If 4.5k for fresh grad too low then the whole of sg the salary higher than you le ~

can anyone recommend a good company to work at for EE uni grad?

Is it better to go sme or mnc for fresh grad?

IMHO, I think the best would be unicorn startups if can. Since they have the funding (won’t worry too much you will be laid off as compared to very small company), there would be seniors to learn from, and less red tapes to explore different stuffs. MNC will be very structured, hierarchical and domain focused so your skill-set will be in-depth but less versatile. Unless you have strong financial backing and don’t have to worry about money then startup might be more fun/less boring since you can directly discuss your suggestions with the boss and explore different solutions and use your creativity and perform.

I have friends who have joined startups and have jumped ship because they were laid off (company not doing well), salary delay (cash flow issue), and low salary increment. And then there are those who still stayed because money isn’t an issue for them. Think long term. You are only young once. Good luck.

always go MNC.

Better benefits, better promotions, pay, looks good on resume.

For example, during this WFH thing, alot of MNC provides $$$ for you to buy WFH gear. My company gave me $750 to get monitor and secret lab chair lol. My other friends at SMC don't even get anything....

At SMC, u say u need chair they just tell u take from office or come back office work.

I'll never understand anyone who joins SMC. You either suck or you want to do specialized things like game development, medical tech graphics, etc then in that case SMC is fine. Otherwise, MNC, always...

Even for uni interns, MNC pays are always 30-40% more. Can't imagine a uni intern getting $800, kena scam hard.

Can agree with the above. If there is an offer from MNC, just think carefully why you want to forgo it.
In the early stage of career, try to build up earning capability. You can decide on alternative options at a later stage.

Once your domain is set, which is normal for MNC because job scope is usually well defined and specific, usually its hard to try to apply to other domain jobs a few years later on. HR will rarely consider you anymore. My friends and I have the same sentiment in our group chat. ie. Database Engineer to Software Engineer.

Also I have friends who are easily bored so they enjoyed the flexibility of changing job scope every few months and explore a lot of different tech stuffs in a SME.

But at the same time in-dept domain is very good for your career as the more specialised you are, you are worth more and able to demand higher salary to solve problems others can’t. That’s if you don’t dislike your job at the very least.

Not true, always go for SMC, you get to learn more and have more flexibility. In MNC, you just sit there waiting for time to get promoted, if you are young not worth going down this dreaded path

U tried both before?

In SME you slog day and night to collect mediocre pay, glhf :)

If a company doesn't have good earnings how to give good increment or bonuses? This leads to other issues getting a bto flat and getting married.

Wow I agree.

SMCs are well established. Very good promotion structure. No OT at all. Just Google it, there's no one saying SMC suck and that they'll OT u like mad dog and low pay. Some even say the companies name.

YA smC so good Oh wait...

It really doesn't matter whether is an mnc or sme as long as you think you can grow there. What matters most is your employer must be highly profitable otherwise you will feel like leaving as the company is unable to look after your interest.

Profitable company doesn’t mean they will compensate their employees accordingly. It really boils down to luck to meet a good boss bah. First thing first as a fresh grad you have to get that offer letter first before you can even decide whether to join a MNC or an SME.

Why is mnc or sme even an debate? Of course mnc unless you have no choice but to go sme lol

Not everyone wants a dull job just waiting for day in day out like in MNC, which is why people join start ups.

Startups are not smes. Smes are those that have withstood the test and time and are still that - smes lol. Unicorn startups are comparable to mncs. Smes are just a no no.

Have been through SME, start-up and MNC before, just sharing my 2 cents.

TL;DR - Cliche answer, but it all boils down to what you want to build out of your career and also where you are in your life stage (note that this is age agnostic). Each type of company set up will offer you a different set of experience, environment, pay, career progression etc.

Following are from personal experience, I'm in the finance industry, so am speaking mostly from that angle

Start-up
- fast paced
- potentially better pay if you are a product/marketing/strategy/tech person, even if you are fresh grad
- more flexibility to voice your suggestions, or have some sort of input in company decision making, depending on how big/small your start-up is
- having financial backers (institutional players), means that your C-level people need to deliver results in a shorter time frame, that comes down to you directly, since it's all about "flat hierarchy" nowadays. this circles back to the fast-paced attribute. You may get roped in on meetings on weekends, or burn the midnight oil to firefight some issue that comes up at the other side of the world (if your start-up has overseas offices)
- you need to be flexible in your mindset, what was discussed today may be launched by a competitor tomorrow, essentially making some of your ideas obsolete
- ESOPs
- usually ppl elect to go for start-up if they are young, or they want a new career challenge. For the latter, it can be people from MNCs/SMEs who've had senior positions, but are looking to build companies from the ground up

SME (either local or foreign)
- I believe there are important differences between local and foreign SMEs, I have only been with the latter, so can only speak from that perspective
- decently size (maybe 50 - 100 employees), means there is some level of structure (legacy or new, it depends)
- you may have some level of input on company level decision making if you stay long enough, think 5 - 10 years
- ESOPs, maybe after staying a few years


MNCs
- currently with one now, but not gonna explain much as most folks here have a good handle on the pros and cons about MNCs here, a few things off the top of my head:
- structured, which can be a good or bad thing. Clear progression for some roles, while some are specialized
- good brand name (if your MNC is well-known), looks good on resume
- potentially better pay, if your skills/function is aligned with the MNC's strategic direction, or is important in maintaining day-to-day activities
- however, I don't think you get much opportunity to rotate between departments/verticals, as that is the nature of MNCs. Unless you're in a grad programme, then maybe. Even then, the 3 - 6 month rotation may not provide you with enough insight into the function as a whole, that's how big some MNCs are
- good bonus if you're front office (think 8 - 12 months if you're bringing in the meat, or if your team did a good deal), mid or back office, may get a share in the bonus if MNC does really well, otherwise from what I see, it ranges between 0.5 months to 3 months max.

Cheers

Jumped ship from a 'profit making' bank in sg to a loss making startup in sg. salary doubled and am v happy here. learning and doing more impactful stuff than being in the bank pushing paper and handling horrible customers

really meh?

I tot sinkies don't care one, high pay good enuff alr u care whether u do real work or not for fuk? Ceca also don't do anything one at IBM or DBS.

Big or small company, u get paid can alr sia Simi lj dull job LOL don't step one hard worker la

With mindset like you, i wonder how far you can go lol

2016: grad from local uni, joined BO at a local bank 3.5k (contract job, no bonus)
2017: 3.8k (did not stay long enough for bonus after conversion to perm)
2018: 4k changed jobs halfway to join big 4 in CF (no bonus as just joined)
2019: 4.4k (4 months bonus, was top performer)
2020: got very lucky, managed to move to a local bank cf just before covid struck hard, 6k (6 months bonus)
2021: 9k joined a foreign bank ib (thanks to the insane boom in capital markets)

May i know what is BO and CF?

BO = back office in bank
CF = corporate finance

I think some posts back someone asked about whether or not it is possible to jump from BO to FO short answer is yes, but you have to be willing to forgo all your exp and start from scratch (worth it since FO pay is usually very high)

for me I networked very aggressively, joined a lot of recreation clubs in the bank, volunteered, blah blah. Also went to take cfa. Was lucky enough to get a referral to try out corporate finance. From there it is pure hard work and grind. And once again aggressive networking if you're looking to move in FO in the bank as most of these roles rely on recommendations from people.

also to add back in 2017 when I changed job I was offered a BO role in a foreign bank with about 4.8k but I chose the lower pay at big 4 because I knew I didn't want to stay stuck in BO role. It was a "pay cut" to take and my working hours doubled (4/5am nights and many weekends were common) but I can say that hard work does pay off eventually if u have a clear goal of what you wanna do eventually

im glad that your hard work pays off. Nice pay progression as well.

Congrats man! You had a decent start but after 5 years you are really making it!

Thanks for sharing. How possible do you think it is to move from big4 FDD to local bank IB?

hey what made you switch from corporate finance (assuming traditional IBD- M&A/coverage) to capital markets (ECM/DCM)? are you not worried about your future exit opps in capital markets? currently contemplating a similar move but i really like the challenge of traditional ibd.

Grad: 3.6k MNC bank ops
0.5YOE: 4.4k internal move, ops tech
1YOE: 6.5k entry level SnT

Not 2 YOE but my progress has been similar to some with 2-5 YOE so thought I would post. :)

On 90k base now in bank mid office after several moves through my first 4.5 years. Have come quite a long way since I started at 42k at an SME.

Crappy starting base is not the end as long as you are willing to learn fast and fight for your rights :)

How did you make the jump to FO? Would love to know!

Also, is it a MNC bank or Local Bank?

Did you hop a lot to different banks? Did you find hopping around critical to bumping your pay as suppose to staying within the same firm?

Since leaving the sme I have been at 3 different banks.

Definitely jumping is critical in helping to compensate for my poor starting base. I used the first bank I joined as a springboard, racking up the necessary exp and skillset needed for the role. The base pay wasn't much higher than at the sme, but they paid good bonuses. Spent about 2 years there and jumped after that to banks 2 and 3, getting healthy increments both times.

If I had stayed at bank 1 throughout, I would probably only be at 55k base now.

Ops/tech job was at a BB. SnT is at local bank. Not the big red one though :)

They were looking for a techy guy who also has finance bg. My degree is finance but I am also a huge nerd and aggressively programmed away my ops job (which is why I got transferred to the tech side as well).

That’s awesome! Could you share what tools/skills of yours were sought after by the SnT desk @ the local bank? VBA? Python?

Marketing role, private sector

2017 (Graduate intern at local tech startup) - 1.5k
2018 (Started first full time job in a tech company) - 3.2K
2019 (Promotion + Annual Increment) - 4K (25% increment)
2020 (Promotion + Annual Increment) - 4.7K (18% increment)
2021 (Promotion + Annual Increment) - 5.8k (24% increment)
2021 (Change Job) - 7.5K (30% increment)

Calling bs on this one. The salary growth for marketing roles is usually putrid esp considering the starting pay was in the low 3s in this case. You'd be lucky to hit even 4K by 2021.

marketing lmao what a lie.

Why people waste time BS here? A quick Google and u can see how much marketing earns lol or if u work at a company, just ask ur marketing friends....

7.5 lmao wait 20 years

If you aren't in either P&G or Unilever, glhf as a marketing professional :(