HR-related Jobs - How much are you earning?

Originally Posted by SG_User

what are the skills needed if one wants to work in a HR job

what are the manners needed if one wants to ask a question.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi Gina, thanks for the reply.

With regards competitiveness, I remember back in University, when we were doing a group project, one group had its members reserve a recommended reference text one after another such that the book would only be available to others at the end of the module! I found that competitive and extremely distasteful. There was no need to resort to that kind of inconsiderate and selfish behaviour. Competition in that sense brings out the worst in people. It's not that I can't do the same, but I don't want to need to stoop to that level. With regards to relentless hard work, I have no issues with that. I am more concerned about fair play. I had a circle of friend where we studied together and worked hard together and we all did well. We supported one another and all did well in uni. If the roles for HR specialist requires people to resort to dirty tricks, I may not be a good candidate or I may feel worn out constantly defending against other people instead of trusting people (yes I'm quite trusting with people). Thus I asked if there is a specific personality type more inclined to work as a HR specialist.

I do have a 1st class and Dean's list from one of the 3 local Us, as you mentioned earlier. I didn't take a scholarship though.

It depends on what you mean by “dirty play”. If you mean is it can only succeed in the career ladder by defrauding people, then the answer is no. There is no need to commit fraud to succeed as a HR specialist.

But if you mean things like corporate politics, saying the right thing to the right people, building your patronage, playing stakeholders against one another, massaging presentations, then that goes without saying. This is after all a competitive field dealing with mostly senior managers, just hard work without knowing how to play the corporate game won’t get you far. As for relationship with peers & stakeholders there is always a subtle element of cooperation and antagonism that you need to carefully manage.

Once again, like I mention if you are not prepared to go all out, the administrative route is more suitable for you. By the way the PSD policy side is a hunting ground for future AOs, that is definitely not a place to be a “good” guy, you will get eaten up alive. Based solely on your self-description, a stat board or normal ministry career is probably more suitable for you.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Maybe it was not referring to dirty tactics, maybe she was referring to "legitimate" means to obtain whatever it is you need to obtain. In this day and age, people are fcuk in the brains. if you do not know how to play along, you will lose out and be eliminated.

The survivors are those who know how to play the game and yet know how to stay true to oneself, be honest and truthful. They only act this way to survive, and not a complete change in personality of beliefs or character.

Good summary of my sentiments!

Originally Posted by gina

It depends on what you mean by “dirty play”. If you mean is it can only succeed in the career ladder by defrauding people, then the answer is no. There is no need to commit fraud to succeed as a HR specialist.

But if you mean things like corporate politics, saying the right thing to the right people, building your patronage, playing stakeholders against one another, massaging presentations, then that goes without saying. This is after all a competitive field dealing with mostly senior managers, just hard work without knowing how to play the corporate game won’t get you far. As for relationship with peers & stakeholders there is always a subtle element of cooperation and antagonism that you need to carefully manage.

Once again, like I mention if you are not prepared to go all out, the administrative route is more suitable for you. By the way the PSD policy side is a hunting ground for future AOs, that is definitely not a place to be a “good” guy, you will get eaten up alive. Based solely on your self-description, a stat board or normal ministry career is probably more suitable for you.

Perhaps then PSD is not so suitable for me then. What is a "normal" ministry career?

My interest in PSD stems from the fact that the JD seems to indicate an interest in people, how people think and how to work with human systems. In my current role, I'm recognised as a patient trainer for newbies and an overall "nice" and popular guy. Which "normal" ministries would I be more suitable for? Just throwing this out since you seem to know a lot.

The other jobs could be pyschologist (but my deg is not in psy) or counselling. Counselling doesn't pay well (<$2K), and it is something I can consider only when I'm financially well-to-do.

Again, thanks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Perhaps then PSD is not so suitable for me then. What is a "normal" ministry career?

My interest in PSD stems from the fact that the JD seems to indicate an interest in people, how people think and how to work with human systems. In my current role, I'm recognised as a patient trainer for newbies and an overall "nice" and popular guy. Which "normal" ministries would I be more suitable for? Just throwing this out since you seem to know a lot.

The other jobs could be pyschologist (but my deg is not in psy) or counselling. Counselling doesn't pay well (<$2K), and it is something I can consider only when I'm financially well-to-do.

Again, thanks.

In civil service, there is the policy side (<5%) dominated by scholars and the operations side (remaining 95%) mostly of farmers . Most PSD jobs are policy side, which means most of your peers are there to cheong, make it to AO and if lucky go on to perm sec or MOS. In terms of work hours and corporate culture policy side is very different from the normal slow pace and relax ministry environment. Being a nice guy mr popular or patient trainer wont get you anywhere.

Most of the jobs advertised on careers@gov by ministries and stat boards belong to the operations side. The work demands, politics needed and pace of life is much slower and relax. There is still a bit of politics here & there mainly taichi work and cover backside, but nothing too dangerous as people there know that as farmers their ceiling is fixed no matter what they do. Most HR roles here are administrative generalist in nature (ignore the fancy titles) and consist of mostly implementing HR policies from the top, ensure compliance to process and file necessary reports – not sexy stuff but keep your head low and don't get into trouble should be able to retire as a Dy Director (8-10k salary, equal to roughly junior manager in a MNC).

Ok, thanks a lot for the info!

Originally Posted by gina

In civil service, there is the policy side (<5%) dominated by scholars and the operations side (remaining 95%) mostly of farmers . Most PSD jobs are policy side, which means most of your peers are there to cheong, make it to AO and if lucky go on to perm sec or MOS. In terms of work hours and corporate culture policy side is very different from the normal slow pace and relax ministry environment. Being a nice guy mr popular or patient trainer wont get you anywhere.

Most of the jobs advertised on careers@gov by ministries and stat boards belong to the operations side. The work demands, politics needed and pace of life is much slower and relax. There is still a bit of politics here & there mainly taichi work and cover backside, but nothing too dangerous as people there know that as farmers their ceiling is fixed no matter what they do. Most HR roles here are administrative generalist in nature (ignore the fancy titles) and consist of mostly implementing HR policies from the top, ensure compliance to process and file necessary reports – not sexy stuff but keep your head low and don't get into trouble should be able to retire as a Dy Director (8-10k salary, equal to roughly junior manager in a MNC).

among all the mostly trashy posts, we see gems like the above once in a while. great sharing and pretty accurate numbers i would say.

if you need to go thru the job application process to get into the public sector agencies (include civil service), you are 99% a farmer. scholars don't get in thru this route.

Hi all, I just read through this long thread and understand that HR is better to join the specialist side as pay & prospect much higher than generalist.

Can anyone give some pay number roughly after 10 years of experience, a average person ins his mid 30s what is the pay difference between a generalist and specialist?

Thanks

My sis is drawing 3.4k doing HR in a foreign bank...

This is only her 2nd job... with 1+ years experience

Hard to compare averages because for people who are in specialist jobs are already considered cream of the crop high potential. So a specialist average is more like super high performer generalist.

Roughly 10 years exp generalist should be a HR Ops Senior Manager drawing 6k+. 10 years exp specialist will be something like a HRBP/C&B/Talent/OD/HRIS Lead drawing 14k+

Originally Posted by SCI

Hi all, I just read through this long thread and understand that HR is better to join the specialist side as pay & prospect much higher than generalist.

Can anyone give some pay number roughly after 10 years of experience, a average person ins his mid 30s what is the pay difference between a generalist and specialist?

Thanks