Had an experience with a stat board. Offer came around 1 month after the interview.

Wow..that's long. Just had mine with a stat board too..HR claimed "if you're short-listed it'll be from 2-3 weeks".

O_o

Why join stat boards? The career progression is slow and the promotional opportunities are very few unless you're some high flying scholar..
Unless your aim in life is to be supporting these batches after batches of high flyers climb their corporate ladder while you suck thumb...

Based on my experience, public sector HR departments will inform on successful interview outcome quite soon, between one and two weeks. If the vacancy is urgent (such as training course starting soon), they may get back to you on the same day itself if you're selected.

If unsuccessful, HR might delay and waste people's time by informing you of the news 2 to 4 weeks later. However, some ministries will inform you of negative outcome after a few days.

So I guess bottom-line is, really depends on the organization. Its a good HR practice to inform on outcome ASAP, especially if the candidate obviously not selected because fail at the interview stage. It's unproductive to keep people waiting especially if they got other job offers.

Last point: When HR offers a successful candidate only after ONE MONTH (it happens), it really says something about the organization. How can expect people to wait ONE MONTH for your miserable reply, unless the candidate is really desperate.

Based on my own experience and hearsay evidence from friends and relatives, the range could be between 1 week and 4 months. This range from ministries to stat boards.

Recently (in the past 1 or 2 years), they seem to be more punctual as in if they say "within 2 weeks", you will get an answer within 2 weeks. But if you don't hear from them by the 12th day, be prepared to receive a rejection email. For my relative's case (early this year) they called him up within 10 days from the day of interview to offer him the position.

is it possible to clinch the job vacancy first but request the starting date to be delayed. from eg, for my case, grad in may after exams, interview in may and clinched an offer but request to start work in jul. possible?

i would say it's not impossible.

Not impossible but it does say something about your work ethic. Lets say you have two applicants, you and one other person who applied in april, went for interview in may and is willing to start just after the exams. Of course not to say that is wrong and theres nothing bad about taking a grad trip after your studies but you hafta keep in mind the competition (note not only from your local uni peers, but from beyond our shores as well) and the general sentiment today that grad trips or more or less just outlandish holiday trips devoid of any qualitative significance.

Besides all job forms require you to put in a start date. lets say you put may/june and then go back on your word then it isn't very good nor ethical isn't it. and mind you although there are numerous employers here in sg, bad word does travel round pretty fast (dunno how it happens though, i'm not a hirer :P).

not that you don't have valid points but still i think you're digressing from the main issue. of course, it's best for the candidate the state upfront if he doesn't wish to start so early and not renege on his word.

if the question is taken at face value and in the perspective of fresh grads, then there may not be any good or very impt reason as to why the start date should be delayed. i would give the benefit of doubt since it was not explicitly stated as to why he wished to delay. hence, it's best not to assume.

on the other hand, for those already who are already working, most would wish to leave only after VB and there are cases where the VB is credited only in the next month's salary, though it was mentioned otherwise.

in this case, for the public sector, some only hire citizens or PRs. besides, the final decision lies with the company. should they decide they can't wait, and the candidate doesn't want to start that early, then it's down the list to the next candidate. from the organization's perspective, it is unlikely that would have placed all their eggs in one basket and not have any other candidates to select from.

anyway, ethics is overrated these days. even employers do push back start dates for their own benefit, whether it is such that the candidate will not be eligible for AWS, VB or MI. basically, many would rather choose to be selfish for their own gains. :)

i heard that sometimes i may takes up to 2 months........