Originally Posted by Unregistered

I was from MAS grad prog. Grad prog ppl are treated the same as MAS scholars. In fact, I believe I got way more perf bonus than the scholar in the same batch. I did not observe scholars getting promoted abnormally faster than others, though i think they try to give them more showcase opp but these are not something that is unreachable if you are a motivated non-scholar. Likewise, there is no distinction of first or second class upper degree holders - same pay and the progression after your first 5 years there depends on how you perform in your first 1-2yrs (basically impressions form in the first few years and that will determine your opportunities to showcase and hence your promotion chances and perf bonus amt) and also depends on your boss (pretty much like outside actually). It is possible for mid-career to join and be in the same track as those direct from fresh grad but these are usually those who are relatively junior e.g. if they spent only abt 2-3 yrs in audit before moving to MAS.

The real crappy part of joining MAS is you will feel stuck after your first 5 to 7 yrs. it will be exponentially hard to get promoted after you reach DD (which is the peak for some of the ppl there), your salary growth will start to decelerate when compared to peers in private sectors. At that stage, you will really need to think hard if you wanna continue and stagnate there or go out and try. But another set of challenges may set in, cuz after 5 to 7 yrs of conditioning in MAS, it can get quite difficult to adjust to the outside world. But yea if you are fresh grad, enjoy your first 5 to 7 years. it is a decent experience, i would say it definitely trumps working banking BO or audit.