Lawrence Lim

His volunteer position within the organisation led him on a path to eventually start his own business.

What inspired you to get involved with RMITAS as a founding member?

After graduating from RMIT in the late 80s and working for a few years in the IT industry, I wanted to reconnect with old classmates but at that time, the Internet was at its infancy and there wasn’t much information available on how to connect to alumni. RMITAS also wasn’t established yet as an official society in Singapore.

I happened to see a poster at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) advertising an upcoming RMIT alumni meet-up on a Friday night and went along to see what it was all about, and one thing led to another! I was inspired by the team’s determination to grow the RMITAS membership base, and it really motivated me to want to be part of that journey.

What did you enjoy most about your role leading PR and Communications within RMITAS?

I loved pioneering a lot of IT-related setup for RMITAS. In those early years, I was the only IT ‘go-to man’ to do the job; anything IT-related, just ask Lawrence!

I enjoyed being able to contribute my knowledge on how to use online communities to engage with our alumni community. Facebook was very much in its infancy and not widely used yet, but I still set up an RMITAS group back in those early days. It’s still the main community platform RMITAS Facebook Page used today. I’m very proud of that achievement.

I was also involved with registering RMITAS as a formal society in Singapore, and led filing the association’s official Constitution during my time as Vice President. This took a huge amount of time from the team and multiple hurdles to overcome, but was worth the effort!

I was inspired by the team’s determination to grow the RMITAS membership base, and it really motivated me to want to be part of that journey.

How has your involvement helped you in your overall career journey?

I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge when I was setting up the first RMITAS IT systems and communications. I didn’t really use these skills in my day-to-day work at the time so had to quickly get up to speed, but it paid off – all this knowledge came in handy when I set up my own business.

How did you juggle volunteering on the RMITAS committee with your other work commitments?

I was lucky that we were able to work flexibly around everyone’s day-time work schedules, and our meetings were only once or twice a month.

It helped that I enjoyed my work with RMITAS, so I treated it as an extension of my consulting profession, just doing it for free.

What’s your favourite RMITAS memory? This can be any moment that makes you smile or feel proud, significant or otherwise.

I remember attending an annual ball event and the invited patron was the newly elected President of Singapore – we were lucky enough to have personal photos taken with the President during that night!

I went to many get-together events where other Australian alumni attended, and these were always the highlight when we were able to meet each other across different universities, just like a BIG Aussie family.

Why would you recommend alumni stay connected through RMITAS?

There are many quality events where members can meet up, share similar interests and network to gain professional contacts that will be useful in their working life.

Also getting the opportunity to share your expertise with new graduates that need guidance for their first steps into the professional world.

Get connected, join the RMITAS Facebook Page!