where to get the best job?
 

Hi.

Im graduating with first class honours in mechanical engineering with a few internships(with mncs and gov) and overseas exchange experience under my belt. I have been active in student activities in school and held leadership positions.

What can i expect from the job market?

what is the highest pay i can ask for?

Where can i get the best pay with the best job prospect?

sign on SAF officer, fresh grad CPT 1st class getting = $5090 starting

NUS and NTU both bragged about their students starting with 20k salaries one or 2 years ago. You should aim higher.

Goal
 

What do you want to achieve in your life? You do have a goal, don't you?

Setting goals is overrated. Adam Khoo set a goal, probably in hindsight, that he would be a millionaire by age 26, which he claimed he achieved. It seems totally arbitrary to me. Why not 27, 28 or 36?

What good does it make if you set a goal of let's say becoming a CEO of an SGX-listed company? And when you can't achieve it, what do you do?

Setting simple goals like trying to finish lunch punctually today is easily achievable but totally useless. Setting stretch targets like the one I mentioned above is equally useless if not demoralizing as well.

So what does one do? Set "realistic" goals? What are some examples?

For a first class honors graduate your questions are just plain naive. Think through and post a better set of questions

my passion is green energy. but working in the green business earns peanuts in singapore and i dont want to work in banks as i think they are highly inethical. I have to balance between passion and practibility. Where can i command the best pay with the good career prospect?

my intention is to get into a mnc, climb up the corporate ladder until i have steady financial backing and authority, before moving on to the green business to do my part.

To be honest, despite being a First Class Honours student there are still clear grammatical errors in the quote above.
"inethical" doesn't exist. "unethical" is the right term
"practibility" ?!... u meant to write "practicality"?

Also, as someone had already mentioned above, I had to agree that your questions showed that you lack 'depth' in your thought process.

Instead of demanding for "Where can i command the best pay with the good career prospect" (again, the use of "the" in this sentence is grammatically redundant), you should be considering 2 things:
what can you give & contribute to your employer?
what can you learn from the job and what the company can give you in return?

The more you can contribute to the firm, and the more skills you acquire and excel while performing your tasks for the benefits of the firm, the more value you generate as an employee.

come'on 1st class honours may not necessary be good in english man!!!

I have friends from JC, their 'A' level grades is AAAA or AAA with GP D7 or E8, they still get into NUS/NTU doing engineering and still getting 1st class honours!!!

So it doesnt really matter, dude!!!

Just listen to Lim Swee Sway when he talks.

Or Lui Tuck Yew.

I'm the dude at 01:52 PM

You are absolutely right. First Class Honours may no necessarily be good at English. However, to climb up career ladder, ability to not only communicate but also to articulate well will get you far...

Just my 2 cents.

PS: First Class Honours Students are "an intersection" of Top Class Employees in Set Theory Universe...

The current job market is still pretty good. With 1st class honours, you will have good chance of getting shortlisted for most jobs (open to fresh graduates) that you applied for unless it requires a specific discipline.

For your first job, you need to consider one which provides you with the prospect, not go for the highest pay you can ask for.

Your third question is quite juvenile. It's akin to a teenager asking parents what should he be when he grow up? There is no such thing as the best pay with the best job prospect. There is always a tradeoff between risk and reward.

Dear TS,

your idea of climbing up the coporate ladder in a mnc is rather general.

a mnc can belong to any sector.

As mechanical engineer, you can go into oil and gas or aviation.

Oil and gas is safe and steady. Pay is not too bad. Company is usually safe and steady. A recession proof industry.

Aviation is up and coming. If you specialise in this field, there will be endless opportunities in future.

I don't know about you but I will plan with what I will do and where I will be in 5 years.

I have thought of working in the oil and gas industry but the prospect in these companies are not that good though they pay really well

Firstly there are plenty of first class graduates being recruited. Opportunity to climb will be restricted.
Secondly, these companies are super duper rich and they hire graduates to do jobs that are not usually associated with graduates. Like supervisor in a manufacturing line is considered a promotion after a few years working in the company. Resulting in not relevant job experience and hence less job hopping opportunities.

1st. blesseen
 

come on lah, give the TS a break. Why are there always so many people in this forum who like to correct other peoples english? Or are these comments all from the same person? That alone will not determine how well he will perform in his future job.

The problem with TS is he comes up with all these loafty goals wanting the best in everything, but yet he himself is unable to articulate what he has to offer.

All he has done so far is to announce that he's got a first class honours in a local university and demonstrated poor written English. If you want the best in life, you should be prepared to offer the best.

wah piangz, do you guys even articulate in queen's english in office. sure a not arh

you are spot on on this. i have a first as well and have worked in an O&G company. i left and move to other mncs. now i am a regional vp while my peer who stayed on is a senior project manager. maybe he is paid more than me, i am not sure. but i have the exposure to the regional and travel 50% of my time. i have a big team reporting into me and am responsible for p/l. i am not sure if i will get the same exposure had i stayed on.

Did you get a pay cut when you move away from O&G company?