Constituency Manager (People Association)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I work in PA but that soon will become past tense.
From what I know, PA is not recruiting despite a shortage of manpower.
And there are many new initiatives that they are planning to roll out as if the staff are not over-worked as it is.
The fancy job title belies what the job really is...a general dogsbody.
In the end, you will become a Jack of all trades but master of none.
Grassroots have problems, they turn to you, residents have problems, they turn to you, CC facilities have problems, you have to deal with it.
When residents have a problem, say with their facilities which are being handled by HDB, you will become the middleman who have to deal with the residents' wrath while HDB gives you the roundabout and forward your email to many but none that will reply.
Say goodbye to your social life as it will become non-existant and working shifts also meant saying goodbye to your body clock.
You must be prepared to be on call 24/7 even on holidays overseas.
And as a human, you feel like you are the lowest in the food chain when anybody can just walk in and give you a hard time while saying these magic words "I will complain to the MP..."
As if that isn't enough, a lot of people out there seem to think it's a cushy job and belittling our job by saying crap.
When you sign on the dotted line with PA, be aware that it's a contract for selling your soul and dignity.

Not surprising. Anything to do with town council, PA, RC, CC, CCC, whatever Cs are shitty job.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

not surprising. most pa recruits tried elsewhere and couldnt get offer so last resort join pa.

How do you know that? I have friends who applied but didnt even get short-listed for an interview.
One of them and me actually got offers from other companies but we were swayed by all the rosy pictures that PA painted of helping the community and making a difference.
So it‘s actually a good thing that they didn’t get a callback from PA.
I will be leaving with no new skills learnt except for how to polish boots and in anything and eveything, make sure you cover your own @ss first.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How do you know that? I have friends who applied but didnt even get short-listed for an interview.
One of them and me actually got offers from other companies but we were swayed by all the rosy pictures that PA painted of helping the community and making a difference.
So it‘s actually a good thing that they didn’t get a callback from PA.
I will be leaving with no new skills learnt except for how to polish boots and in anything and eveything, make sure you cover your own @ss first.

there will always be the occasional sucker who fall for their "higher calling" sweet talk, but it is very obvious the calibre of ppl they get in general is way below average and are mainly left overs from other job applications.

Duh, you didn't even answer the question before making another assumption.
Obvious? How? Even if you work in PA, you won't be able to know.
It's obvious the real suckers are thoes who goes around claiming this and that with no way of backing it up.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Duh, you didn't even answer the question before making another assumption.
Obvious? How? Even if you work in PA, you won't be able to know.
It's obvious the real suckers are thoes who goes around claiming this and that with no way of backing it up.

oh plz dun give me this debate talk. i worked in pa for 2 years b4 and i know exactly how things work there. anyone work there b4 will know. the whole bureaucratic culture is like civil service stuck in the 90s. which high flying scholar or even good local uni grad ever start off in pa? closest i have seen is mid career from ministry seconded to pa at division director level.

the typical CM recruit is usually a pte uni grad or diploma experienced public sector guy. sometimes u get some mid career hires into CM or CD role, but they weren't exactly doing very well in their previous jobs also - most were either retrenched or stuck in some mediocre mid low level job in the pte sector.

dun take my word, go linkedin and see yourself.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

oh plz dun give me this debate talk. i worked in pa for 2 years b4 and i know exactly how things work there. anyone work there b4 will know. the whole bureaucratic culture is like civil service stuck in the 90s. which high flying scholar or even good local uni grad ever start off in pa? closest i have seen is mid career from ministry seconded to pa at division director level.

the typical CM recruit is usually a pte uni grad or diploma experienced public sector guy. sometimes u get some mid career hires into CM or CD role, but they weren't exactly doing very well in their previous jobs also - most were either retrenched or stuck in some mediocre mid low level job in the pte sector.

dun take my word, go linkedin and see yourself.

It's pretty obvious even from this thread itself what kind of people are applying for PA positions.

They really need to up their pay levels significantly to recruit better people comparable to other stat boards and ministries. This bad management of lowball pay and load ridiculous OT hours is just going to turn away anyone who has any decent alternatives outside. Appealing to social responsibility isn't going to cut any ice with a materialistic society like Singapore.

I don't understand why they have endless budgets to spend on all sorts of useless activities and cannot allocate some of them to pay better and get better people to do things more efficiently and creatively. Nowadays even VWOs and social work in the public sector are getting major revamps in pay & benefits to recognize economic reality, PA really need to keep up with times and stop dreaming.

I join & left within 6 months. Rubbish place work people like dog and total no respect for the staff by grassroots and residents. CDs only know how to eye power others to do work and run to hide the moment got angry residents or unhappy MP leaving the CM & RM to face the music.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I join & left within 6 months. Rubbish place work people like dog and total no respect for the staff by grassroots and residents. CDs only know how to eye power others to do work and run to hide the moment got angry residents or unhappy MP leaving the CM & RM to face the music.

Not all CDs are like above mentioned.
My CD is the only reason why I didn't leave PA earlier.
Office politics in CCs are really bad, I don't like playing their game.
It's a toxin environment and I left more jaded than a jade rabbit.

"Singapore public servants' computers to have no Internet access from next May".
This will make the job of a CM more difficult than ever.
We have to find 3 quotes for anything that cost more than $5K, how to do this without searching online?
And sometimes you may have to buy things that are not readily available for your event, where are you going to find them without the Internet?

When you see grassroots leaders being thanked for organizing an event (they basically do nothing except for sitting in a few meetings while pushing all the work to you), don't you feel a little indignant?
Oh, but you are PAID to do this while they are just volunteers.
It's easy to find a new CM but not volunteers so you will have to grovel to them if needed.

How do you feel when residents who don't pay taxes come into the CC and be difficult while demanding for their comcare cheques? To think that the taxes you pay goes into supporting them?
Welcome to the life of a CM, the job that makes you responsible for anything that goes wrong but nobody will thank you if everything goes smoothly.

Was in PA for nearly 10 years. Left when I realised I was stuck because the lifers above me wouldn't move. Since then I have moved around in the private and public sectors.

During my job interviews, the private sector interviewers would look blankly at my CV and either ask "PA ah? Never heard of it. What do you do there?", or "You work for PAP?". I got the jobs only bcz they were desperate for cannon fodder or people who were willing to live out of a suitcase. The public sector interviewers had slightly more knowledge of what PA does, however how do you convince them that successfully managing a CC's budget means you will similarly do well in managing the budget for a national campaign? I think I got the job becz the hirer wanted someone with specific experience, which I shan't mention.

To add on, PA has (not sure if they still do) a strange practice with regards to performance bonus. For above average performers, your bonus will be paid in 2 tranches, one in Mar/Apr, and the other I think in Sep (or it with the next performance bonus payout). From what I have heard, if you resign before Sep, you can forget about your 2nd tranche payout. Seems wrong to me on so many levels. People slog for you, you jolly well pay people their dues.

I did enjoy my stay in PA, despite all those night meetings and burnt weekends. And yes, the long long long working hours too. I’m a people person and PA is all about working with people. However, I wouldn’t make it a lifelong career choice.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

oh plz dun give me this debate talk. i worked in pa for 2 years b4 and i know exactly how things work there. anyone work there b4 will know. the whole bureaucratic culture is like civil service stuck in the 90s. which high flying scholar or even good local uni grad ever start off in pa? closest i have seen is mid career from ministry seconded to pa at division director level.

the typical CM recruit is usually a pte uni grad or diploma experienced public sector guy. sometimes u get some mid career hires into CM or CD role, but they weren't exactly doing very well in their previous jobs also - most were either retrenched or stuck in some mediocre mid low level job in the pte sector.

dun take my word, go linkedin and see yourself.