For many reasons staying in Australia is more or less out of the question for me.

I'm pretty interested in organisational psych and the government sector is one of the main employers of organisational psychologists, hence my interest in a MINDEF job. I was also hoping I could get a government sponsorship to pursue my Masters somewhere down the line. But it's worrying that I don't even see any ads for MINDEF psychologists, whereas for the other ministries (MHA, MOE etc) I at least see ads that I can try applying for.

HR is my backup plan I guess, since there's some overlap with organisational psych, but I really want to stay in the psychology field.

Are you in psychology yourself by the way? Would appreciate more opinions from people in the know.

Also, about local graduates, do you mean Unisim grads will have an edge over me too? Since I understand the government does send its staff to do Unisim degrees for upgrading.

My fiancé is in the psych field. I'm in social science, trying to break into public policy when I grad soon. MOE takes in those with experience from what I can gather. Even to apply for NIE masters in counselling or masters in applied psych requires applicants to have 2 years of work exp. Unisim might still be untested waters, so my opinion is without any backing. but IMO, unisim grads may be preferred down the line. Lots of govt employees are sent to unisim nowadays to get their degrees. Especially mindef personnel. As the number of unisim grads in govt agencies grow, so will their preference or biasness for them. On top of that, unisim grads have one thing most fresh grads don't, which is experience. They study part-time and have time for a full-time job or at least time for multiple fruitful internships.

My fiancé herself interned under MOM, under the statistics division. I've had friends that interned at MHA, under psych. I would be cautious with MHA if I were you. Even though it is a ministry, from what they tell me, its a very very hostile place. MHA is a cesspit. Protocols and directives are all not followed. My friends who interned under MHA had to wrestle with the school and the organisation to get their salaries, which was only given out months after their internship was over. As compared to MOM which was on the dot. Im not sure how and why a ministry is allowed to run in such a way. I guess us humanities/social science people are that disposable.

Govt does sponsor for Masters. But you will usually have to get into a local program. Unless you are an overseas scholar. So you will have to look at masters programs at NUS/NTU and their psych masters programs also happen to be very competitive.

What's your major? Just curious. Speaking of public policy, any opinions on the International Relations masters program at RSIS?

And what area of psych does your fiance work in?

I've done some snooping on linkedin and many government employed psychologists do get to do their masters in the UK, I believe because local psychology masters programs are severely limited - only NIE's applied psych and NUS's clinical program.

RSIS and LKYSPP are great schools. But dont jump the gun and take your masters there yet. Get a govt job first and then see if they will send you there. You might end up wasting your money and time doing post-grad there and not getting a job in the civil sector.

NTU does have an MA in Psych. But its more geared towards research, not applied.

I'm in Philosophy, concentrating mostly in ethics, hopefully trying to get a job in ethics committees in govt hospitals or universities. Second major in political science but im concentrating more in public policy and administration rather than international relations and politics.

Edit: She's in one of the local universities under one of their counselling dept. But not a full-fledged one yet. She's applying for the next NIE intake once she has enough experience.

Would have been great if they would just notify us if we are not being considered rather than being left hanging.

Hopefully now that it's january things will move faster... people should be going back into work mode and coming back from year end holidays.

Yeah i agree... Guess what, i got a reply on 02 jan to the email regarding my application in oct. She said that she was away hence the late reply. Anyway she said that successful applicants would be notified within 2 weeks. Which means i am rejected.. Waited 2 mths and nt even a rejection email sent.. Zzz...

you mean the yvonne lady?

i asked about my psychometric test in oct after a couple of months no reply...and she said no reply means still processing and i can let her know if i want to apply for more positions...which i did and she acknowledged.

did she say outright you were rejected?

Nt yvonne... Its michelle. She didnt say outright that i am rejected, just that shortlisted candidates will be notified in 2 weeks’ time from their application date.
And also as the selection process is highly competitive, only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

I guess my case is slightly diff frm yrs.. I am not shortlisted for the psycho test, just applied only. But i expected my application to be unsuccessful cos i saw the job was alr taken out frm the list of vacancies after i sent her the email.