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At 24, my career was off to a strong start – I was two months into my dream engineering internship at one of the biggest aviation companies in the world. Following in my dad’s footsteps, I’d taken all the necessary steps for this dream – studied all the right things – I’d spent six years attaining a diploma in Aeronautical engineering and a Bachelor’s of Science in Aviation. Except, it was 2020. We were two weeks into lockdown, working from home, when I got a call from my boss. The next thing I knew, I got laid off. Yep, as an intern. In that moment, everything I had worked for my whole life felt irrelevant. I had to find a new job, in a new industry and I had to do it fast. It was tough. I started the year thinking I was all set for a thriving career in aviation, now, I had to face the reality that aviation wasn’t going to be a career option anymore if I wanted to build a career and at 24, I was too young to be laid off but too old to be doing nothing either. 8 months later, I secured a contract role at DBS through the SGUnited Traineeship programme, a government scheme designed to help fresh graduates and mid-career switchers build new, industry-relevant skills. For me, it was also my chance to get my life back on track. I pivoted to tech as a data analyst, monitoring systems across consumer banking markets to ensure services ran smoothly for customers. I had to get up to speed and catch up with my colleagues who had spent years studying for this role. I was very grateful to my team who gave me the space to learn and made my journey enjoyable. After five years, I converted to a permanent role and moved closer to the core, taking on a production support role within the Site Reliability Engineering team. It was a relief. Finally, I was building a stable and thriving career. Today, I work hands-on with our systems, analysing transaction flows, reviewing logs and partnering with engineering teams to keep our platform reliable and user-friendly. The work is fast-paced and often complex, so I’ve learnt to lean on AI and automation as part of my daily workflow. Tools like Claude Code help me make sense of complex logs, while DBS-GPT supports everything from generating SQL queries to building internal agents that automate monitoring and reporting tasks. On the clock, I get to leverage new technologies like AI to sharpen my skills, learn new things and tackle tasks I might have found overwhelming before. After hours, I’m empowered to continue investing in myself – I started taking singing lessons and even performed at a recital. Sometimes I get asked if I still grieve the loss of my initial aspiration in aviation. I usually say, “Not really. I found another place that I belong.” Recently, while spring cleaning our home, I found my old POSB piggy bank. As I dusted it off, I was reminded of a core memory. I was nine years old, on the way to POSB at Woodlands Centre with my dad to set up my first bank account. I remember thinking, “How cool would it be if I could work there one day?” I had forgotten about that childhood dream. But I’ve genuinely come to enjoy working at DBS. Even though I didn’t follow in my dad’s footsteps, my dad is still proud of me for forging my own path. - Abishek Prathaban, Production Support Engineer #HumansofDBS