GovTech just launched FirstDate, a dating app only for public officers aged 21 to 35. I joked about it on LinkedIn. Then I found out it's basically been done before, in 1984.

In this video, I look at FirstDate the way a recruiter would: every scheme, every agency, every campaign the Singapore government has tried to get us married. What it did, how it ended, and whether this one is any different.

As an ex-headhunter of 10 years, my verdict: FirstDate is a great sourcing tool. But Singapore's marriage problem was never at sourcing. It's at the offer.

⏱ CHAPTERS

0:00 The press release they were too shy to send

2:53 What FirstDate actually is

6:01 42 years of government cupid

6:12 Era 1: The U-turn (1966–1987)

7:51 Era 2: The matchmaker state (1984–2009)

9:23 Era 3: The chequebook (2001–2023)

10:54 Era 4: The reset (2026)

11:42 Why the government keeps doing this

13:44 Will this time be different?

17:19 My verdict

20:22 Closing

💬 Single? Would you sign up for FirstDate? Married? How did you actually meet? Tell me in the comments. I read all of them.

🤝 CONNECT WITH ME

🌐 Website: https://adriantan.com.sg

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriantanck/

📸 Instagram: @tanadrian18

🎵 TikTok: @tanadrian18

📚 SOURCES

- FirstDate (GovTech pilot): https://firstdate.sandbox.gov.sg/

- Mothership (4 Oct 2026): Govt staff from the same agency won't be matched on FirstDate

- Mothership (3 May 2026): Govt explored a dating site for singles aged 35 and below

- CNBC (4 Oct 2026): Singapore debuts a state-backed dating app for young government workers

- The Straits Times via The Star (10 Jul 2026): Marriages in Singapore fall further in 2025

- Malay Mail (28 Jul 2026): Tokyo govt dating app leads to 265 marriages

- Singstat, Population Trends 2026

The "Office of Leadership Supply" press release at the start is satire. It is not a real government office or statement.

#Singapore #FirstDate #GovTech #BirthRate #Dating

Job search isn't just a full-time job. It's a SALES job, and you only have one product to sell: you.Singapore just saw 4,000+ workers retrenched in a single quarter, the highest since end-2020, and about 8 in 10 were PMETs. Fewer people are back in a job within six months, and many come back at a big pay cut. In sales terms, you closed the deal… but sold at a huge discount.I spent a decade on the buyer side running a recruitment firm, and co-wrote "Everything You Wish to Ask a Headhunter." In this video, I break down the 6-step sales playbook for job seekers:1️⃣ Pick your territory – sell where the money is flowing (hint: AI and everything around it)2️⃣ Prospect for advice, not jobs – and why content brings leads to you3️⃣ Fix your pitch deck – beat the ATS, then win the human4️⃣ Work warm leads – why referrals are a small share of applicants but a big share of hires5️⃣ Manage your pipeline – most jobs are lost in the follow-up6️⃣ Close at the right price – and never stop sellingYou don't need 400 applications. You need ONE employer to say yes.⏱️ Chapters00:00 Job search is a sales job00:30 Retrenchment reality check01:40 Why listen to me02:10 Stop spamming applications02:45 #1 Pick your territory05:00 #2 Prospecting for advice07:15 #3 Fix your resume (pitch deck)08:20 #4 Warm leads & referrals11:00 #5 Manage your pipeline11:45 #6 Close the deal and keep selling🔗 Resources mentionedSingapore layoff tracker: https://layoffsg.comJobscan: https://www.jobscan.co/Teal: https://www.tealhq.com/ApplyLah: https://applylah.com/Happenstance: https://happenstance.ai/Huntr: https://huntr.co/📬 Subscribe to my newsletter "Will That Work?": https://adriantan.com.sg📖 My book "No More Bosses": https://amzn.asia/d/0hrNilbu#JobSearch #Retrenchment #Singapore #CareerAdvice #JobHunting #PMET

When the government announced that every Singaporean child gets almost $70,000 from birth to 17, my first reaction was simple: I have four kids, so that’s $280,000 for my family. Hosay liao.

Then I actually sat down and did the maths properly. I was completely off the mark.

My oldest just missed the new baby gift and child credits by age cutoffs. My two middle kids get a partial run of child credits plus a PSEA top-up. Only my youngest, at 10, gets close to the full package. Add it all up across all four kids, spread over the next seven years, and my real total comes to roughly $63,000. A fraction of the $280,000.

I go through the full breakdown, kid by kid, in the video below, along with a few things I think are worth talking about:

* Why the $70K figure doesn’t hold its value

* What’s conspicuously missing from the package

* How Singapore’s incentives stack up against Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong

* Whether this was ever really a money problem to begin with

* Why I had four kids myself, and one slightly ridiculous idea for how Singapore could make big families genuinely aspirational

Doing this exercise humbled me a bit. I went in expecting to feel shortchanged by the government but I left convinced that the number was never really the point.

Would a bigger cheque actually change your mind about having kids? Or is it the other stuffs that money can’t touch?

Let me know in the comments.