is hospital salary low for fresh poly grad
 

hi,

I just grad from poly this year. I got a offer to go monash university to study however i do not have the money to go. hence, i decided to look for a job.

I am drawing a starting salary of $1700 with no night shift allowance. from what i heard from my friend is that it is quite low for healthcare sector.

On the other hand, i would like to take up part time studies. but i need to do night shift =( how???

What do you guys think? Is the pay very low???

if i want work for 1.5 years to gain working experience and i want to job hop. how much salary can i ask for with 1.5 yrs working experience???

You do not have much choice if this is the best (or only) offer you got after months of searching.

Work hard and aim for good increments (10% is generally considered good). When hopping to the next job, ask for 15% to 20% more than your last drawn salary. Be careful when comparing salary packages - always include all the cash for the entire year, i.e. add up all the base pay, bonuses and cash perks such as transport / meal / spectacle allowances.

The sad fact in life is that if your background is not rich.. most likely you'll have to suffer alot by working and studying part-time until you get your degree.. Nobody can help you except yourself... If you fear hardship, then you will forever remain just a diploma holder drawing the shitty 1.7k.. Increment probably less than $100 a year.. Can never beat inflation... You'll die poor...

My situation was similar to yours... my family couldn't pay for my tertiary education... I was stuck working in a 3 shift rotation job because i just had a diploma but also wanted to earn more from the allowances... My starting salary was also 1.7k like yours (excluding shift allowances).. For your info, that was like 10 years ago.. funny but it seems like the starting salary for diploma holders hasn't improved much these 10 years... ha, ha.. Anyway, i wanted so much to also have the chance to be come a graduate... Also thought of pursuing a degree while working.. but i knew that i would surely miss most of my lessons due to my erratic work schedule... Even if i could attend lessons, i would likely be dead tired because the off days would be my sleeping day after a night shift or i would have to leave lessons early to go night shift again.. i would probably fail the course under these circumstances... The only way out is to switch to a normal 8-5 job... But it was so hard because diploma working experience is not very marketable frankly.. Everytime you try and job hop, HR is always trying to reset your salary stating that your experience is not "professional" experience.... If you're lucky, they will just match your last drawn.. Dun even dream of getting any decent salary jump... Well, i got lucky and found a office hour job.. The only catch was that i had to take a 30% pay cut which i did.. My friends and family though i was crazy... But i had to block out all these negative voices and focused on what i wanted to achieve... My savings from my 7 years working in the shift job allowed me to pay for my degree education without much problem.. though i earned peanuts during that few years, i enjoyed regular hours and that help me to do quite well in my studies.. I managed to graduate with honors and got a new job and am now drawing about 60k annually.. It's not much for a start, but an least from this point onwards with a degree, things should get better... Hope my sharing can also motivate you to persevere and look for the right opportunity... to create the perfect circumstances for you to achieve your goal.. There will be times when you feel like giving up during your pursuit.... You might also meet some people who wants to see you give up for fear that you will succeed and surpass them.. Well, you should always try your very best to disappoint these people.. I wish you the very best and hope that you find a way.. Just remember if you don't take the first step, things will never change for the better.. Complaining about why life is not fair will not improve anything.. might even lead to depression which is even more counter-productive.. Just remember after you have started, there is no turning back until you have reach the finishing line... Good luck.. Hope you make it...

Honest and good reply given above... Really hope more of such encouraging replies will turn up instead of the usual career bragging folks who claim to be able to earn 100k per month by with 3 years of experience. I believe there are such cases but they certainly appear much too frequent here to be believeable... anyway, all the best TS. Like the previous poster said, have a game plan, be prepared to work hard and you'll definitely make it.

Very encouraging ! And yes, success is the best motivation and revenge :)

Hi i was browsing this forum and i happened to chance upon this forum.

It is interestingly encouraging and i hope this happens more often, the cynical approach to how most Singaporean tackles situation had depressed me.

I started from a life science background and i first joined a shipping company as a supervisor, I was offered 1450 basic in 2007. That was not my dream job because i wanted to do somethin related.

Later on, my lecturer from polytechnic helped me by recommending me to be a lab technician and i joined with 1550. i worked there for 2.5 years and i scrapped every penny i got for overseas studies. I left the company with the salary of 1850.

After saving 20k i realised the money is still insufficient for my studies so i took up a student loan to pay my school fees. I spent 40k in total to pursue my degree in Australia with double major.

When i came back in 2010 i was offered a job as a Chemist at 2.2k basic. It was comparatively low to all my friends who were in a different field that i was. Nonetheless i never gave up and i took up the job and repay my student loan in a year. I left a 1.5 year later with 2.4k.

However, aside from the hard work, health begin to its toll and soon i realise i had to give up my passion in the life science field. So i started looking into management and is now offered a position as a assistant manager in a US company. My basic currently is 3600.

To sum it up, it is true hard work can be the solution to tackle most situation but do not forget about your health. To work and study at the same time is tough, and moreover you are doing night shift.

It is essential to understand where you wanna set your goal and i hope eventually you will succeed. Just do not remain in the box to think that hard work always pay off, you need strategy and forcus too.

Hi,

you said you took up student loan. is it from the aus uni that you have studied? is there any interest? do you have guarantor to sign the student loan? if have how much does the guarantor needs to earn in order to be your guarantor.

By the way you said you spend 40k in aus....is that for 4 years or 1 year? is it living expenses only?

Sorry to ask so much qns.

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply.

Right now i am trying to get office hour job so that i can take up studies. I think I will be in the same situation as you....

Hi

I took the loan from the bank, you can check out the education loans they offer as the interest is low.

As for guarantor, it depends on how much loan you wanna take. For me, my guarantor income was between 60-70k and i am allowed to take up more than 20k. However, i did not take more as i have sufficient funds.

The 20k is my sch fees for a year alone, the bank offers housing loans as well.

40k was the sum i prepare for aussie for a year, i did not have to stay for 4 years to get my degree as i have exemption from my dip. I went home with a surplus of 5k after i completed my degree. To be more accurate, i only used 35k in aussie.

I hope the information above helps. Going Aussie may seemed like a big impossible dream without money, but once u tackle the small things bit by bit, you will get there.

Thanks for sharing. you are very fortunate actually...to have a guarantor income between 60-70k. I don't have anybody earn that much. I guess I have to depend myself or find other alternative.