I think HR is the best kept secret!

Most SMEs do not have a HR department. They usually rename the Admin department as HR in order to give a better image.

This cause a lot of problems as HR professionals are lumped together with administrators causing layman to think their pay is very low.

Is this still her 1st job? How can she hit 11.5k in just 8 years??

if she start out as an HR executive after getting her degree in ST engineering @ 2.8k starting, evening if she is a 'A' grader for 8 years + 4 promotion..

she maximum can get only getting = $6000+ after 8 years....

......:eek:

why is it so hard for you to believe? permanent secretaries in government make $1m in 15 years.

they are scholar ma!!!


the HR wife, is no scholar

HR job in civil service
 

Anyone wanna share their salary and appointment in HR within the civil service.

I am currently sleeping on an offer for HR officer with a stat board but a little worried about the progression.

Also, any idea if the HR experience in civil service is transferable to the private sector?

how much they offer you?

you female or male?

My wife is currently at her 2nd job since graduation in FMCG industry. STE is not a good benchmark because their attraction is slow & steady low risk company, so naturally their career progression is very slow compared to outside. Their differentiation is also very low as I understand even ‘A” performer only get around 6-8%.

For my wife promotion increment can be a lot as each promotion they automatically bump up the pay to at least the min salary range for that grade. She also picked up a big increase when she joined the current company as their payscales are higher.

Bean, I am a male with pass merit. Salary offered is 3370. Any comments?

I would say that this offer is very good , with a pass w merit degree @ 3370 starting!!!

me with 2nd lower with NS need to work 3 years (with 1 promotion) then hit $339x.....:(

Civil service must be careful, unless you are in PMO, most of the policies will come down to PMO and you will just be executing.

Stay for 1-2 years get some exp is OK, but once >3years it becomes very hard to transit to pte sector w/o pay cut because you will be drawing AM pay by then, but HR experience still stuck at entry level.

Now working as Global Mobility Analyst in a regional bank, 5,500 monthly + 200 hp allowance.

Although the pay is good I regret & want to get out soon cause expats are very demanding and much harder to manage than normal employees. =(

3 years generalist & 1 year mobility exp, can someone advise if it’s possible to get an entry HRBP role?

Pay wise is ok, but it depends on what is your actual work as generalist during the 3 years. You can try apply for BP positions supporting smaller businesses units that have <100 people.

My job will is more towards talent management and development so I was wondering if pvt sector would recognize experience in these areas considering I was from civil sector before?

Also, anyone been in HR in civil service more than 4-5 years? How has your experience been (ie: easy to climb up the grade MX12 to MX11)? Experience gained?

I was in civil service HR before and it really depends on what are your career aspirations long term wise. The way civil service HR works is very rigid in terms of governance and adherence to policy.

It does not matter if you are doing training, talent, C&B or generalist, the policies & directions will come down from PMO and your role is basically to execute & file necessary reports. Even my boss 3 levels up (a Senior Director Head of HR) had very limited flexibility to change what was given to her.

Pros:
1) Work life balance beside peak period
2) Higher starting salary
3) Not much problem solving needed, just execute and ensure compliance
4) Stable, for a non-scholar degree as long as you don’t screw up big time, should be able to retire as Dy Director at MX10 (current salary cap $10400)

Cons:
1) Hard to move to pte sector once you are inside for too long as pte sector HR requires more flexibility, innovation & problem solving experience
2) Salary progression will start to lag behind pte sector peers after 6+years
3) Ceiling is very low, average non-scholars stop at MX10, high performers stop at MX9. A lot of high performing pte HR can already reach MX9 equivalent by early to mid 30s
4) No possibility of regional / global experience, i.e. experience will be limited only to Singapore
5) Prepare to spend more time writing reports than doing HR

In short, a lot of it really depends on what you want out of your career. You want work life balance and relatively simple jobs with decent pay go for civil service. If you want to go for professional development and serious exposure, go private.

If you want to go back pte sector, make sure you do so within 3 years. Once you stay too long, a lateral transfer becomes very difficult without job demotion.

This actually sounds attractive.

I currently am in a high risk industry (investment bank). My wife is also in a high risk industry (broker). I have asked her to give up her career and look for a proper 8-5 job. Considering that she has a good class of honors, I have recommended her to choose a civil service career path. Good perks for childcare and maternity benefits. Stability and less stress. Although our household income will drop, I think this arrangement will be better in the long run.

Anyone who have gone through such a path, I'm interested to hear your comments.

agree from experience. Last year we hired a AD from MITA HR as a Assistant Manager looking after one of our branches, he resigned before confirmation & I was doing his exit interview.

The reason he give was there is too much salary negotiation when making offer and too many last minute changes from the training plan he was administering. I learn that when MITA making offer is a fix thing no need to negotiate and whatever is the training plan is set at the start of the year will be followed to the last dot.

He found the need to constantly manage expectation of candidates, line manager and dealing with all the daily questions from employees too troublesome. He told me in MITA is straight forward, top down instruction just follow, no room for people to keep negotiating and changing depending on business needs.

So it seems there is a lot of difference between civil service and commercial HR.

that's why I love to join civil service job, just follow the standard SOP...and smooth sailing all the way!!! No need change this change that....

Calm/slow/smooth river flow to describe civil service.
Private sector would be like the stormy pacific ocean.

Depend on individual, work definitely slacker and more brain dead. But personally I have no intention of limiting my career to just MX9 or 10 thats why I left shortly.

So far it has worked out better than expected for me.

1. Organizational Training Associate Director
2. 5 years corporate training consultancy & 5 years in house training development
3. 16.7k monthly basic
4. European medical devices company

Currently planning to set up my own L&D consultancy together with a few of my peers in the near future.

Sorry if I'm being a bit off-topic... To get into such HR jobs, I have to at least get a Degree in Business (HR Management)? What happens if I take banking and finance instead?

It's the first time I hear someone with a finance degree not wanting to get into finance.

No matter, most HR people did not study HR anyway.

For me I am still very junior, only graduate in 2010 and now doing a management trainee program for HR.

The good thing is my company actually tell me what is the exact job and pay level once I graduate when I joined the program. If all goes well I should be getting my Assistant Manager role with 4.6k in another 5 months.

Anyone out there in HR who join through management trainee programs?

Hmm, who said I'm from finance? That's why I included the "if", haha.

Not bad. How much was the starting pay?

After completing the program, are there any other advantages like priority for overseas posting, hi-po admission etc?

Recruitment Manager for Singapore & Malaysia in a local listed company now.

Basic pay is on low side 8k+ as the emphasis is on bonus which range from 3 – 6 months depending on individual performance.

With local university engineering degree
 

How hard to enter HR job with local university degree in engineering?
Just casual asking

Thinking of moving to HR
 

Hi all, just want to ask a quick question.

I am currently a Service Delivery Engineer in a hi-tech manufacturing company with close to 11 years of experience. Quite sick of the work and have indicated that I am considering opportunities in HR since I have been working with them closely for the past 2 years in an implementation project.

Since I get along well with the HR Director, he recently offered me an internal posting as HR Assistant Manager looking after the supply chain business. I am quite happy to accept but got a few concerns.

1) Downgrade in rank. Currently my rank is assistant director and the new role is assistant manager, although the pay is still much higher (from now 5.4k to 6.4k) I am worried that if after a few years HR does not work out this will look like a demotion in my CV

I requested for the same rank, but got rejected & answer is that for internal equity my experience and pay they can only give me AM rank.

2) What is the progression like for HR? Honestly there dont seem to be much in terms of salary and promotion potential. If I take up the job and after a few years I gain some experience doing HR, can't really see where else I can develop professionally and move on in career.

Any help & advise from HR people is appreciated.

Thanks.

Forget about all this rank stuff, most of it is just fake titles to motivate suckers who fall for the scam. Nobody will believe you are a Director in the first place if you are drawing only 5k+.

You logically, if he can offer you AM position in HR at 6k+, his pay as Director will be double or triple of that. Compare this to your current "Assistant Director" pay, you think it makes sense?

Your HR Director cannot say the truth in your face because of co. policy, so you need to read between lines.

There's still a lot room to move up, at only 6.4k and AM level, yours is just entry level HR, it is too early to worry about hitting career ceiling...

Thanks for the revert, I have committed to take up the role and will be starting in June.

May I ask what is the standard path for HR? Like what’s the progression and salary like for each stage? I am already 36 this year, most likely less than 10 years left to make the most of my career...

Where you go from here depends on which route you take. Generally the highest paid roles with be Compensation & Benefits / Rewards followed by Talent / Recruitment

The mid tier HR paths are the most common like Generalist, Business Partnering, Communication / Relations, HRIS

The lowest paid is Training & Development, HR Admin

Since you are joining as a generalist HR AM, if yours is a normal Fortune500 MNC then the typical progression will be

Local Junior Exec – 3 to 5k
Local Senior Exec – 4 to 6k
Local AM – 5 to 8k
Local Junior Manager / BP – 7 to 12k for smaller BU
Local Senior Manager / BP – 12 to 18k for bigger BU
Local Director / Regional Manager – 15 to 25k depending on BU
Regional Director – 25 to 40k depending on regional size
Group Head of HR – Above 35k depending on company size

HR Associate Director from a US pharma MNC, now @ $17k basic with 15 years experience, was forced to switch from engineering to HR during the asian financial crisis. Turns out to be a blessing in disguise :smiley:

Was it hard to switch from engineering to HR in terms of skills, culture, colleagues etc.?

Im thinking of getting a relevant degree to pursue HR.

Hello Everyone,

Would like some input.
Im really interested to pursue a career in HR and long term career goal is head towards Biz Partnering. Would want to work in financial institution (ie banks)...

Currently im in my penultimate year(Biz degree with SIM-UOL), during all my summer breaks i've taken up internship with a couple of banks in the area of HR and also did work part time during my sch term in similar capacity... all that will be about close to 15 months of working experience. my roles were mainly to manage HR initiatives like employee engagement programs, survey, assist in L&D activities and alot of admin work.

So here are my qns:
1) Would like to know does all these extra activities help in getting me a job in the future upon grad?
2) Also how much should i ask for as a start pay? (3k? 3.2k?)
3) How should work towards biz partnering positions?

Thanks in advance.

Is there any reason you are restricting yourself to HR in banks? It is well known that HR in banks are not well paid and have little power compared to other industries like O&G, FMCG, pharma…

Your experience will help a bit, but not much as such part time work tends to be assisting someone to do low level and admin work, so strictly speaking not really of much value.

As for starting pay it depends on company, most banks start off at around 3.2k, certain industries do not take in fresh grads unless it’s through management programs. If it’s O&G, FMCG or pharma I have seen offers at 3.4 – 3.8k.

I wouldn’t say HR in banks has no power, but agree that pay is only average.

I didnt stay long in HR in banks because of the strict regulations and governance. Everything has to follow strictly from head office and I ended up more like high class administrator than actually learning anything.

So would like to know where did you moved to?

Thanks alot for your reply.

I guess i didnt really saw that the HR in bank has no power.
Pay wise is it really lower than other sectors? Because from how i see it, its better than the rest by quite abit as well.
I just felt working in bank is the safest bet?

Ok i see, because i heard and experienced that all these internship would give your valuable working experience and you learn stuff like MS Office and really learn how to troubleshoot and solve problems. Basically give you an edge over other freshies... Is this true? Anyone has experience in this?

I see... Mind sharing which industry you are in?
If O&G, how did you managed your career path? If not what other field should go forward.

once again thanks alot!

Oh.. You are damn lucky... Fellow engineer here only drawing 4k plus after 15 years... Is engineering really the lowliest paid profession in S'pore????