Civil Svc/ Statboard - Typical Timeline for making a Hiring Decision

Thanks for your wish and detailed answers to my question
Hahaha :P Hope to receive an update from the HR soon, so I can change my status to be "Employed" before CNY.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Congratulations. All the best on your new endeavour.
Background checks are different depending on the security level clearance required. The highest are the MHA, MFA, and CPIB; they will check your references, educational background, family background, criminal records (if any), political agenda (if possible), etc.
Most will simply call your reference and maybe conduct a rudimentary background check.
There are some HR officers like that, not going to lie. In such a case, do not list them as the reference and have an answer ready for "Why did you quit your previous line of work?"

Thanks for the wish. All the best to you, hope you will receive your offer soon.

Don't give up easily, treat every interview session as a learning opportunity. I had learnt more about myself during the rounds interviews.
I had applied since October.....It is not easy to land on this conditional offer.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Congrats~! Hopefully I will get mine soon.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Adding on to my previous response, let me also put out some simple advice seeing as many people on these forums really deserve some clarification (and I think these clarifications should have been made clear to everyone before they even started picking their studies, but alas).

Yes, the Civil/Public Service and their associated SBs will all gauge you on your academics. Much more so compared to the Private Sector. Yes, coming in with just a pass degree and no honours, or 3rd class honours, or just a diploma, will result in you being offered lower salaries. No, you should not feel slighted by it.

Think of it as risk management. We offer higher salaries to well-performing graduates from prestigious universities because we know those universities have extremely tough curriculums. This means the product of those universities, if they scored well, have a low risk of being poor performers. When we hire you on we take a risk that you'll be a good performer, and if you're not a good performer, labour laws compel us to let you go but at cost to ourselves - a cost based off your wage.

Hence, we will always look for the lowest risk option. So, if you are a medium to high risk asset, having graduated from a university of middling standing with middling grades, we don't know that you're going to perform well. If we need to let you go, if we gave you a high wage, we'd incur a big loss for little gain (in terms of your work done). Therefore, we offer lesser salaries so the risk is mitigated. This is universal SOP for HR.

Now many people come in with the mindset of "Ah, I'm seen as lower-class, so I will do lower-class work in exchange for my lower-class salary". Many of these people do not talk to me (in HR) to address concerns, never give me a chance to help them, and eventually quit after accruing experience or their performance goes down drastically and we are forced to let them go. HR does not want to do this you; we aren't your enemy. YOU are doing this to yourself, and you are your own worst enemy in this scenario. These people even make it worse for future generations, stacking on to the subpar reputation of not-as-prestigious universities and graduates.

Then, you have people who come in and defy the convention.

I'll give you a real life example. A 3rd class graduate from SIM comes in, with a starting salary of 1.8k (low even for those academic qualifications, but he joined at a rough year) and proceeds to work his ass off. He was humble, hardworking, on the ball, and didn't let his salary bother him. In fact, he outpaced many of the NUS graduates who came in with him at the same position but higher salaries. He confided me in several times in the beginning, voicing his unease about whether he was wasting his time. To this, I went to the supervisor, and told him of the guy's great performance, and recommended he was groomed and kept in our company, only for the supervisor to dismiss me - saying he already planned on that within the first 6 months of seeing the man perform.

Fast forward 5 years later, he is now a Manager, on track to Senior Manager, in a place where even NUS graduates of the highest calibre have quit or fallen behind him. He still has those same qualifications that people once mocked him for, but hangs the plaque proudly up on his office wall.

So, yes. Your academics will be factored in, in the beginning. You will feel undermined. But if you shake off those shackles and march forward, and fight your way out, you will be rewarded. Academics stop mattering as soon as you're in your first real job, it's only a stepping stone. Let yourself be chained down by it your whole life, and you have only yourself to blame.

This advise is golden. For those coming in, do read this !

Just cleared the interview stage and onto the approval and clesrance stage according to HR. Was told this can take up to 3 months. Would like to ask does it really take so long as i have plans to go on holiday and don't want to get caught inbetween my notice period and my holiday.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just cleared the interview stage and onto the approval and clesrance stage according to HR. Was told this can take up to 3 months. Would like to ask does it really take so long as i have plans to go on holiday and don't want to get caught inbetween my notice period and my holiday.

Thanks.

If it's defence or security related, yes.

Hi, I received a verbal offer from a sb in mid Dec, accepted it and was told to wait for management approval. Have been following up every 2 weeks or so and status remains as pending management approval as of today. Not defence or security related sb. Should I take it as a lost cause? Thanks!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, I received a verbal offer from a sb in mid Dec, accepted it and was told to wait for management approval. Have been following up every 2 weeks or so and status remains as pending management approval as of today. Not defence or security related sb. Should I take it as a lost cause? Thanks!

there should be quite a number of layers/management to clear. you can practically say that your offer package was not looked at until maybe early or mid Jan. cause Dec - most clearing leave. may have some delays. there may also be some details that the dept and HR have to settle, starting date etc. so if they offer verbally. the offer should still stands most of the time.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

there should be quite a number of layers/management to clear. you can practically say that your offer package was not looked at until maybe early or mid Jan. cause Dec - most clearing leave. may have some delays. there may also be some details that the dept and HR have to settle, starting date etc. so if they offer verbally. the offer should still stands most of the time.

if they send the offer via email already, but have not send the official employment contract. what is the time range one will be looking at to go sign? it's been 3 weeks and no news from HR after acceptance

Originally Posted by Unregistered

if they send the offer via email already, but have not send the official employment contract. what is the time range one will be looking at to go sign? it's been 3 weeks and no news from HR after acceptance

.... hmm.. i dont get it ... i think you should call the HR to check.

you mentioned that they send the offer, the contract should be together with the offer.
usually they should give you a timeline to consider and let them know your decision (accept or reject, usually within a week). and if you accept, they should arrange a time for you to go down to officially sign on the contract and do some admin stuff (photo, pass collection, bank details.. etc)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

there should be quite a number of layers/management to clear. you can practically say that your offer package was not looked at until maybe early or mid Jan. cause Dec - most clearing leave. may have some delays. there may also be some details that the dept and HR have to settle, starting date etc. so if they offer verbally. the offer should still stands most of the time.

Thanks for the insight. What's a good/reasonable timeframe that I should be looking at? Say if by mid Feb no news a bit too long right? Don't really wanna wait indefinitely, thanks.

[Sierra]

Just wondering when we make an application to C@G. Does the HR start after inviting applicants for an interview before the application deadline or do they wait till after the deadline to invite applicants for interview?