Originally Posted by Unregistered
(Post 103763)
Adding on to my previous response, let me also put out some simple advice seeing as many people on these forums really deserve some clarification (and I think these clarifications should have been made clear to everyone before they even started picking their studies, but alas).
Yes, the Civil/Public Service and their associated SBs will all gauge you on your academics. Much more so compared to the Private Sector. Yes, coming in with just a pass degree and no honours, or 3rd class honours, or just a diploma, will result in you being offered lower salaries. No, you should not feel slighted by it.
Think of it as risk management. We offer higher salaries to well-performing graduates from prestigious universities because we know those universities have extremely tough curriculums. This means the product of those universities, if they scored well, have a low risk of being poor performers. When we hire you on we take a risk that you'll be a good performer, and if you're not a good performer, labour laws compel us to let you go but at cost to ourselves - a cost based off your wage.
Hence, we will always look for the lowest risk option. So, if you are a medium to high risk asset, having graduated from a university of middling standing with middling grades, we don't know that you're going to perform well. If we need to let you go, if we gave you a high wage, we'd incur a big loss for little gain (in terms of your work done). Therefore, we offer lesser salaries so the risk is mitigated. This is universal SOP for HR.
Now many people come in with the mindset of "Ah, I'm seen as lower-class, so I will do lower-class work in exchange for my lower-class salary". Many of these people do not talk to me (in HR) to address concerns, never give me a chance to help them, and eventually quit after accruing experience or their performance goes down drastically and we are forced to let them go. HR does not want to do this you; we aren't your enemy. YOU are doing this to yourself, and you are your own worst enemy in this scenario. These people even make it worse for future generations, stacking on to the subpar reputation of not-as-prestigious universities and graduates.
Then, you have people who come in and defy the convention.
I'll give you a real life example. A 3rd class graduate from SIM comes in, with a starting salary of 1.8k (low even for those academic qualifications, but he joined at a rough year) and proceeds to work his ass off. He was humble, hardworking, on the ball, and didn't let his salary bother him. In fact, he outpaced many of the NUS graduates who came in with him at the same position but higher salaries. He confided me in several times in the beginning, voicing his unease about whether he was wasting his time. To this, I went to the supervisor, and told him of the guy's great performance, and recommended he was groomed and kept in our company, only for the supervisor to dismiss me - saying he already planned on that within the first 6 months of seeing the man perform.
Fast forward 5 years later, he is now a Manager, on track to Senior Manager, in a place where even NUS graduates of the highest calibre have quit or fallen behind him. He still has those same qualifications that people once mocked him for, but hangs the plaque proudly up on his office wall.
So, yes. Your academics will be factored in, in the beginning. You will feel undermined. But if you shake off those shackles and march forward, and fight your way out, you will be rewarded. Academics stop mattering as soon as you're in your first real job, it's only a stepping stone. Let yourself be chained down by it your whole life, and you have only yourself to blame.
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