about career progression

[lmaohaha]

hi all, im a fresh grad and ready to apply jobs soon in the coming weeks. however, im quite concerned wif career progression. initially i was interested in being a moe school administrator, but was q surprised to hear frm some comments here abt it being a job wif no prospects. thus, my qn is how do i know if a certain career allows ample room for progression. becoz honestly speaking, its rly hard to know judging from the job description. unless u know ppl in that profession who can give u valuable advice. and obviously, we can ask the interviewers during interview, but i doubt they will be honest and upfront abt it? nid advice, thks.

You are doing the right thing by asking around. Besides discussion forums such as this one, you can also ask your relatives, friends, seniors, profs, and your school career counsellors. Anyone who is older than you will probably know a bit more than you about the various kinds of jobs out there.

I guess you can start by defining what you meant by progression. Is it more money? Is it to shape the future? Blah blah blah.

[wern]

its absolutely true that the Admin Manager position in MOE/schools is a dead-end road.

You dont have to think much actually. Who has to make way/(touch wood) die in order for you to progress? The principal (not possible because you must be a teacher beforehand)? the only available progression beyond AM is Vice-Principal (admin) only. and the VP thing is a fairly new post, which tends to be handed out to retiring army/police officers. My jc VP(admin) used to be a mindef colonel dealing with commonwealth relations. He wasn't even an AM beforehand. He was parachuted straight into the post.

Unless you're a super star performer, AM is literally a death sentence for your career. My secondary school AM was promoted to VP recently, but she's been there for bloody ages. Almost 10 years by now. You want to wait 10 years for your (one and only) promotion, which isn't guaranteed btw?

[lmaohaha]

Originally Posted by wern

its absolutely true that the Admin Manager position in MOE/schools is a dead-end road.

You dont have to think much actually. Who has to make way/(touch wood) die in order for you to progress? The principal (not possible because you must be a teacher beforehand)? the only available progression beyond AM is Vice-Principal (admin) only. and the VP thing is a fairly new post, which tends to be handed out to retiring army/police officers. My jc VP(admin) used to be a mindef colonel dealing with commonwealth relations. He wasn't even an AM beforehand. He was parachuted straight into the post.

Unless you're a super star performer, AM is literally a death sentence for your career. My secondary school AM was promoted to VP recently, but she's been there for bloody ages. Almost 10 years by now. You want to wait 10 years for your (one and only) promotion, which isn't guaranteed btw?

ok. i define progression primarily by salary increments. in terms of taking on bigger roles n responsiblities (promotion), i guess thats of secondary importance. though i understand they often go hand in hand. and thks for this piece of valuable info.and this is precisely why it is so hard to choose a job that allows one to scale the coporate ladder (big salary increments) coz as fresh grads, i have no idea what to expect in the long-term and most likely, will choose my first job based on a higher starting pay. the job descriptions merely describe one's duties and does not mention the kind of potential progression one can make in his career.if not for such advice, i would have pursued a career as moe AM (coz title looks quite promising), and that probably is commiting career suicide. but i have a few qns here.nid some guidance.

1)with regards to school AM, it seems like title/role progression is limited. but what about salary increments? will it be possible for one to be an above average performer, make big salary increments (progress in the mx scheme), but still stay as a AM (same role/duties) 10years later?


2)is there any way to tell based on a certain job title/job responsibilities and duties, that one can str8away determine if its a dead-end job or one that is filled with prospects/potential big salary increments?


3)whats the best way to determine where a job is going to take u to 10-20years later?i figured out asking the interviewers such questions will be possible but there might lie a possibility that they may not be honest?

[wern]

If you're looking to 'chase the corporate ladder', clearly you're barking up the wrong tree in the first place. Admin? really? I would rather you join the civil service or be a teacher because these have clearly set out KPI milestones for you to gauge yourself and work towards.

Lastly if you go back to your jc/secondary school general office, I can bet with that those AMs and aunties that you saw during your school days are still there. The VP might change but as i pointed out to you early, I suspect that the new VP role is a 'whitehorse' role to parachute in former highfliers.

Originally Posted by lmaohaha

ok. i define progression primarily by salary increments. in terms of taking on bigger roles n responsiblities (promotion), i guess thats of secondary importance. though i understand they often go hand in hand. and thks for this piece of valuable info.and this is precisely why it is so hard to choose a job that allows one to scale the coporate ladder (big salary increments) coz as fresh grads, i have no idea what to expect in the long-term and most likely, will choose my first job based on a higher starting pay. the job descriptions merely describe one's duties and does not mention the kind of potential progression one can make in his career.if not for such advice, i would have pursued a career as moe AM (coz title looks quite promising), and that probably is commiting career suicide. but i have a few qns here.nid some guidance.

What is your expectation of progression?

20k salary in 10 years? 5k salary in 10 years? You need to have some basic expectation when asking this kind of question.

If you only have some super vague idea that you want "good" salary progression, how to decide what job to take?