I think there’s some level of respect and beauty in going all in for our work, and doing it together with others – that makes work so fulfilling.
Here at YouthTechSG, sometimes I think about how we aim to retain our volunteers. To do so, we must understand their motivations. Some individuals do it for good, some do it because they enjoy the community that they are in, and some do it for portfolio purposes. And often, motivations consist across these areas.
Each volunteer organisation or interest group often has the top of the pyramid and a wider bottom of the pyramid. The top are the most committed individuals, running and spending their entire lifetime on the organisation. The bottom are the general volunteers, just joining whenever they are free and occasionally ditching the project, without the accountability.
I question across the clubs, why the top individuals spend so much time – forever pushing for some vain growth within their limited circle (their club, their hall, their community). The work is forever more than the benefit one gets from the outcome. And yet, I am one of them. Trying to keep my impact division within YouthTechSG afloat, often being immersed in the daily calls and work, dealing with both the operations, strategy and partnerships, I’m tired of keeping the spirit alive.
There are so, so many times when I would think of quitting under the massive workload – that I could have instead spent on internship, research, or simply enjoying a much more relaxing life. I’ve had this discussion with my volunteers, and despite our complaints again and again, we wonder why we continue. It’s as if we’re just trauma bonding.
And yet, sometimes it’s all just in for the game.
My team member, Marcus, would describe this as how we would all not wish to destroy what we’ve built. Ultimately, there is a sense of pride that we’ve developed within the organisation, in this case, YouthTechSG – and we’ve spent so much of our free time already doing YouthTechSG work.
Running our cybersecurity scholarship at YouthTechSG, we receive the commitment and true appreciation of many stakeholders – including our certification partner - SANS, the sponsors, and most importantly our recipients who wish to come back and support the cause. We spend so much time working together on this project, and seeing how everyone has progressed along the journey. That support and idea of how our team pushes YouthxSkills forward together, is so important to keep us going.
I’m sure that this idea of why we volunteer and us staying on as a team has been well documented in research regarding volunteer organisations. But, I thought I would love to document this – that when I see my team feel the passion for really giving back to their communities – as long as they are not delivering negative outcomes, and that they learn along the way – that idea of volunteering is perhaps what becomes so great. And it’s surprising to see how much effort we would all put in to just make little things happen.
Even in YouthTechSG where many of our initiatives require more pre-planning and high-level corporate coordination with sponsors, and we risk losing track of our target audience, this principle still remains. And this principle is why I really, really respect those who put all their effort into their work in life.
I can relate bro, we’re all just in for the love of the game.
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Sharing some of our 2025 Work from YouthTechSG!
