It’s been 1 year since I first walked through these doors, got my Agoda employee badge.

The start to my first ever job in Singapore … as a 33 year old Singaporean.

As someone who built my career elsewhere (Japan) then came back, that came with a lot of nerves. The job hunt took twice as long as I expected. Then, you hear of people in Singapore getting let go like water – something very rare in Japan.

This is why when I first stepped through these  doors a year ago, I was nervous. My best fitting polo shirt for the best first impression, wondering if my still dyed hair would send the wrong message.

After all, my impression of big tech was of rows of engineers, writing super, unbreakable code with bloodshot eyes and a dangerously high caffeine tolerance.

But after the employee badge and the orientation and all that, I went to my seat and … there were like only 5 people present at my section?

Was a work-from-home day. The few present who preferred to work from the office went to dapao (take out) their lunch when they wanted to, invited me to join, did their work, had coffee breaks, and all left by 6.

Well, except one. But I think most offices have that one person who likes to stay past 6.

So, honestly, my nerves were underwhelmed.

Micro-fires to Macro-fires

The next few days were information overwhelm. Before Agoda, I only worked in micro, early stage startups – you know, firefighting many micro fires. Even having to put out fires out of your main camp – like poking holes at the vibe-generated go-to-market plan from marketing.

Big(ger) tech is where you focus on fewer, larger fires which require more finesse and focus to put out. And hopefully not start your own because unlike at startups, in big companies, fires do cost millions.

But all this requires so much more information, that even a year after I’m still catching up on. Unlike micro-startups it’s impossible to know everything, but that’s the advantage big companies have – departmentalizing.

I’m glad though that my micro fire-fighting skills have been transferable to macro fire-fighting. Within the first six few months, I’ve fought a few big fires. May have started one or two of my own, but we learn. And overall, my impact has been net positive and far more than enough to justify my pay.

But more importantly than that, knocking out features that people (including possibly you reading this) are using. Something taken for granted at big companies, but definitely refreshing as someone from micro-startup land.

Taking stock

Do I not miss the startup days at all? I do – parts of it. There’s a certain rawness to working in an environment where you know there’s less than a 12 month runway. And even now, I still have an instinct to go past engineering and find out and stick my fingers into other fields.

May go back to that one day, but for now, departmentalizing means getting some depth in what has been so far a breadth-oriented career. My title at my previous company was “CTO”. But there so much that I now have experienced and learnt at Agoda that I wouldn’t have had I not jumped, despite my previous fancier title.

So thank you to Agoda for taking the chance on this returning Singaporean, with honestly a very weird resume. I promise to fight fires harder, and keep those that I spark to a minimum.