Is there a DSTA that is not under Mindef, wondering why the thread title changed

Stay far far away from this place.

Mismanagement is insane here and people are resigning all the time.

There is a price to pay for the high salary, and sooner or later you'll burn out from this soul sucking job.

Turnover quite low leh, unless you referring to procurement

yeah engineer turnover is low. But given the pay commanded by dsta engineers, i think also difficult for most to let go of the golden handcuffs, so can tahan a bit

hahaha, procurement on the other hand, can only say they really deserve a lot better for what they have to deal with.

Procurement with DSTA experience,if they quit,other ministries will grab them. They are an asset.

Doesn't seem like DSTA treats procurement as an asset though if the horror stories are true.

No wonder procurement people are leaving DSTA all the time then, especially when other ministries are eager to offer them better opportunities.

One thing that people overlook here is that DSTA is a defence procurement agency first and foremost,even though they market themselves as a tech organisation. It even says so in their website that they are the central procurement agency for MINDEF and SAF. So the engineer's role will primarily be project management and managing suppliers for defence acquisition.

And if you're thinking to join as an engineer,don't think that procurement's problems won't affect you,because you will need to work with procurement staff to buy services and equipment for your project. Then you will understand how the understaffing and high turnover problems in the procurement department affects projects,and there's really nothing that you can do to avoid it.

You want to do technical research and R&D for military stuff? DSO is the place to go, not DSTA.

DSO much more difficult to enter than DSTA, many DSO rejects end up at DSTA

Yes that is also true.

The key takeaway to be highlighted is that if you want to do technical work, please do not think that DSTA can offer a similar career experience as DSO. Both organizations have different responsibilities to fulfill and hence will not offer similar roles. You will likely become jaded and quit for somewhere else in a few years if you find that you dislike doing government project management.

And to add on, you will likely have to take a paycut when you quit