15% pay cut from private sector to teach in Polytechnic
 

15% pay cut from private sector to teach in Polytechnic. Would you do it?

In the first place why did u apply for the teaching job?

More control for Work Life balance, potential long term career employment (although polytechnic lecturing is offer under renewable contract with the same perm benefits) and somewhere in between, passion to nurture young minds for work requirements and expectation in their chosen major/field. Does that justify fort he deep cut of 15%?

You already know the pros and cons. Just weigh it yourself. With the free time, you can also start some businesses on the side.

You get paid for how hard you work. If you want a "better work life balance" i.e., you want to be lazier, then you deserve a 15% cut in salary. Nobody owes you your current salary. Furthermore, pay will rise much more slowly than a regular job and by the time you are there for 10 years, you will probably be getting a 50% pay cut compared to if you have stayed in a normal job.

I can tell you from experience that Poly employment is more volatile than normal jobs and the first year you have to work like a dog to figure out how to teach your courses. From the 2nd or 3rd year, you start to have that work life balance that you are talking about.

So the bottom line is that if you want to do this from the goodness of your heart because you like to teach, then by all means. However, do realize that you are derailing your normal career and that you will have less in retirement.

(speaking from experience) after half a year or so, you indeed will have some free time to do your own things - research, sidelines, etc. however, if you are not cut out to be a teacher, life will be pretty miserable for you - bullied by "old birds", heads, technical officers and students.

if you believe you are the kind who can figure things out, and smart enough to find ways around to avoid the usual bullying and politics, you should be quite ready for the work-life balance you are looking for.

When you say more volatile, you mean teaching at poly is more unstable and the contract may not be renew? Or do you mean the job scope is volatile meaning, high variation in things you do? I thought a teaching job in poly will be more stable than a normal job and is something you can do till retirement?

Picking back the knowledge and the teaching skills will be tough in the 1st year for sure as it has been many years since university.

Private manufacturing companies are in the constant change of moving jobs in/out of Singapore subjected to cyclical demands and adjusting the size of workforce according to business needs. If you not in Director / HOD Positions, you may have trouble finding Engineer and manager level job from 40 to 45 years old onwards if you are given the golden handshake or have to quit your job for whatever unforeseeable reasons. Reason being younger guys can do your job cheaper, better and faster. Not sure how many ppl agree with me but from experience, I have ex principle engineers/Managers applying for Snr Engineer job and I just couldn’t hire them due to higher pay and also fear of them moving on to any companies that willing to give them more.

I have been working in a poly for 7 years. The situation is not as bad what is described here. Of course the pay may not be as high as the outside world but you will get to work till 65 with a stable income. The contract renewal is never an issue unless one is a super bad performers. In fact, my school sees very low attrition rate. Normally for staff who can't adapt, they will leave within 2 years. The passion for teaching must be there. There is a good combination of caring, teaching, learning and also industry work.

Ok..this is at least encouraging.
1.) How old are you now, if you don’t mind me asking as you are talking about teaching till 65?
2.) How was the MI in the past few years for poly? I was quoted 2-3% on C grade but when I look at the old fix increment scheme; the increase seems to be higher in the old scheme.
3.) Am I right to say that the program chair, Snr managers and managers belongs to PAX3?
4.) Does your poly has PAX3 Senior Lecturer or PAX3 must be Principle Lecturer? I am trying to gauge the potential of how far I can go vs if I were to stay in private sector.
5.) So the contract renewal is till retirement without any chance of turning to Perm? Any difference between contract and perm?
6.) Am I correct to say that poly lecturer gets an avg of 16.5months, including AWS, AVC, Growth, PB etc…

I am in my 40s. I am not saying I will teach till 65 but the stability here allows you to plan way ahead. With the new salary scheme, MI is largely performance based (incl. PB). I would not want to divulge the sum but it is relatively comfortable. Of course can't compare with the legal and finance industry where 10 month bonus is common.

As for PAX 3, it is largely reserved for management staff that you mentioned. There are remnant lecturers on PAX 3 (cross over from old scheme) but these are very senior staff who are reaching retirement age. Henceforth, teaching staff are not privy to PAX 3 as I understand. Most staff are on contract and there is no difference between the perm and contract staff in terms of benefits etc. The quantum of pay per annum is on the average side.

Having mentioned the above, there are other intangibles. Good staff are sponsored for Masters programme etc. I do enjoy the interaction with the students and the industry. I was previously from EDB and while I can say renumeration here is not the best, it is nonetheless comfortable. In anyway, parking is free and canteen food is cheap!

If your consideration is mainly on pay, poly is not for you. Here it can be likened to a passenger plane and not a F-15 fighter jet. Slow but sturdy!