Graduate Employment Surveys (published 2009)

And it's so not a recession proof career, if you have a macroscopic view of HR of Singapore. A lot of accountancy students after CMI/fail the auditing route (of which they get a meagre starting salary), go the finance route- work as finance executive (promote to finance manage if can make it) which is the management of money of a company. When companies (SMEs) close down or move out of SG (foreign) in a recession, out their jobs go. Recession proof job is teacher, pastor, police, soldier.

By the way. A lot of NTU accountancy and NTU communication studies graduate to become insurance agents with Prudential and AIA.

being accountant is better than engineer lo

We should look beyond starting salaries. If you say there are only 3 large auditing firms based here, I don't think you know the profession. There are 4.

The annual increments for accountancy grads in a Big 4 are between $500-$1000. And these increments/promotion are almost guaranteed for at least the first 5 years. After 6 years, they should be earning almost $7k. No need to job hop.

There have not been retrenchments, even for the poor performers. The worst are 'asked to leave'. I've seen a few of these who did not leave and can still get increments of $100-$200 per year.

That's not a bad deal you know?

I disagree that NUS Applied Science is a dumping ground. It's so demeaning and unfair. You simply sort some numbers and claim that the entire faculty is a dumping ground.

Originally Posted by Salary.sg

If you believe the annual graduate employment survey reports (I don't quite), here are the rankings for the class of 2008:

Permanent Employment Rate
Median Gross Monthly Salary
The Dumping Grounds by Employability
The Dumping Grounds by Starting Pay (Gross Monthly)
* people may argue that accountancy grads have promising careers.

Reference: Ministry of Education page on Post-Secondary Education, with links to the 3 GES.


Graduate Employment Surveys (published 2009) | Salary.sg - Your Salary in Singapore

Smart refute, I am impressed! clap clap clap

Of cos I know the business. I counted three because old timers like me never considered Deloitte to be one of the big boys, up till today unlike youngsters.

The annual increment is year on year? And ALL auditors get annual increment year on year? Ask again. Their base salary starts out over $1k lower than other farmer graduates. The increment doesn’t mean much. $100 increment for poor performers from such a low base is very very bad. Even a $500 increment doesn’t mean as much because the starting pay is very bad. There’re many other jobs that give you $500 annual increment from a much higher base.

I know many accountants who continued in the finance route, became finance managers after 10 years only earning $5k. A 35 year old finance manager I know is drawing only $5k+ and she’s not alone.

If accounting is so attractive, there won’t be such huge numbers of local accountancy graduates applying to be insurance agents with AIA and Prudential. The next time in Orchard or Raffles you see them at their road show hawking insurance, ask them where they come from.

Recession proof is definitely false. The info you gave above is only for auditors. “Asked to leave” = fire. I know of many auditors who were asked to leave/fired. There’s only no retrenchment because auditors are recruited in huge numbers, paid very low wages and are worked to the bone. No need for retrenchment.

Like I said earlier, accountancy graduates either become auditors or finance executives. The latter depend on how many companies are alive to hire a money counter. It’s one of the last few jobs anyone would describe as recession proof.

I assure you I know over 20 finance managers who were fired in the few years. I have listed a slew of recession proof jobs above. Healthcare is another one you can list to the list of what is RECESSION PROOF.

Hi lol-, mind advising what courses in local universities is the best bet for one to take up if one is not an elite student? That rules out medicine, dentistry and law.
Thanks.