Stat Board (PUB) Vs Private (Local SME)

I worked in both SME and statutory boards previously. Here's some of the lessons that I learnt. It may or may not be relevant to you but here it goes.

1) pay aside, if you are a fresh graduate, statutory board offers better exposure and helps you fine tune what you want to do later.
2) the downside of joining statutory board is that it might numb your ambition to join the private sector later as there will be other life commitments along the way (like marriage, kids etc) that changes your priorities. Not necessarily bad, just a matter of trade offs.
3) SME will never offer you the kind of exposure and training as a young graduate. for mid career, it might make sense as you can apply what you learn immediately.
4) for SMEs, it is all about bottomline. So it is about sales, P&L. unless you get to share the upside in the company, I would discourage you from joining. In another words, your pay is tied to how much you can contribute to the company. the reason they will cannot pay you as much is that every cent they pay you eats up the bottomline. However, are they able to share the upside if the company do well?
5) you can always move from statutory boards to SMEs, but not the other way round.
6) join an SME where you are a linchpin in the whole business. if you are indispensable, it helps. Also, do you know they founders well？ for SMEs, you only need to get along with the founders.
7) avoid family-type business where the founders put his own 25 year MBA son as CEO.

I hope the above helps. good luck.

The problem with stat board is once you are past the 5 year mark, it becomes very difficult to go back to private without downgrading yourself.

Anyway to me joining PUB or SME is a dead end, won't even bother with them.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I worked in both SME and statutory boards previously. Here's some of the lessons that I learnt. It may or may not be relevant to you but here it goes.

1) pay aside, if you are a fresh graduate, statutory board offers better exposure and helps you fine tune what you want to do later.
2) the downside of joining statutory board is that it might numb your ambition to join the private sector later as there will be other life commitments along the way (like marriage, kids etc) that changes your priorities. Not necessarily bad, just a matter of trade offs.
3) SME will never offer you the kind of exposure and training as a young graduate. for mid career, it might make sense as you can apply what you learn immediately.
4) for SMEs, it is all about bottomline. So it is about sales, P&L. unless you get to share the upside in the company, I would discourage you from joining. In another words, your pay is tied to how much you can contribute to the company. the reason they will cannot pay you as much is that every cent they pay you eats up the bottomline. However, are they able to share the upside if the company do well?
5) you can always move from statutory boards to SMEs, but not the other way round.
6) join an SME where you are a linchpin in the whole business. if you are indispensable, it helps. Also, do you know they founders well？ for SMEs, you only need to get along with the founders.
7) avoid family-type business where the founders put his own 25 year MBA son as CEO.

I hope the above helps. good luck.

[Bean]

Originally Posted by Anonymous

After the 4k mark it's no good. In terms of pay, I've overtaken my peers in DSO.

are you in the financial/banking private sector??



I am in the engineering sector private GLC, starting pay only 2.9k.....and I estimate that after working 6 years with the company with 2 promotion, I will be getting about 4100 only....with NTU 2nd lower ........no good!!!

[Bean]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Why waste your time on engineering? Most of your peers who have the drive and ambition are all going into the Finance field already, $4k might seem a lot at first, but after 5 years you will likely be 50% behind your peers.

You can see a lot of cases here as well where engineers wasted many years in this dead end field going nowhere only to start from scratch again in the banking sector in their early 30s.

If you are still very hung up on engineering, at least join a top tier MNC, do not settle for anything less. You go into stat board or SME now your career is basically ended.

so how much will a degree holder earn in the financial sector after 5 years assuming his starting salary is $3500. How much is the annual increment, how many % on average in the financial sector?

Assume he join DSO at $3900, after 5 years with 1 promotion, he should be getting $5475/mth
-assume annual increment is at 5%
-assume promotion is at 10%

Assume he join a financial company at $3500, and you had mention he can make 50% more than his peer doing engineering. Means he can earn about $10000/mth in just 5 years?

So what happen?? From $3500/mth to $10000/mth in 5 years ?? Which work out to be on an annual increment of $1300 on average for 5 years??

1300 divided 3500 = means about 37% annual increment in financial sector???

Real or not?

[Anonymous]

5% increment is pretty low isn't it? 5475 after 5 years when one started at 3900, is really quite slow.

[Bean]

Originally Posted by Anonymous

5% increment is pretty low isn't it? 5475 after 5 years when one started at 3900, is really quite slow.

I know of someone with degree, 18 years exp with STengineering only getting abt 6.5k only.....and some more he is 'A' grader loh....

[Bean]

Originally Posted by Anonymous

5% increment is pretty low isn't it? 5475 after 5 years when one started at 3900, is really quite slow.

so assume you are an engineer too in private sector

starting = 3200

then how much do you expect to earn after 5 years.....

can put in some value?

[Anonymous]

Originally Posted by Bean

so assume you are an engineer too in private sector

starting = 3200

then how much do you expect to earn after 5 years.....

can put in some value?

im not an engineer in the private sector. im in the civil service. started off at 3.1k. After 7 years, 6.9k including 2 promotions.

Originally Posted by Anonymous

im not an engineer in the private sector. im in the civil service. started off at 3.1k. After 7 years, 6.9k including 2 promotions.

That is pretty gd!

[Bean]

Originally Posted by Anonymous

im not an engineer in the private sector. im in the civil service. started off at 3.1k. After 7 years, 6.9k including 2 promotions.

this is an eye opener for me..

MX13-3.1k
MX12-
MX11-6.9k

WOW, 7 years and more than double the starting salary...