Ever since graduation, I have been working for our very own psychology faculty, Assistant Professor Jean Liu as a Research Assistant. I primarily help her with conducting studies and preparing manuscripts for publications. It has been interesting to be on the side of conducting studies and preparing papers rather than be the ones reading papers. There are so many considerations and background work that goes into every aspect of journal articles. Psychology is useful in this case as it helps me understand the questions we are trying to solve. In the discipline, we try to understand what makes a person behave in a certain way, and that takes many forms from clinical psychology to social psychology. This is particularly salient when investigating topics such as the spread of misinformation during COVID-19, which was a recent study that I helped in.

After graduating, I took a few months to rest and spend time with family before starting a job as a case worker. As part of the Yellow Ribbon Community Project, I check in with families of inmates to see how they’re doing and if they need any assistance. On top of providing emotional and practical support where necessary, I also work with clients to create a sense of empowerment. It’s been a really fulfilling job for me, especially when I’m able to establish a relationship built on trust and respect with clients. I’m also looking to pursue a Master’s in Clinical Psychology, so I’ve been working towards that on the side as well.

As a case worker, the ability to empathise and build trust are very important and studying Psychology has helped me greatly in this regard. Psychology is a study of mechanisms behind how people think and behave. My understanding of these mechanisms helps to inform my perspective of each client’s situation, allowing me to distinguish factors that contribute towards the creation or maintenance of their current position. By being aware of how various systems interact to produce this outcome, I am better able to empathise and build trust, which then allows me to provide more effective support.

Following graduation, I started work at Ubisoft, a well-known and global videogame company in July. I am working as a User Experience (UX) designer, which means I help make interfaces for games. Besides that, I have been adjusting to and enjoying adult life and its responsibilities—living with three wonderful fellow Yale-NUS graduates! As the name would suggest, good UX involves understanding how people think and process information. My psychology background is really helpful in three ways. First, it taught me useful lessons about how people learn things and recall information—which helps me design consistent and memorable elements for a game screen. Second, it exposed me to a wide gamut of ways people think and experience the world, which enables my work to be more accessible and inclusive. Third, it gave me hard research skills which are invaluable for conducting user research and analysing data about players!