DSTA (under Mindef)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Bump. Anyone ?

unfortunately can't say much about your questions because it will vary from individual to individual and also the circumstances and specific role. if they really want you, it can be as quick as 1 day, otherwise it can also take ages.

best is to assume if no notice after 2-3 weeks, can follow up if you wish or assume you are rejected.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Procurement is a toxic place to work in because of the high workload and uncooperative people (management, SAF, DSTA engineers).

Workload is extremely high. It is not equally distributed among teams but workload is high across all teams. OT is expected, just a matter of how much. Eventually you will realize that there is no way to re-prioritize because everything is urgent. When the user complains, you are required to come up with timeline to explain why it is not your fault. But end up still your fault and you are required to expedite as if it was your fault. Other projects will be affected and you are required to do the explanation all over again.

SAF is the biggest culprit for the additional workload. Most of them have absolutely no idea what the heck they are suppose to do and procurement is expected to 'help' (hidden meaning: do for them) them even if it is clearly not your responsibility.

Knowledge - You get some procurement knowledge but hardly get to apply them or think through. The workload is too high and the priority is to complete the procurement on the path least resistance. You do get a lot of government procurement knowledge which is useful when jumping to other public agencies. It's the center of excellence because of the amount of work on your plate that grows so fast that you get expose to a lot of procurement issues in a short time.

Salary - The salary is about the same as other public agencies and private sector. There are some differences but it is still a salary that other public agencies and private sector can afford to pay easily.

No harm joining if you can't find a job but keep a lookout for better jobs. You don't want to be in a situation when you feel burnout and there's no backup jobs.

agree with most of everything that is said here. you really are forced to take the blame and responsibility for SAF users and DSTA engineers but you have no authority to make them do their part. and just to add on about the salary part, procurement salary can be easily matched or sometimes even higher elsewhere even in private sector, so you can roughly tell the remuneration is nothing to shout about.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Procurement is a toxic place to work in because of the high workload and uncooperative people (management, SAF, DSTA engineers).

Workload is extremely high. It is not equally distributed among teams but workload is high across all teams. OT is expected, just a matter of how much. Eventually you will realize that there is no way to re-prioritize because everything is urgent. When the user complains, you are required to come up with timeline to explain why it is not your fault. But end up still your fault and you are required to expedite as if it was your fault. Other projects will be affected and you are required to do the explanation all over again.

SAF is the biggest culprit for the additional workload. Most of them have absolutely no idea what the heck they are suppose to do and procurement is expected to 'help' (hidden meaning: do for them) them even if it is clearly not your responsibility.

Knowledge - You get some procurement knowledge but hardly get to apply them or think through. The workload is too high and the priority is to complete the procurement on the path least resistance. You do get a lot of government procurement knowledge which is useful when jumping to other public agencies. It's the center of excellence because of the amount of work on your plate that grows so fast that you get expose to a lot of procurement issues in a short time.

Salary - The salary is about the same as other public agencies and private sector. There are some differences but it is still a salary that other public agencies and private sector can afford to pay easily.

No harm joining if you can't find a job but keep a lookout for better jobs. You don't want to be in a situation when you feel burnout and there's no backup jobs.

absolutely true. to add on about the salary part, its also not unheard for people to be paid a lot better once they jump ship elsewhere. so ya, it's really very awful work conditions for very average pay and very poor progression here as procurement.

I am a CS student in NUS, y4 now, and applied for a software engineering role in the enterprise IT deparment.

I passed the first round, then yesterday had 2nd round of interview. I passed the interview and just got a provisional offer, base pay 3.9k but 4-4.6k after I graduate. The pay will be scaled according to my degree classification.

When I was talking to the recruiter, he mentioned that DSTA works by 16 months meaning I will get 12 months pay + 4 extra months pay? I don't understand what this all means and I'm so confused.

I am not sure if I should accept this offer or not, they are giving me a 7 day window to accept/reject this offer and I'm not sure if this offer is good.

Anyone here working at DSTA as a software engineer can advise on the work culture and if this is a good offer? Please help

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Bump. Anyone ?

i waited 1-2 months for them to do the checks etc

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i waited 1-2 months for them to do the checks etc

so after the check were you offered the package straight away?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

so after the check were you offered the package straight away?

Dunno how it usually works. 1st round interview then ask me submit. Then go for second round interview while checking . Then after that then they call me to offer sth

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Dunno how it usually works. 1st round interview then ask me submit. Then go for second round interview while checking . Then after that then they call me to offer sth

oh i see, thanks ! so there still might be a 2nd interview and its not confirmed after request for g50 submission.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

oh i see, thanks ! so there still might be a 2nd interview and its not confirmed after request for g50 submission.

I'm not sure how it works for u. Usually the 1st round interviewer will inform u if there's a 2nd round interview for any company generally speaking. Just wait ba it takes some time to clear right

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm not sure how it works for u. Usually the 1st round interviewer will inform u if there's a 2nd round interview for any company generally speaking. Just wait ba it takes some time to clear right

yeah. thanks man ! yeah just hoping for the best.