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IMPACT 0522: NAVIGATING UNCERTAINTY IN CAREER PURPOSEFULLY

Youth Action Challenge (YAC) is a platform for youth to provide solutions that tackle the issues we are concerned about. Since October 2021, over 80 teams and more than 310 youths have undertaken the YAC Season 3 journey.

Diana Lim, 29, is currently pursuing graduate studies in Communication with NUS. She used to lead cross-functional teams to plan and execute flawless product launches and is now looking to switch her career towards client facing roles.

She is also passionate about growing businesses and designing delightful customer experiences. Today she shares more about her project, Experiment Purposefully, a project to guide and support young professionals aged 28-35 in their career transitions.

What was your role within your YAC project?

I was one of the project co-founders. I drove conversation from the product design perspective, from conducting user research to translating research into designing web wireframing on figma.

What motivated you to join YAC?

I was at a crossroads trying to figure out what’s next for my career. Social entrepreneurship was something that I always wanted to try. When the opportunity came in the form of YAC, I decided to give it a try as it is a fail-safe environment with real problems to solve under great guidance.

Can you share with us your experience with your YAC project?

I met my team members through the YAC project. I was surprised by the number of sign-ups, and all of us share a similar passion of wanting to solve youth problems. It was a very supportive and friendly learning environment where we learn from experimenting with a problem we want to solve. We were also assigned resources such as mentorship where we can reach out and seek guidance.

The whole program is well-structured to help us learn the spirit of entrepreneurship, taking a user-centric approach to work. We also got a chance to use a co-working space and experience life as an entrepreneur.

Through this program, I gained many new contacts who are great role models.

What are some challenges you faced while working on your YAC project?

The toughest and most exciting one was prioritising and nailing down which group of target audiences were more important (i.e. early 20s or late 20s?). While our data points were helpful in giving us insight, we pivoted a few times and eventually settled for the “late 20s” group.

The next challenge was leadership and decision making. There were times where we had to decide on which way to go forward, what to do next and where certain decisions would lead us to. Having mentors helped us to think through our decisions and discuss our concerns.

Lastly, we all had other commitments besides YAC, such as work or studies. We aligned by blocking our calendars to connect at common times. Teamwork makes dream work.

Could you share more on how your project has a positive impact?

Our project helps raise awareness for the underserved group of experienced hires in their late 20s who need some form of career support during tough times like COVID-19.

Were there any key takeaways or learning points from your time with YAC?

Firstly, adaptability. With COVID-19, we all learnt that we have to be open to whatever our current situation, responding creatively and making quick decisions. We as a team also realised that our initial project idea would probably need a longer time to finetune, given the current COVID-19 induced changes to the workplace.

Secondly, product fit. In this journey, we went back to our storyboards many times before finally deriving the problem that we really wanted to solve. We had to learn to pivot our ideas with situational changes to serve our customers with the best fit product.

Thirdly, friendship. I gained new friendships and mentors who are equally passionate about solving problems.

Fourthly, ask for help! Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask your mentors for advice. Mentors are really here to help, and I totally appreciated all the sharing through different workshops.