SIM-UOL fresh grad starting pay

Originally Posted by Unregistered

don't understand why you guys are bragging about getting into big 4. Enjoy accounting as a career in a sunset industry is all I can say .

It's totally such a sunset industry that nobody wants to get into.

Or rather those in it are trying everything they can to escape, unless of course if they are already in their late 40s or 50s.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It's totally such a sunset industry that nobody wants to get into.

Or rather those in it are trying everything they can to escape, unless of course if they are already in their late 40s or 50s.

totally. accountancy used to be a AAA/A entry barrier but has dropped to AAB/C. Clearly demand for this course is not as hot as before and these people are boasting about entering the big4.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't know how many people are actually who they say they are here but just for all the undergrads that are reading the thread.

Don't let your degree define you. There are no shameful degrees.

All this "local uni" vs "private uni" rivalry is nonsensical once you step out into the working world.

I am sorry to say but the real competition is "local labour" vs "foreign talents". Your competition is people who do not need to attend annual reservists (2 weeks away while still drawing pay), willing to take a much much lower pay because they can use the favourable exchange rate to send money home, likely live alone in Singapore and may not even need to give CPF 20%, and most likely have more work experience (and overseas work experience) than you since no inexperienced hire is gonna be able to get a work pass for the jobs you want.

If you join an MNC, you will see lots of people with uni degrees you may not have heard of. In fact, your boss may not even be local. Of course, I dare not say this is the case for every industry but unless your employer has a hard on for specific uni degrees, there's no such thing as hire "local uni" only or hire "private uni" only. It's just whichever candidate does best during the interview and costs the least for the "value" the interviewer assume the candidate provides (based on the resume and interview).

Basically, if you get the interview, whatever was on the resume (which includes your degree) is considered ok already. Time to wow your interviewer with other stuff like your attitude towards work, your willingness to learn, you past work/internship experience, examples of how you took initiative to identify problems and solve it, general knowledge of the industry or role, etc.

Of course, no doubt there is stigma with private uni degrees but once you get your foot in, all these don't really matter anymore. Also, it really only matters on the first job because you got no past work experience to talk about.

If you are good at your job, nobody is gonna care about your GPA or what subjects you took during uni because truth is for a lot of jobs, what you learnt in school is just info that is good to know (i.e. it helps to know but you can just google it on the spot or you won't need to know it in-depth). For eg. the formula for IRR, really long and let's just say now if I want it, I just pull up Excel and use the IRR formula. All your time learning how to use that primitive calculator that UOL forces you to use? You will probably be using macros on excel, your handphone calculator or some other tool your company has.

Even by the off-chance that what you learnt in school is needed, the method may already be outdated by the time you are working simply because the industries might move faster than your syllabus.

In addition, if you wanna promote at work, doing things the standard/ordinary way without taking initiative to identify new problems and/or come up with more efficient methods (or if your boss doesn't know because you don't know how to subtly take credit where it is due) will get you no where. "Act blur, live longer" and "Can siam arrow then siam" is not gonna get you anywhere.

There is no ten-year series or mock exam papers or even questions for you to answer. If your boss has to give you the problem then you solve it, it just means you have no initiative. Ideally, you should identify problems of inefficiency where possible and come up with methods to address it if you want to stand out. Of course, you can also just tow the line and do what your boss gives you to stay employed but this is what your attitude towards work means.

If you have connections, you might not even need much effort to get in because the saying of "It's who you know, not what you know" is true. I have a few friends (local and private uni) that got into big companies that way. They made connections during their internships and part-time jobs during uni and then, when they graduated, their ex-supervisors got them in.

Also, don't be too picky. You may not get the first choice job you want but that does not mean you can't work towards it. A contract job may lead to a perm role or a role in a department that is not your first choice role-wise can turn into another role in the same department which you may want. That said, I don't mean to undersell yourself either. Remember that SG employers like to use past salary as gauge so don't sell yourself short but just don't fixate on the notion that you must die die get the job you want right off the bat.

I have a friend that fell into this exact "trap". Second upper from a local uni but end up earning really little because he spent so much time waiting and waiting for the right job because he did not want to take anything less than ideal and for some reason, thought that the degree guarantees him his choice of job. Finally, when he is desperate for a job after turning down a lot of the opportunities that came his way, he just went with whatever and he now has to live with it.

Anyway, if you are studying, focus on your studies and work hard for your grades. Make connections if you can (if you can't, don't worry). It will make finding that first job easier. Also, don't sleep on part-time jobs or internships even if most of the time, interns just do low risk simple tasks because any work experience is still work experience. Learn whatever you can. How people interact at work, how people solve problems at work, what is appropriate, what tools you should learn to use, etc even if you are mostly just doing brainless tasks. Basically, regardless of what job/tasks you do, never turn the brain off. Always look for better ways to do the thing (within limits - nothing illegal, nothing that will get you fired) even if it is seemingly brainless. Your boss might just notice your attitude and give you opportunities to do more (you will need to ask for more things to do that is out of the scope too - the more confidence your boss has with you, the more the tasks you will get and the more your job scope can expand)

If you are already finishing uni and you know you might not have a great degree/grade, don't let it define you. Go and get some work experience ASAP. Do not wait until you get your results slip then start working.

Before you receive the result slip, you can in all honesty say you don't know your results yet and prove yourself at work if the employer is willing to give you a shot. If you are good, even if your results turned out not ideal, employers will not just throw you out because a piece of paper says you are no good IF you proved that you are good at the job while you were there. The logic is simple - training, working with and knowing the person's work attitude for months only to throw him/her out because the degree honours is not ideal is just stupid unless the person hasn't really performed well at work (in this case. the degree results kinda matches the attitude).

^ this. 10char

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't know how many people are actually who they say they are here but just for all the undergrads that are reading the thread.

Don't let your degree define you. There are no shameful degrees.

All this "local uni" vs "private uni" rivalry is nonsensical once you step out into the working world.

I am sorry to say but the real competition is "local labour" vs "foreign talents". Your competition is people who do not need to attend annual reservists (2 weeks away while still drawing pay), willing to take a much much lower pay because they can use the favourable exchange rate to send money home, likely live alone in Singapore and may not even need to give CPF 20%, and most likely have more work experience (and overseas work experience) than you since no inexperienced hire is gonna be able to get a work pass for the jobs you want.

If you join an MNC, you will see lots of people with uni degrees you may not have heard of. In fact, your boss may not even be local. Of course, I dare not say this is the case for every industry but unless your employer has a hard on for specific uni degrees, there's no such thing as hire "local uni" only or hire "private uni" only. It's just whichever candidate does best during the interview and costs the least for the "value" the interviewer assume the candidate provides (based on the resume and interview).

Basically, if you get the interview, whatever was on the resume (which includes your degree) is considered ok already. Time to wow your interviewer with other stuff like your attitude towards work, your willingness to learn, you past work/internship experience, examples of how you took initiative to identify problems and solve it, general knowledge of the industry or role, etc.

Of course, no doubt there is stigma with private uni degrees but once you get your foot in, all these don't really matter anymore. Also, it really only matters on the first job because you got no past work experience to talk about.

If you are good at your job, nobody is gonna care about your GPA or what subjects you took during uni because truth is for a lot of jobs, what you learnt in school is just info that is good to know (i.e. it helps to know but you can just google it on the spot or you won't need to know it in-depth). For eg. the formula for IRR, really long and let's just say now if I want it, I just pull up Excel and use the IRR formula. All your time learning how to use that primitive calculator that UOL forces you to use? You will probably be using macros on excel, your handphone calculator or some other tool your company has.

Even by the off-chance that what you learnt in school is needed, the method may already be outdated by the time you are working simply because the industries might move faster than your syllabus.

In addition, if you wanna promote at work, doing things the standard/ordinary way without taking initiative to identify new problems and/or come up with more efficient methods (or if your boss doesn't know because you don't know how to subtly take credit where it is due) will get you no where. "Act blur, live longer" and "Can siam arrow then siam" is not gonna get you anywhere.

There is no ten-year series or mock exam papers or even questions for you to answer. If your boss has to give you the problem then you solve it, it just means you have no initiative. Ideally, you should identify problems of inefficiency where possible and come up with methods to address it if you want to stand out. Of course, you can also just tow the line and do what your boss gives you to stay employed but this is what your attitude towards work means.

If you have connections, you might not even need much effort to get in because the saying of "It's who you know, not what you know" is true. I have a few friends (local and private uni) that got into big companies that way. They made connections during their internships and part-time jobs during uni and then, when they graduated, their ex-supervisors got them in.

Also, don't be too picky. You may not get the first choice job you want but that does not mean you can't work towards it. A contract job may lead to a perm role or a role in a department that is not your first choice role-wise can turn into another role in the same department which you may want. That said, I don't mean to undersell yourself either. Remember that SG employers like to use past salary as gauge so don't sell yourself short but just don't fixate on the notion that you must die die get the job you want right off the bat.

I have a friend that fell into this exact "trap". Second upper from a local uni but end up earning really little because he spent so much time waiting and waiting for the right job because he did not want to take anything less than ideal and for some reason, thought that the degree guarantees him his choice of job. Finally, when he is desperate for a job after turning down a lot of the opportunities that came his way, he just went with whatever and he now has to live with it.

Anyway, if you are studying, focus on your studies and work hard for your grades. Make connections if you can (if you can't, don't worry). It will make finding that first job easier. Also, don't sleep on part-time jobs or internships even if most of the time, interns just do low risk simple tasks because any work experience is still work experience. Learn whatever you can. How people interact at work, how people solve problems at work, what is appropriate, what tools you should learn to use, etc even if you are mostly just doing brainless tasks. Basically, regardless of what job/tasks you do, never turn the brain off. Always look for better ways to do the thing (within limits - nothing illegal, nothing that will get you fired) even if it is seemingly brainless. Your boss might just notice your attitude and give you opportunities to do more (you will need to ask for more things to do that is out of the scope too - the more confidence your boss has with you, the more the tasks you will get and the more your job scope can expand)

If you are already finishing uni and you know you might not have a great degree/grade, don't let it define you. Go and get some work experience ASAP. Do not wait until you get your results slip then start working.

Before you receive the result slip, you can in all honesty say you don't know your results yet and prove yourself at work if the employer is willing to give you a shot. If you are good, even if your results turned out not ideal, employers will not just throw you out because a piece of paper says you are no good IF you proved that you are good at the job while you were there. The logic is simple - training, working with and knowing the person's work attitude for months only to throw him/her out because the degree honours is not ideal is just stupid unless the person hasn't really performed well at work (in this case. the degree results kinda matches the attitude).

If you put in this much effort studying in JC/Poly, you would be in NUS/NTU instead of SIM.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you put in this much effort studying in JC/Poly, you would be in NUS/NTU instead of SIM.

Why be in NUS/NTU when my starting salary is above the 75th percentile of most programmes in local unis?

Be humble, sit down.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Why be in NUS/NTU when my starting salary is above the 75th percentile of most programmes in local unis?

Be humble, sit down.

Yes my Lord

Your obedient servant from nus/ntu

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you put in this much effort studying in JC/Poly, you would be in NUS/NTU instead of SIM.

Exactly, fully agree.... Cant expect much from their replies, everything to them revolves around how EQ>IQ, what a piece of joke

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Exactly, fully agree.... Cant expect much from their replies, everything to them revolves around how EQ>IQ, what a piece of joke

I'm sorry, how much are you actually earning?

While you are feeling guilty stalking an online forum at 3 pm on a Monday, I am sitting here laughing at how I managed to beat out you cucks (scholars incl btw) for internships and now a full-time role.

Enjoy your $0k per annum package at Salary.SG lmao

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm sorry, how much are you actually earning?

While you are feeling guilty stalking an online forum at 3 pm on a Monday, I am sitting here laughing at how I managed to beat out you cucks (scholars incl btw) for internships and now a full-time role.

Enjoy your $0k per annum package at Salary.SG lmao

The fact that you're here as well speaks volumes lmao need a place to soothe your butthurt ego, kid?

Mods please close thread, thanks