Need some advice on what to study

[361Degree]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

STRAITS TIMES: Yes, there are job enclaves

I CONCUR with Ms Laurelle Ho ("Employment enclaves"; last Tuesday) about ethnic enclaves of foreign nationals in multinational companies in Singapore.

About three years ago, my nephew, who had been working in an IT department in Citibank for a number of years, had his service terminated, together with all his Singaporean colleagues, due to restructuring.

But all his Indian national colleagues were retained. Incidentally, the senior officers in the department were Indian nationals.

The Government should consider introducing a quota for foreign nationals in companies based in Singapore.

Rohim Kalil

Yes, there are job enclaves

Wow , this actually makes me want to avoid going computer engineering.

Originally Posted by 361Degree

Wow , this actually makes me want to avoid going computer engineering.

Singaporeans are unwilling to help singaporeans so we see a lot of "enclaves". Let's help ourselves more. First thing to do is to give our dear government an indication that we aren't satisfied with their performance and policies.

They get paid the highest salaries in the world yet deliver performance that is subpar and mediocre by any standards. I demand they deliver the best-in-the-world performance, otherwise they should not be paid even one-fifth their current salaries (which will still be more than Obama's pay).

i think there are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

- what are you more interested in: comp engin or music?

- will the diploma be your last qualification?
if you intend to get a degree or further professional qualification, i would say go for music if you're more interested because the further qualification can always get you jobs in other fields

- if you are passionate about music, ask yourself--are you good enough to go professional or make a comfortable living from this? i'm saying this because, and this is my personal opinion, i think it's easier to make a living if you're average but in technical fields like accounting than in something like music, where the work is not measured qualitatively, but quantitatively

- are you good/competent enough to go for a further degree or professional qualification? you should be honest with yourself here, some people are just not that academically inclined and that's okay; however in this case, i think you should take up comp engin or something less 'soft' because it will give you a better chance of a more stable job in the future; and as others have mentioned, you don't need a music diploma to teach music

i'm saying this as i know someone who has bachelors in music but is now working in a very technical arena in the financial sector where the person does complex modeling and calculations everyday. this person went on to do either a second degree/masters/qualification in the technical area (as the field is small, i rather not say what it is). the person made the switch as he figured he's not good enough to be a great musician (or similar equivalents on the music scene, i'm not sure specifically what he was looking at)

again, this is my personal opinion, but if you are good enough to study a technical subject where you can make a comfortable living later on in life, go for music, because i believe studying something less technical and what is considered 'softer' will enable you to think and analyze things in ways that are different from those who have only studied technical subjects

good luck

FYI: Latest statistics show that NTU's Computer Science graduates have highest starting salary, while Computer Engineering graduates' mean starting pay is ranked 3rd for NTU.
http://moe.edu.sg/education/post-sec...es/ges-ntu.pdf

so don't judge from just one person's opinion.

Also, somebody wrote this in another thread: https://forums.salary.sg/income-jobs/...ects-sg-2.html

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Dunno if u know this, but this is what i gathered from friends who graduated together with me in 2009-2010 period.

I would just like to simply state starting salaries of IT positions in banks/financial institutions with presence in Singapore. The lowest starting pay is around 3.3k in a local bank, and the highest, as far as I know, is 5.8k per month in a top-tier investment bank.(i.e. 40K - 70K per annum).

Many fellow fresh grads who are in technology graduate/analyst/associate (whatever it's called in each bank) are from varying academic backgrounds, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, mathematics, physics and business/finance.

One thing is similar in all these banks & their hiring strategies: they DO hire nerds, who can get the job done. they PREFER smart people who get decent grades and at the same time participate in activities/committees/volunteer services.

Apart from banks, there are also MNCs and statboards which pay decently. Mindef and DSTA pays the best for 1st class honours guys with NS, among the IT statboard.
MNCs pays are more varied. From automobile, aerospace,oil&gas and manufacturing industries, these companies also require competent graduates. Amazingly, my friends who are working in R&D or Product Management in semi-con factories earn quite a lot. The base pay may seem low, somewhere around 2.8-3.5k depending on companies, when you factor in OT and allowances, it could work out to as much as 4.5-5k !!! NO JOKE.
Banks don't pay OT hahahaha!!

IT pay surely is not as high as those in Front Office, such as corporate finance/sales/trading roles (starting pay offer of at least 6k to as high as 10k SGD per month for a fresh grad). You can expect VERY long hours for these high-paying jobs, averaging 80-100 working hours PER WEEK, while in IT, it generally averages about 50-60 hours per week. I'd rather enjoy life while that lasts.

Imagine you've a few hundreds of thousands of dollars in your bank account, but tsunami/earthquake strikes out of the blue. How will you get to spend it, if you die. And if you survive? Give away as donations or make more money as market is closing low?

Look at Japan right now. Some traders are getting richer by 'shorting' the market. They're laughing their asses off now with $$$ flowing into their PnL sheets. But is it... moral? That's up to you to define...

SMU's Information Systems graduates command highest starting salary among local universities' graduates, excluding law & medicine.

http://www.smu.edu.sg/admissions/doc...02010%20ST.pdf

whatever you choose to study, think about what u wanna do and what are the things
that make you happy while doing. that will bring u the best job satisfaction.

[361Degree]

Alrigt thanks for the replies guys.
That being all said , I kinda have the feeling that I might end up doing something unrelated to music , should I study it. And that's not really what I want actually. But will this happen if I study computer engineering too? Like would I end up in something unrelated ?

Hi guys,

I like to check with u which of the following would b more prestigious?

1. Bsc (Hons) Banking & Finance from Murdoch Uni by Kaplan
2. Bsc (Hons) Banking & Wealth Management from Dublin Uni by Kaplan
3. Bsc Finance by UOL from UniSIM

My degree will b fully sponsored by my company,no bonds attached,so cost not an issue

Most of my peers said that the UOL 1 is crap while the Murdoch Uni is more recognized than Dublin.

Thanks for the advice ahead.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi guys,

I like to check with u which of the following would b more prestigious?

1. Bsc (Hons) Banking & Finance from Murdoch Uni by Kaplan
2. Bsc (Hons) Banking & Wealth Management from Dublin Uni by Kaplan
3. Bsc Finance by UOL from UniSIM

My degree will b fully sponsored by my company,no bonds attached,so cost not an issue

Most of my peers said that the UOL 1 is crap while the Murdoch Uni is more recognized than Dublin.

Thanks for the advice ahead.

Have you visited the schools? Kaplan doesn't even have it's own building!