I have been teaching for around 30 years. Let me share with you what a typical work week looks like which consist of lecture and non-lecture days. The courses (equivalent to subjects) I teach consist of 2-hour of lecture and 1 -2 hours of tutorials. The lecture is where I teach about the different concepts (which includes demos), and in tutorials, I help students think about how to solve questions in an assignment. There are 1-2 hours of a staff meeting with colleagues.

During examination times, I get a lot of emails from panicky students who ask about different concepts taught during the year. When compared to work at a company, there is no pressure to deliver by 3 am, but the pressure to deliver is continuous during the semester. During a semester break, it is relatively low. During semester breaks, I have a short day at work, and when I am at home, I will be online to respond to students’ emails. In a month usually, I spend every 2nd weekend at university. I have an open-door policy (which means students can meet me anytime if my door is open) at university.

I am primarily into Computer Security in the department. Additionally, I assist in the development of hardware in the department where I might spend up to 5 hours. I read about new things every day. Once a week, I try investigating something I find interesting which I read over the week. Sometimes I give them as student projects and also try to demonstrate it. I follow the topic which I am interested in.

In most of the courses, I teach there is always a group project which has a weight of ~30%. I usually supervise around 20 projects in a course. At the beginning of the semester, I need to meet every group once in two weeks. This would be like a small scale project management, and it is difficult to manage project groups. I try to help students if they face any difficulty and challenge them to deliver more. When you challenge students to deliver more, some students work hard and deliver. I try to get students enthusiastic about the projects; usually, there is no prescribed deliverable for the project (as it varies based on the topic chosen for the project).

When I first started teaching, I was teaching electronics. I worked as a consultant before, and I had a wide variable income depending on the contract. The real reason why I chose this profession was to have a steady income.

I started my career by teaching at a polytechnic. I also set up computer networks. In the early 90s, I helped the polytechnic connect to the internet and maintained the network connection, firewall etc. As a result, I happen to become in charge of security. When I moved to university, I looked after the administration of computer networks. I had a lot of practical experience and exposure. In early 2000 I was a co-teacher for a computer security course. My colleague and I created the course together. In the next few years, I taught Operating System and Security, and after that, I have been focusing only on security.

My journey to becoming a professor is quite different when compared to that of my peers. Most of my colleagues went to university to finish an undergraduate degree, then complete their PhD and finally went to teaching. I came to NUS without a PhD and got my PhD at NUS. The standard pre-requisite to be a lecturer is to complete a PhD. PhD is usually intense for 4-5 years, and you make a lot of personal sacrifices during those years. There are other things in your life which get in your way when you are trying to make progress. There would be times where you might feel you can’t stand it anymore and start hunting for a salaried full-time job to support your family. More or less, you would end up giving up around 8 years, which is not in your control. It is very competitive to get a job as a lecturer or professor. You are competing with 10s to 1000s of applicants. I want to let you know that I have given good, bad and horrible interviews.

Your focus area (i.e. what you want to become) should be driven by what interests you. If you thinking playing with electronic circuits is fun and is interesting, then it might be a good focus area. You would have to do multiple courses and spend time to get practical experience. There are some parts of the work that I do, which is not fun. You must enjoy what you are doing. I was building a crystal set radio when I was 8 years old. In a way, I am still doing it 60 years later. It is the same circuits (to some extent), and you are building something that was not there before. You need to like what you are doing and feel passionate about it.