DSO Fresh Grad pay?
 

Anyone knows what's the pay like for DSO fresh grad, assuming FCH from local uni? I went to my school's career fair a while ago and the alumnis kept saying the starting salary is really good, but refused to give an answer. Anyone on the inside can give a hint?

my friend offered ~5.5

5k flat scholar.

Seems a bit underwhelming considering how difficult it is to get in

Do you mean dso is easy or hard to get in?

not hard to get in... just need to be citizen and have good grades...
5k for first class computing

Then shouldnt every citizen want to get in? Eg just 2nd upper and go in get high pay high bonus. Around 16 mth i heard

some reasons: (I am speaking as a computing grad)

1. Not everyone wants to join government, slow but stable progression & skills you learned are generally less useful. People I know only joined because of their scholarship bonds.
2. 5k isn't considered high for a computing grad (above average yes, high no)
3. They don't have the reputation of being engineering savvy
4. Interview hiring bar is lower (they only care about your grades)

FYI, I am not saying it is a bad place. But definitely not difficult to get into.

I agree with most of the points this poster said. (2) 5k is only considered above average for computing - most reputable companies already offering 5.5k. (4) Hiring for fresh grads really does depends on degree classification. If you have FCH, you are likely to get in. If you are only 2.1, you need to have research experience via previous internships / FYP / aspirations to pursue PhD in the future. This is due to the research-heavy nature of DSO.

As for point (1): If you are in computing, chances are the skills are transferable. Not sure about other departments. For (3): if an r&d organization is not 'engineering savvy', I'm not sure what is. Perhaps a bit of context might be useful.

Bumpssssssss

5.5 cs..............

s://goodguydan.com/graduate-programmes-income/

Has a collated list of most major companies and covers the public sector as well!

Not all companies put an emphasize on degree classification for software engineering jobs.
That's why he mentioned lower hiring bar, because most other reputable companies like google/facebook focus on technical interviewing where they grill you on tough whiteboard coding questions and technical knowledge instead of gpa.

Secondly, they are definitely not considered strong in terms of technology.
R&D means nothing, its about the company culture in building strong engineering practises. Do you see them building a scalable product used by millions of user like grab or lazada?

DSO does R&D for military and defense sector. So the target audience for their products will definitely be smaller and much more secretive.

I really don't see the point of your reply tbh. It seems like you are trying to shine a negative light on DSO by comparing them to companies that are obviously in a different sector entirely (FAANG) or going off about commercially available product used by millions, when DSO is clearly a defence oriented organization (hint: their products are not meant to be used by millions).

FAANG expect their fresh hires to be technically skilled because they need talents who are able to fit into a high throughput / fast paced environment. Hence their emphasis on whiteboard / 'grill'-ing interviews / pet projects which showcase your technical excellence.

DSO's posture is a bit different in that aspect - although they do focus on technical skills too, the candidate must show a capacity to ingest and apply knowledge. And in that area, what do you think is a good metric for measuring a fresh grad's ability to learn and apply? GPA.

joined google for internship. got 6k salary as starting pay in gov

5k, 16 months pay package. Depends on where you join, your life may be hell. Current CEO likes to force selected projects to do tons of demo without pouring in additional resources so you may have to OT a significant amount for another person's credit.

Can retire on 5k 16 mth package forever

Don't bother with DSO if you are aiming to be a top-tier software engineer. Not even near

Yup it's very low increment and slow career progression if you only have an undergrad degree. That's the nature of a research career, DSO is no different.