Working culture @ IDA
 

hi, i'd like to hear feedback on the work culture @ IDA. Is it very rigid, army style environment, or is it more work-life balance. On ave, how long will it take a normal degree holder (e.g. with merit) to get to the AD level freshout from school. Thanks for any advice.

The "auntie" culture is very strong.

appreciate if you can elaborate on auntie culture.. meaning "people nagging on you/breathing down your neck"?

is AD high rank?

From fresh grad to AD. 10yrs or more

with 13 yrs of very relevant experience, is it silly to accept any lower ranks than AD? What is the pay scale like for AD?

AD is one rank below the default non-scholar retirement rank of DD. 13 years is barely enough for AD under normal situation, if they offer better accept fast.

in MTI ... AD is entry level for fresh grad

serious? DD is the highest one can go without being a scholar? Then isn't there nothing very much to look forward to.. what is the highest pay band for AD and DD. Appreciate if you can shed some light... a ballpark will do.. thanks

Just to clarify, when I say AD and DD etc. means internal real title across most stat boards & public organizations, not external inflated titles like MTI.

I can’t remember precisely, but I know DD is around 8k – 11k and AD 6.5k – 9k. Actually not bad lar, if you go private sector most people will also hit ceiling at around that level, some might not even break the 10k mark in their whole careers. Bankers take up <1% of working population, cannot everything compare with banks, must look at normal career in MNC better benchmark.

There are some very rare case got non-scholar hit D level (start of superscale), but really very exceptional.

got to agree with you on this. AD for ministries or admin service is an inflated title for entry level graduate position. anyway, IDA like most statutory boards is all about kissing ass than getting the work done. can cruise in a place like this for years until retirement.

Thanks for your inputs. It has been very helpful. I am referring to internal titles as well. Its interesting to see an AD pay scale starting lower than the senior manager. I expect some over lap between senior mgr and AD, but I expect the over lap to take place at the higher band of 8k. Were you working @ IDA before or currently. I haven;t quite got to understand the "auntie culture" could you share a bit more.

Will they hawk eye who comes 5-10mins after 8.30am for work, leaves 5-10mins early before 6pm. I terribly hate this kind of micro mgt.

AD and DD
 

If I am not wrong, entry AD is starts from about >=6K, entry DD starts from >=7K.

sorry wat is AD and DD means?

Assistant Director / Deputy Director ?

What is usual pay range for Senior manager in IDA ?

My estimate is 100k pa incl bonus.

thanks. Is that based on an estimate of 4 or 3 months VB ?

I've come across several IDA name cards with title of "Assistant Director", "Deputy Director" and "Senior Director", are they inflated or real titles? I can find scores of them on LinkedIn!

The range is roughly like I stated earlier, but if you want precise number I really can’t recall, sorry.

IDA is an interesting org in the sense that there is 2 sub cultures. First and biggest group is of course the “aunties”, these are long serving people who make up the bulk of population. Whether they are directors, managers, officers, attitude about the same, no innovation, relax, everything SOP cannot change, like to pull seniority, regard any talk on market best practice with disgust etc.

IDA also recruit a lot of mid-careers from pte sector compared to other stat boards, so occasionally there will be some new director or manager who come in with drive to change, attempt to whip the old birds into shape etc. but they never succeed. They either stay and transform to the old bird group or get out rejoin pte sector.

By and large the culture is slow, dull, not receptive to change, but occasionally you might get a siow on boss but his / her “on-nees” wont last >1 year.

Isn't the same for other govt agencies as well?

Entry Senior Manager (non technical) is about 80k plus, similar to an IDA Senior Consultant (technical). More experienced Senior Manager can command 90k plus - about 100k.

That's low. No wonder everyone wants to get into banking and finance. Snr IT Mgr in a global bank can make at least 50% more.

IDA should start pegging salaries to top 6 earners, or whatever formula the ministers are using. Otherwise it's not fair, and people will up stakes and leave to join banks. (Sounds familiar?)

1 grade below senior manager/senior consultant would be 85k +/- 5k pa. of course this is about the median and expect some higher or lower.

average performing senior should have no problem with 95-100k pa. difference between an average performer and good performer can be as much as 20% more pa due to bonus (1-2mths more). and of course good performer would have maybe 6% increment whilst average 4%.

a few years back the ceiling of senior is 8.9k pm. this window moves every year and the overlap between grades is ~20-25%. a higher ranging senior could make more than a entry level ad on a monthly basis.

the salary range in ida is quite transparent. the range is clearly indicated in the offer letter and every year's increment letter for your own grade.

Just curious, what is the salary range for AD, DD and Director?

Does anyone know the number of years required for the role of assistant manager or manager in IDA?

Salary grade
 

Does anyone know the salary grade of the following titles in IDA?

Assistant Manager

Manager/Consultant

Senior Manager/Senior Consultant

Assistant Director

Deputy Director

Director

IDA Infocomm Talent Portal to get a rough idea of the pay range ;-)

From the hierarchy above my guess is that Fresh Grads join as Asst Manager position in IDA.

This obviously is just a pointless title. I know for a fact that even MND calls their fresh recruits Asst Director (when obviously its just an entry position).

Agree

My understanding is that in most ministries now only Dy Director or Director is considered as a manager internally.

fresh grad join as manager, sounds like a joke to me.. lame ass titles..

not as bad as financial instituiton, almost everyone who work for a few years is a vice president

depends on the department you are in.. those kind of vice president are at best assistant manager just to say the most...

And seems like even PUB/SP Utilities has gotten along with it too. Not too long ago I saw someone on the newspapers with the title Asst Vice-President (Water Resources).

KNN at the end of the day still a bloody GLC/stat board operating under the auspices of the public service and sucking taxpayer dollars and yet still want to kehqiang wayang with these fancy titles. I had to freaking contain my laughter and amusement otherwise I would've spit out my dinner there on the spot on the dinner table.

I think almost all the GLC are into this crap now. I use to just dismiss all these fake titles as gimics that nobody will fall for until I conduct interview for a snr exec position. I was shocked there will be a lot of youngsters who reject our offer citing the lack of "manager" in their appointment.

I explain to them that our company snr exec pay range is more than enough to meet their expected salary (which is quite pathetic barely 5k only), but they are like stubborn and insist no manager title no talk. These people are mad.

Most companies practice internal & external title now. The internal title is the one that determine pay, promotion, benefit and prospect. The external title is use to print on name card to wayang to vendors and family & friends. To me anything <10k monthly is non-manager and <25k a month is not a director, doesn't matter what rubbish you print on the name card.

so did you hire any of those jokers? what do you mean by youngsters? fresh grad?

If you are referring to fresh grad, I don't think they will hold themselves to high up unless they study until their brain kana fcuked..

Actually having inflate titles can have problems also. One good eg is Amy Cheong the NTUC staff who post racist remarks on FB then kana sack and cause whole country to condem.

Her real job was actually just a Membership Services Executive doing card renewal, but NTUC like all the other goverment dept inflate her title to "Assistant Director for Membership". As a result when the scandal broke, most clueless people thought she was someone very high up within NTUC and her employer simply go with the flow and made a high profile sacking her to demonstrate that they will not hesitate to punish even supposedly senior leadership in NTUC.

Truth is if the public had known she was just some kcham puteh junior executive, they will not whack her so bad and NTUC will just ask her to resign quietly and look for another job while on notice. Beause of her infated title, she was publicly sacked and harrassed to the point need to run road to Aussie and dare not return.

where got such thing one.. definitely she is some form of managerial role.. cannot be a small time membership executive only.. you put it too simply already..

I also think that for fresh grad they should concern more on the working culture. Your first job wokring culture easily determine your working attitude in future.. i think this is rather more important than the few hundereds dollar difference in starting pay..

is not wayang or fake or what, it is really the good workign attitude will carry you far to excellence, not the few hundereds dollar more in your first payslip..

if we always wanna siam job, asking for high pay but calculative on the workload.....hmm if you are the boss will you put your expectation on them?

i work in ntuc before, a typical AD is usually a deg grad with a 2-4 years experience, os yes in a sense she is like a snr exec in most companies.

exactly, she must be worth the news