about investing, and I also felt I needed a stronger foundation in emerging technologies like AI and Machine Learning.”
Over the next three years, he worked to plug the gaps through internships and additional modules at SUTD.
Early this year, Terence was finally ready to apply for an internship.
A place to learn
Once in the door, Terence was keen to learn – and found ready opportunities to do so.
“I wanted to better understand the investment process, so the Organisation & People team pointed me to webinars and explainers on Temasek’s intranet that helped me understand how Temasek did things,” he says. Terence was also exposed to learning resources in rapidly evolving areas, allowing him to stay on top of developments and discover what he was most passionate about.
“The culture is open, and our managers encourage us not to be afraid of making mistakes. We bounce ideas off the team, get their input, and keep improving on them. We learn – that’s the biggest thing for me.”
- Terence Tan
The organisation’s flat hierarchy gave him ready access to supervisors and colleagues, even outside his 10-man team, while its strong mentorship culture yielded hands that steadied him along the way.
His direct supervisor, the department’s Vice President, Sheshbabu Chinnakonda, also set the tone for a role that he soon learnt would go far beyond research and building prototypes: “He emphasised the importance of domain knowledge and interpersonal skills. You have to talk to users and make sure that the technology really benefits them, and that there's a productivity gain.”
This collective experience gave him room to grow, experiment, and even fail.
Unique engineering opportunity
Terence returns to SUTD next month to complete his thesis but has already secured a full-time position as a full-stack developer with Temasek when he graduates in August next year, says Sheshbabu.
The Winnow ESG module that Terence worked on will have launched by then, but he is looking forward to being a part of its – and Temasek’s – continuous evolution.
“It is a unique opportunity. Temasek spans so many sectors and markets, and the role cuts across so many business functions. It is also a rapidly evolving company, and technology changes everything even faster.
“It’s an exciting place to be.”
Like what you hear? Get your own career off to a flying start with Temasek’s general internships or Associate Internship Programme (Investment Group). You bring the passion, and we’ll provide the opportunities for training and networking, and exciting projects you can sink your teeth into.
