Tech Public Sector vs Non FAANG Private Sector
 

Hi all,

About to graduate soon. NTU FCH. Heading into the tech field but not sure where to go... Considering GovTech's TAP vs DSO's scholarship vs other private sectors (no FAANG, no Shopee/Grab, no ByteDance/TikTok). Which would you guys recommend for transferrable skills, better career prospects, salary, work culture etc.

Thanks. Lost right now

Pure SWE in tech
1. FAANG + Bytedance
2. Shopee
3. Grab, Lazada, 2nd tier ecommerce coy e.g. travel platforms
4. Other well-funded startups

top-tier alternatives (in no order)
- AWS (more biz / stakeholder mgmt)
- IT / SWE role in big bank or MNC (if you have interest in finance)
- Quant finance / hedge fund (if you wanna pursue quant / high finance)
- TAP (best govt job in tech by far)

How do you determine "Other well-funded startups" though? anything i should look out for? or any great examples? Actually leaning more towards AI,Data Science,Robotics

Stripe is a good example. others would be elastic, Autodesk. These don't really count as "startups" in the strict sense because they IPO-ed but they're of the software startup DNA.

AI / DS is hard as entry-level grad. you'll probably start somewhere in data engineering / cloud then move to AI / DS role after a postgrad degree in statistics / CS / related degrees

Been in both public sector tech and FAANG. If you don't want your skills to rot, avoid going public sector. Most people I know there hate their jobs as there is a lot of project management of vendors even with the engineer designation. As a fresh grad, I believe the most important focus is to grow and learn as much as you can during the early stages of your career. Hope it is clear for you to decide

Hi! Mind if you share what your roles were in both sectors?
I thought both DSO (i'm just taking it as a stat board although i know its not) & GovTech is doing some cutting edge tech like robotics and AI? Understand that certain roles like procurement in DSTA would fit the project management area but not all public tech sector organizations would be like that I believe, especially GovTech/DSO?? Also, 1st few years before senior level would definitely be technical work which would be transferrable?

Same is true for banking tech. A lot of vendor management and poor development of deep tech skills, especially for the local banks.

Actually if you are looking at AI/ML, some local banks such as dbs will be doing alot more locally since it is hq.

same here, was in some public sector agencies and faang (not pure SWE). would say that GovTech is by far the most technical ones based on my exp. but even within GovTech there are the more "technical" departments eg. OGP, GDS

for TAP: the SWEs I interacted with are very technically competent, however am not sure if they do manage vendors. at least in my previous team, we built everything in-house... but ymmv

updated for clarity