Mid career switch here. I don't know if my experience with MOE is still relevant.

I did the switch in 2008 (the luckier batches before 2015). I took almost a 2k pay cut to join MOE because of of NIE. From 4.5 k then, I had to draw 2.3 or so during NIE training. Initially, I wanted to reject the job, citing pay cut as the main reason. Then one HR executive called me and assured me that the ministry would match my pay asap.

I bit the bullet and went through the training. Upon graduation, they converted my scheme to GEO 3 (whereas the rest would be GEO 2) immediately. My salary was revised to 4.7k, which was very close to the last drawn. Within 2 years, I was promoted to GEO 4 (but I was stuck at GEO 4 for a long time). I have a colleague who worked for 15 years before switching. She hit GEO 5 in 7 years. There will be accelerated promotion if your performance is good. It depends on your career. A good conversion (after talking to different sources) was 2 years of irrelevant working experience would be considered to be 1 year of teaching experience. At that time, I was considered to have 4 years of teaching experience because I worked for 8 years in other industries.

General consensus amongst the mid-career switchers: the ministry definitely tries to match your last drawn pay asap. But once they match it (and give you a little more), the progression would be as per other teachers.

I am quite happy in MOE because I could not take the volatility in my previous industry (finance-related). I prefer to have a stable income. The overall package is not great but it is not shabby either, when I compare it to my peers in the 40s who are either drawing a lot more than I do, or having issues seeking jobs because they have been asked to leave the institutions.