Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really appreciate your kind sharing of your experience in HQ. Definitely shed some light on some of the queries I had. Possible to share with me, is it an overall positive experience for you? Do you enjoyed what you are doing in HQ as compared to what you did in school? After your HQ stint, do you feel that you value add to your current school in terms of the experience and insights you have gained in HQ? Do you feel handicapped in your teaching in your current school as some of the HQ division work may not not be directly related to IP area.

No worries at all. My personal advice to you see to stay put as a SH in school.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really appreciate your kind sharing of your experience in HQ. Definitely shed some light on some of the queries I had. Possible to share with me, is it an overall positive experience for you? Do you enjoyed what you are doing in HQ as compared to what you did in school? After your HQ stint, do you feel that you value add to your current school in terms of the experience and insights you have gained in HQ? Do you feel handicapped in your teaching in your current school as some of the HQ division work may not not be directly related to IP area.

Hi, I'm a current HQ officer in one of the professional wing divisions. What someone else said about curriculum divisions being more hierarchical and things moving slower is to some extent true. After all, curricular design and review is a continuous and cyclical process so you wouldn't expect massive and sudden jolts to the system happening frequently.

On the other hand, policy wing divisions and branches tend to be flatter in hierarchy and are perceived to be more fast-paced - but this all depends on the exact nature of your work.

As an SH, you would be a regular staff officer at HQ, so you would have to do the same kind of work as the GEO staff officers. I think it's drfinitely good to try a stint at HQ if the opportunity is available because it really gives you a greater sense of perspective of how everything in MOE works and why certain things are done the way they are. These are perspectives which may not be as easy to come by if you stay at the school level which is a very localised educational context.

If you are serious about HQ, a good trait to have is proactiveness. Don't just wait for your bosses to tell you what to do. That is one way to waste your stint getting by on bare minimum. Instead of asking "what do i do?", think about it first, prepare a concept and propose it, asking "what do you think?" I feel that kind of mindset has helped me grow a lot in HQ.

So for a start, instead of asking "what is life in HQ like?"... go to the MOE website, look at the organisational structure, read up on all the various divisions and branches, pick out 3 or 4 which look most appealing to you, then come back here and ask specific qns abt those specific places

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That would be a very ineffective system. Ez to just parachute well-liked but incapable officers straight to SEO1 just by means of appointing SH/LH. And if untested SEO1s cannot perform to expectations, you propose penalising them with bad performance grades? It'll create a new problem of a group incapable officers stuck at SEO1s. Starving off the opportunity of appointment/promotion for capable GEO5s. These young "capable" SH/LHs over-estimate how good they really are.

Bad performance grades, and make them step down or demote them back to GEO.

That's the way it is in the private sector.

You apply for a managerial role in another company. If you are not up to task, will be shown the door. Why keep them for so long?

Iron rice bowl just means not easy to fire someone. Nothing about demoting someone

There are plenty of people who switch between individual contributor roles and manager roles. Life is not linear, so is one's career.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My POV as someone previously drawing responsibility allowance - it's not that bad; my time as a GEO4/5 KP allowed me to clock A/B pretty easily. It's harder now as a SEO1.

I've not really done the sums (so do could correct me if I'm wrong), but given the overlapping salary scales, the additional 1-2 months' PB could quite easily offset the 'lost income' from a direction promotion to SEO1, unless perhaps you are already at the ceiling of your GEO scale, or your performance would have also scored you A/B as a SEO1. I suspect for the majority of young KPs, the hypothetical financial loss isn't actually that big.

Pb is once off.

Salary is forever.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Pb is once off.

Salary is forever.

yup, perf grade fluctuates. Not every panel is going to guarantee your A/B grade every year as a GEO4/5 KP. Some will 'spread the wealth over the years'. PB, just like the mid year and year end variable payments, fluctuate. You can't do financial planning based on that even though your total comp in a 'good' year may be stupid high.

At SEO1, it is not terribly difficult to hit C grade every year if you are responsible and meticulous, and know how to work smart. Forget the As and Bs, your base salary is already higher. The As and Bs come unexpectedly and should just be treated as occasional nice surprises.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Bad performance grades, and make them step down or demote them back to GEO.

That's the way it is in the private sector.

You apply for a managerial role in another company. If you are not up to task, will be shown the door. Why keep them for so long?

Iron rice bowl just means not easy to fire someone. Nothing about demoting someone

There are plenty of people who switch between individual contributor roles and manager roles. Life is not linear, so is one's career.

With such a system, no one will dare to promote people to SEO1. Speaks poorly of SSC if someone has to be demoted back. Cluster Sup confirm question.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Bad performance grades, and make them step down or demote them back to GEO.

That's the way it is in the private sector.

You apply for a managerial role in another company. If you are not up to task, will be shown the door. Why keep them for so long?

Iron rice bowl just means not easy to fire someone. Nothing about demoting someone

There are plenty of people who switch between individual contributor roles and manager roles. Life is not linear, so is one's career.

Lol u really think that private sector is like that ahh. Did u miss news's about how there were Facebook employees who were recently laid off but had been doing literally nothing for years? The private sector is worse in terms of getting fat with middle managers who add little value as long.

If the public sector had something like that, society would make a big fuss about wasting public funds.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really appreciate your kind sharing of your experience in HQ. Definitely shed some light on some of the queries I had. Possible to share with me, is it an overall positive experience for you? Do you enjoyed what you are doing in HQ as compared to what you did in school? After your HQ stint, do you feel that you value add to your current school in terms of the experience and insights you have gained in HQ? Do you feel handicapped in your teaching in your current school as some of the HQ division work may not not be directly related to IP area.

Skillset-wise, having a big-picture view and ability to do systemic long-term planning would probably be what HQ stints are most likely to develop. That's probably why postings in divisions such as Higher Ed are considered good development opportunities, despite having little relevance to general education.

If you're concerned about school-relevant skills, looking for opportunities within divisions such as SDCD and CPDD could help deepen your subject knowledge.

I am a GEO5 here, male, working for over 6 years since NIE, currently drawing around 7.4k base. Life is good. Can retire.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really appreciate your kind sharing of your experience in HQ. Definitely shed some light on some of the queries I had. Possible to share with me, is it an overall positive experience for you? Do you enjoyed what you are doing in HQ as compared to what you did in school? After your HQ stint, do you feel that you value add to your current school in terms of the experience and insights you have gained in HQ? Do you feel handicapped in your teaching in your current school as some of the HQ division work may not not be directly related to IP area.

Yup, overall it was a positive experience, as it was a good 3-year break from teaching. I don't wanna reveal my division, but what I did at HQ was pretty different from school stuff. Despite this, I don't feel handicapped as a classroom teacher per se, because as a SH now, I'm judged by my sch-wide and lvl-wide impact. I think I brought value to my current sch in terms of my critical thinking and communication with various depts as well as SLs. Not to diss KPs who rose up through sch, but they tend to be more skillful in action management rather than visioning, aligning and communication - core skills that I picked up at HQ. I'm also lucky cos my SLs value my experiences and skills as an ex-HQ officer.

If you're a SH now, you can easily be a HOD after your HQ stint (if career progression is what you value).