TCM physician, musician, rail engineer: Three S’poreans who made a mid-career switch into tech

When Soh Wen Ming’s daughter said she was bored and wanted to play a video game, he asked her to build one herself.

The former musician, now a senior software developer, turned to the AI assistant he developed, which coached the eight-year-old into building her own game from scratch.

“Now she doesn’t even want to play iPad games anymore. She just wants to make them,” says 43-year-old Soh.

Grocery shopping has become easier too. Every two weeks, an automated assistant reviews the household’s needs, fills a RedMart cart and pings his wife for final approval.

Soh says such moments are proof that his mid-career pivot into technology has yielded far more than just a new profession. It has transformed how he approaches learning and problem-solving at work – and at home.

He is among a growing number of professionals joining Singapore’s tech sector, a workforce that includes both fresh entrants and mid-career switchers.

According to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the number of tech professionals grew by 3.8 per cent to 222,200 in 2025, up from 214,000 the year before.

Tech jobs also continue to offer strong wage outcomes. In 2025, the median monthly wage for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents in tech roles was $8,000 – 60 per cent higher than the $5,000 median across all occupations.

As Singapore steps up efforts to drive AI adoption across enterprises and equip its workforce with the skills needed for an AI-driven economy, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) is working with leading global companies and enterprises to deepen their AI capabilities here.

Beyond attracting investments, EDB works closely with companies to create good jobs and grow Singapore’s pool of AI talent. This includes supporting companies as they build teams with specialised AI expertise, and encouraging industry partnerships and training opportunities that help Singaporeans develop in-demand skills.

Two other Singaporeans took similar routes as Soh: Ang Jun Jia, a former Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) physician now helping Microsoft’s clients adopt the latest tech and AI tools; and Woo Jia Jian, a former rail engineer who manages generative AI projects at PwC today.

None has a computer science background. Each took a calculated leap into a new technology role.

Balancing family, stability and a move into tech

Soh had spent most of his working life in music, first as a professional session musician performing with some of the biggest artistes in South-east Asia, then managing about 20 performers at So Drama! Entertainment.

The music manager role was, he says, “as close to an iron rice bowl as possible”. But something else had been quietly pulling at him.

“It wasn’t really that I hated the job; it was just that I knew I really, really wanted to do programming,” he says.

He first became curious about programming while running a food and beverage business, where he saw vendors pitching software to manage operations. Years later at So Drama!, he taught himself Python to automate spreadsheets.

But with a mortgage and two young daughters then aged five and two, turning that early interest into a career was a decision he had to weigh carefully.

The turning point came when he spotted Temus’ four-month Step IT Up programme on LinkedIn in 2023.

Supported by IMDA’s Company-Led Training programme, Step IT Up offers participants an accelerated pathway into the tech sector. It follows a Place-and-Train model, where participants are hired from the outset before undergoing structured instructor-led and on-the-job training.

Soh and his fellow trainees also received a monthly stipend during the four-month programme.

Close to 80 Singaporean career-switchers have since been placed in technology roles through the programme, with a 100 per cent placement rate.

Today, Soh is a senior software developer at Temus, leading a team that builds and maintains a student app used daily by thousands at one of Singapore’s largest universities. He also develops AI-powered internal tools to help colleagues work more efficiently.

Much of his work involves helping non-technical users communicate their exacting specifications in a syntax the engineers are familiar with.

“In the end, all businesses, even technology ones, are people businesses. And they are built on empathy,” he says. “If you understand your subject well enough to speak with confidence, and have empathy for the people you are serving, that is really powerful.”

And his test for mastering a new technical concept is simple. He says: “If I can’t explain it to my children, then I don’t really know it yet.”

Turning an unexpected opportunity into a tech career

Long before she designed AI training programmes, Ang was a TCM physician, attending to patients and working through symptoms to identify the root cause of an ailment.

Nearly a decade on, she finds herself applying the same clinical patience to solve clients’ business problems.

The 39-year-old skilling lead at Microsoft Operations works with organisations in Singapore and Vietnam to design programmes that help their workforce adopt AI tools such as Copilot. As with her former patients, Ang first tries to understand the underlying problem the client wants to solve.

“Some customers will just tell me, ‘Hey, I want my whole organisation to be AI trained’,” Ang says. “I listen to understand the business challenge they’re trying to address, and then bring together the right people, programmes and resources to help them achieve their goals.”

Ang graduated from Nanyang Technological University in 2011 with a double degree in biomedical sciences and Chinese medicine.

In 2015, she left her practice to pursue a full-time masters in business administration at the National University of Singapore, hoping to combine her clinical training with business skills and move into healthcare management.

A Microsoft internship the following year instead set her on a different path. Walking into a tech multinational without a computer science background was, in her words, daunting.

“Coming from healthcare, I always felt like I was the smallest fry in the room and that I would not have a voice,” she says. Her manager and teammates felt otherwise.

“They challenged me in a very positive way and helped me understand that my perspectives are still of value. I was brought in for a different perspective,” she says. “The bigger risk was that if I didn’t try, I would never know.”

Ang later joined the founding team behind Code; Without Barriers, a Microsoft initiative that ran for about five years from 2020, offering training, mentorship and job pathways for women entering or returning to tech.

“Those conversations reminded me that there is no single path to a successful career. Some people move quickly, while others take detours, pause to care for loved ones, or choose a different route entirely,” she says.

“What mattered most was not where they started, but their willingness to take that next step forward.”

Keeping pace with a fast-changing tech career

Woo’s career detour took him from rail engineering into data science. But getting into the field was only the beginning.

At 29, the then-rail engineer became curious about data science after seeing it being used to predict equipment failures.

“It was very interesting to see how the domain of AI and data science could benefit a totally different industry like the rail industry,” he recalls.

In 2018, he resigned from his job and signed up for a data science course. Two short internships followed before he joined the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) as a data analyst in 2019.

It still took time to feel he belonged in the field after the career change. A turning point came while conducting generative AI workshops for other non-technical colleagues at IRAS. Concepts that were new and useful to them had become second nature to him, and the experience made him realise how much he had learnt.

“That’s where I had this inkling that maybe, you know, I could really do this,” he says.

By late 2023, Woo wanted to deepen his skills as generative AI gathered pace. He stepped away from work to enrol in a one-year Master of IT in Business.

Find out how Singapore develops a diverse talent pool.

After preparing financially for the year of study, Woo saw the decision as an investment in his future.

Today, the 37-year-old is a manager at PwC’s AI Hub, where he builds generative AI solutions for clients. Launched in Singapore in 2025 with support from EDB, the AI Hub focuses on developing homegrown AI capabilities and solutions for clients across sectors.

Even now, he says, imposter syndrome can surface from time to time, but experience has taught him not to let it define what he is capable of.

“In this day and age, there’s really nothing that we cannot learn, at least in terms of technical knowledge, as long as you are willing to put in the hours,” he adds.

Growth of Singapore tech jobs beyond the sector

Singapore’s technology workforce is growing, but the more significant shift may be where those jobs are appearing.

Of the 222,200 tech professionals in Singapore recorded in 2025, almost 60 per cent – 130,900 – worked outside the information and communications sector, compared with 91,300 within it.

It reflects a broader change in the economy. Banks, manufacturers, logistics firms, healthcare providers and professional services companies increasingly need people who can work with software, data and AI, even if technology is not their core business.

The numbers on Singapore’s digital economy tell a similar story. It generated $144.1 billion in value added in 2025, equivalent to 19.3 per cent of GDP, with more than two-thirds coming from sectors outside information and communications.

AI could widen that demand further as more companies develop AI capabilities of their own, setting up dedicated units known as AI Centres of Excellence, where staff develop and test in-house AI solutions to meet business goals. Close to 100 have been established across Singapore, spanning sectors from finance to manufacturing.

Says senior vice-president and co-head for Digital Industry Singapore under the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Jinyong Low: “As technology becomes more deeply embedded across industries, companies will increasingly need people who can combine strong technical capabilities with industry knowledge.”

EDB works with companies to set up and scale key operations in Singapore, bringing new functions and jobs here as they invest and grow.

Working alongside partners such as the Infocomm Media Development Authority and Enterprise Singapore, EDB also supports workforce initiatives that help Singaporeans to build the skills to move into these roles, whether as fresh entrants or mid-career switchers.

“For workers, moving into tech doesn’t mean starting from scratch. Their previous industry experience and knowledge can be an advantage, enabling them to apply technology to solve real-world business challenges and create greater impact,” Low says.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.