As my internship comes to an end, I can still recall one fact I had to share when I first applied to Skillseed: my Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) result.

Asking for an applicant’s MBTI isn’t a new phenomenon, though I had anticipated more common questions such as: What are your greatest strengths? What are your weaknesses? How do you handle conflict? I remember worrying if my personality results could justify a rejection. If I behave appropriately and do my job, why would this matter?

As I reflect on my time at Skillseed, I think I’ve come to an understanding regarding this. As a Special Projects Intern, I was tasked with a diverse portfolio that enabled me to learn much about the operations of a social enterprise. Unexpectedly, I’ve also learnt more about working in a team—in the office, teamwork goes further than what we know from group work in school.

At Skillseed, this is a guaranteed learning point: walking in, you’ll see a central area where everyone works. No cubicles. No assigned spaces. You quickly learn to be comfortable working with people, whether they’re in the seat next to you or collaborating with you on a long-term project. This made it easy to pick up on my colleagues’ various personalities. One missing person can be enough to change the atmosphere at work. Realising this helped me unravel the mystery of the MBTI question: it wasn’t about critiquing my personality, it was about viewing myself in relation to every asset at Skillseed and more. This value of relationality has been a key takeaway in my internship, recurring in every project that I’ve worked on.

One of my first projects involved co-developing a Theory of Change model. It’s basically a systems map that reveals interrelationships among factors influencing an issue. I worked with my mentor and another intern to research poverty in Singapore and understand the systems mapping process, as well as leverage related insights recorded during Skillseed’s Resilience Trails. This data collection enabled us to draft a Theory of Change map that revealed six potentially vicious cycles enforcing poverty.

Apart from discovering a new, visual tool for analysis, I’ve gained a fuller perspective on just how different countries can be. For instance, as Singapore has no official poverty line, we had to think of ways to define poverty here and how, consequently, efforts targeting this group have been developed. Through systems mapping, I’ve discovered how systemic poverty can arise, as well as how taking action to address social issues may not be as simple as demanding more of a resource.

Observing how my mentor engages our team has been another valuable learning point, as I’ve learnt how to structure and lead productive discussions. By understanding how we might process information, he ensures that our discussions place us on the same page.

Notes from our Theory of Change workshopping

Apart from this, I was introduced to the Business for Societal Impact (B4SI) Framework, which helps businesses contribute to social causes strategically. Under the guidance of my senior colleague, I conducted data collection and analysis to construct a more comprehensive B4SI model for Skillseed.

I’m not exactly a numbers or an Excel person, so initially, I was intimidated by the scale of the B4SI and unsure of how I could best represent the data. Oftentimes, I assume that the way to understand a new topic like the B4SI would be to read up on it as much as possible and respond to feedback after a draft. Yet, I’ve come to realise that discussions are just as important, if not even more so—hearing other perspectives can be very useful to finding common understandings, ensuring that your work makes sense to everyone.

My meetings with my mentor helped me to break down each segment of the B4SI and present it more coherently. With this project, I recognised the importance of presentation: data only has value when it makes sense to everyone. Seeing the completed draft of our B4SI showed me how careful organisations have to be when allocating resources to drive social impact. As a result, I’ve built a more critical view of business operations.

Probably the most creative job I’ve been tasked with is designing a tabletop game for Skillseed’s workshops. While I’ve worked on a similar project before, this assignment afforded me a lot more creative freedom, which proved to be a double-edged sword. I remember ideas swirling around in my head when I first started. It felt like I was lost at sea, with no compass to guide me. The research and development process behind a game is long, intensive and frustrating at times: You can learn about many mechanics to integrate into your game, however, you won’t know whether it’s too complex or simple unless you undergo a playtest. To do a playtest, you’d need a prototype, which also takes time to create. The foundational mechanics of a game like this can be closely tied to its narrative, so changing one affects the other.

Playtesting the tabletop game (first draft prototype).

While it was a tough project to kick off by myself, once this happened, it accelerated game development. Shaping the framework of the game made it easier to obtain helpful feedback from my mentor and build on ideas with her. As a visual learner, I even found myself picking up digital design skills for the game materials to better envision the world. I’m grateful to have the chance to combine my interest in social impact with my love for games. Seeing my colleagues playtest the game and provide valuable feedback was incredibly heartwarming as well.

Interestingly, developing this game with my mentor enabled me to simplify and gamify complex social behaviour. Specifically, I added small mechanics that mirror how we have to make trade-offs in life and how such actions can influence the lives of others in our communities. Being able to relationally engage with different people doesn’t mean we must absolve ourselves from the equation. Rather, we might want to consider how much we can accommodate without compromising our needs.

I’ve observed this mindset at Skillseed in my daily office tasks as well. Whether it’s seeing my colleagues engage with stakeholders or checking if a task’s deadline works for both my colleagues and me, relationality is always present. I’ve also dabbled in some marketing aspects, such as creating a poster and developing an experiment to test demand for a new product, where I learnt about advertising strategies. This turned my attention to stakeholders outside the company, so again, I had to adapt to new audiences and purposes. There are so many things a social enterprise needs to keep moving and making impact; it all starts from relationality, whether it's in the workplace or with external stakeholders and potential clients.

At the beginning of my internship, I kept wondering how much I could learn at Skillseed within 2.5 months. Needless to say, my eyes have been opened to so much. I’m thankful to take away a host of transferable skills I can use in areas such as business, communications, design and even life. More than this, I’m blessed to have met all my colleagues at Skillseed, who have provided me with a safe, supportive environment to grow and improve.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬: 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬, 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞