MINDEF DXO (All FAQ on it)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Everyone is sent for psychometric, regardless of whether your application has been seen or not. This is so that it makes the process much more faster and streamlined. It will be a waste of time to call you for an interview first and then you go ahead and fail the psycho test. Group of 8 isnt that big of a deal. In terms of rankings, not everything is in black and white. They look at the universities holistically too. Say for example, a philosophy masters graduate from Rutgers University and a philosophy graduate from Cambridge University both apply for a defence policy job in mindef. It is highly likely that the cambridge grad will get the job. However, Rutgers is ranked higher in terms of philosophy than Cambridge is!

Rankings also include research quality of the faculty members, which might not translate to quality of students. Quality of students is more related to the rigor of the curriculum, which most Australian universities lack when compared to Asian institutes. So what if you've completed a theses? So has every other local uni honors graduate out there lol. What's your readership? How many researchers have cited your paper?

IMO UQ is more popular among Singaporeans because they give liberal exemptions to poly grads.

Oh chey! Yeah that makes sense but I thought it'd be even faster if they screen once before the psychometrics test cause I read somewhere in the much earlier pages it seems there have been people not called for psychometrics before.. Hmmm, i should probably apply for even more positions at other min/SB then, since they are likely to all take quite a while too.

Haha. GO8 isn't really great..Its just that it was the easiest way I could think of to narrow down the uni I am from since someone asked. lol! But I must say that maybe there is some tiering for australian unis as well like there is in USA with their ivy league schools.

Oh man.. lol 'holistically' again. That word. That's exactly what happens isn't it? Haha! Like someone says they are from Harvard and everyone goes gaga. I mean who cares what they study there right? Wrong. 'cause they don't have great programmes for every single subject they teach there. I believe that within any university the quality of programmes of the various faculties and schools can really differ. Haha. Would be logical to expect experts in the field to know better than to go by the overall clout of the school but oh wells, the hard reality. Perceptions are hard to change anyway.

Its true that most Aust unis have less rigourous cirriculums than Asian institutes but I wouldn't say that is true for all Aust unis actually. I used to be of the same opinion actually before I started my aussie course (ironically) but I was actually quite surprised of the level of rigour really. Of course its always going to be subjective but I guess there is some level of difference in academic rigour between the diff tiers as in every other country and between countries too but no one is gonna do an exact same course in two diff unis so we shall never know for sure. Of course its also dependent on that particular school/faculty within the uni.

Regarding the thesis part, I don't think every local uni honours grad completes one actually. But anyway, the value is not in the thesis per se and having people cite you a lot doesn't really value-add to your personal competency. Its the experience of going through the process that is valuable. Haha. It was a real awesome learning journey.

I see.. whilst I was in Aussie it seemed pretty popular amongst locals and other foreigners too. Haha. but maybe people just prefer brisbane and UQ happens to be there. lol.

Oops, diverted a bit much, but yeah so anyone knows the starting pay for DXO psychologist? Does the DXO scheme pay a bit more than the MXO scheme in general? or does it depend?

I've actually taken the time to read all pages of this thread, but I'm still slightly unclear over how the hiring process goes.

Can anyone confirm that it goes like this?

1. Psychometric Test

2. Panel Interview (There's a possibility that additional tests might need to be taken prior to it?)

3. Site Visit (There's a possibility that there might be a second face-to-face interview conducted then?)

4. Medical Review (You've more or less gotten the offer when you reach this stage?)

5. Signing of Contract

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Oh man.. lol 'holistically' again. That word. That's exactly what happens isn't it? Haha! Like someone says they are from Harvard and everyone goes gaga. I mean who cares what they study there right? Wrong. 'cause they don't have great programmes for every single subject they teach there. I believe that within any university the quality of programmes of the various faculties and schools can really differ. Haha. Would be logical to expect experts in the field to know better than to go by the overall clout of the school but oh wells, the hard reality. Perceptions are hard to change anyway.

Oops, diverted a bit much, but yeah so anyone knows the starting pay for DXO psychologist? Does the DXO scheme pay a bit more than the MXO scheme in general? or does it depend?

The quality of education depends on the course. But the course itself is NOT dependant on QS rankings. For example, SMU has great programmes across the board. But due to the nature of the university not having totally unrelated subjects like science and engineering, they are not ranked. Not even their undergraduate subjects are ranked and its all because the university is not a complete one per se.

I do agree with you that the university's overall ranking does not correlate to the strength of individual subjects. But again, your method of using the rankings to determine which school is better at which subject is unreliable. Especially so for individual subjects because those fluctuate the most.

DXO does pay a bit more than MXO scheme.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The quality of education depends on the course. But the course itself is NOT dependant on QS rankings. For example, SMU has great programmes across the board. But due to the nature of the university not having totally unrelated subjects like science and engineering, they are not ranked. Not even their undergraduate subjects are ranked and its all because the university is not a complete one per se.

I do agree with you that the university's overall ranking does not correlate to the strength of individual subjects. But again, your method of using the rankings to determine which school is better at which subject is unreliable. Especially so for individual subjects because those fluctuate the most.

DXO does pay a bit more than MXO scheme.

Hmm I know a MINDEF psychologist who is under the MX scheme rather than DXO. Any idea how they differentiate what scheme is offered?

Hi all! Firstly thanks for sharing selflessly in this forum. I learnt a lot just by reading the threads!

Anyway anyone knows how long it would take to know if i am shortlisted for an interview after the psychometric test for DXO position? I just did the psychometric test this week. Hope the wait is not too long!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi all! Firstly thanks for sharing selflessly in this forum. I learnt a lot just by reading the threads!

Anyway anyone knows how long it would take to know if i am shortlisted for an interview after the psychometric test for DXO position? I just did the psychometric test this week. Hope the wait is not too long!

apparently you learnt 'a lot' but not enough since the question you asked has been talked about many times in the thread.

if you failed the test, you'll hear from them, so no news is good news.

as for interview shortlisting, it really depends on when the HR and hiring managers and bosses of the relevant departments you applied for decide to meet you/are free to all come down to interview you together. Could be within 1-2 weeks...could be 1-2 months, really depends on how many candidates they decide to meet and their schedule, and numerous factors.

if you don't get contacted by them even after a long time, most likely scenario is that you made it past the psychometric test but you were not shortlisted by the department's HR for written test/interviews.

mindef hr is quite nice about replying to queries so if you really gun cheong and want to know your status you can always bug them via email/phone.

Hi! Anyone knows around what range a MINDEF psychologist under the dxo scheme earns? Fresh entry.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi! Anyone knows around what range a MINDEF psychologist under the dxo scheme earns? Fresh entry.

Depends on honours. I have a friend 2nd upper NS 3.4k.

I see. So for girls it would be a few hundreds lesser right? Thanks!

The wait for a post interview reply is awful.

I'm trying to be positive but I find myself finding faults in my interview performance and I'm being very hard on myself now.

Do they screen more candidates before replying you? Are they conducting background checks now? Are they contacting your listed referees? There are so many questions going through my mind right now. ):