Poly pay scales
 

Hi all,

I am confused.. I have a masters degree in engineering from Europe (a well reputed uni) and I joined a poly as a project engineer.. my starting pay was $2900/month (according to my contract, I am not eligible for any bonus..so the number you see is all I get).. I was told that this is a very normal starting salary for someone with my educational background and work experience (I had one year work experience in the form of internships before joining this current job)...
So I did not hesitate before joining partially due to the fact that I was hounded to join the job as the employer wasn't able to find suitable people in Singapore to fill the vacancy (it is a very specialized job and now I understand why nobody was joining the job- the pay is insanely low for the kind of job it is).

I did not think twice because European companies provide almost the same salary..But I totally missed the fact that European companies compensate this low salary with generous bonuses..

When I started working, I realized that I was grossly underpaid for the educational qualification I had... I confronted my superior about the pay and he said something which totally threw me off the cliff. According to him (or rather, in his words "the HR team which controls your pay"), this salary is what I deserve according to my qualification and work experience and to demand more is not appropriate and the reason I am getting agitated is cos am too young to understand the way salaries work!!!!!!! He promised that he would consider my request and recommend the HR team about a good increment in the next pay revision.. And they have sent me a new pay revision with a comment that my new salary would be "current + one increment" ...

So my questions now are:

1) What does "current + one increment" mean? There are no numbers attached to "one increment"? I asked this to my superior and to the HR team and neither of them give me a number.. They answer like presidential candidates, making you want to jump off the cliff.

2) Am I settling for peanuts in the name of salary?

3) What happens when you leave a job in between your contract period? My job contract says I can leave the job with a one month notice. Is it just on paper or that's how it works or will I get into any trouble if I leave the job in the middle of a contract?


Sorry for the long post and would really be glad if someone answered my query!! Thank you!!

First of all, a masters without working experience is really counterproductive.

Secondly, are you a female without NS?

Thirdly
1) This is just an annual increment. Polytechnics are statuary boards and you should know that they have a salary guideline to follow.

2) Depends. You can try to find a better offer elsewhere.

3) Read your contract carefully to see if there are any penalties if you leave before the contract ends. Otherwise, just ask your HR.

Thanks for the reply..

Why is a masters without work exp counterproductive? I had one year work exp before joining this job and now I have a total of 2.5 years of work exp. Yes, I do not have NS.

Do you know or have an idea of how much one increment is equivalent to?

Thanks again!

wow you reply fast too.

Normally, mid career people take up masters for several reasons:
1) change of industry
2) promotion requires masters
3) improve professional proficiency

However, if you take masters right after your Bach in hope of landing a higher paying job then you are going to have a bad time. Masters without exp will deem you overqualified for most jobs.

You stated that you have 1 year of exp, which is in the form of an internship.
Question is, is that counted as 1 year of exp in the public service?

Annual increment in the public service varies from agency to agency.
A rough guide from the civil service is:
200-300 per year for relevant exp.
halve of that for non-relevant exp.

haha, the emails pop up when there is a reply, and I itch to reply when someone responds to my query :D I took up masters cos I liked what I was studying!! and the 1 year work exp was indeed considered as relevant work exp in the public service. It was relevant experience with respect to my education and the current job I am in. Hmm.. So I should be expecting a 200-300 hike in this new scale.. That is not very encouraging.. All my friends from my batch who stopped with a bachelors from NUS and went on to work are earning at least $1k more than me and they make fun of me for doing a masters and yet earning considerably lower than them :(

But thanks a lot for your reply!!

yes thats why I would recommend taking masters after spending at least 5 years in the industry.

At the end of the day, stat board dun negotiate with workers. What they offer you want you accept, dun want just resign if no need to pay back.

As for Masters agree with the guy above, I doubt you will get anything different even if go pte sector. Companies usually totally write off a masters without work experience. If you have honors, suggest you delete the Masters and just leave it as Bachelor Honors as this will help you more in the job.

pretant, how many years have you studied in your European uni in total? Due to differences in education systems, an European Masters could be well treated as an local degree with honours. I know lots of people with a 4 year BSc + MSc. An internship (even a 1 year one) is not really even considered to be working experience.

Hence all in all, you are to be considered as a fresh NUS grad with honours and given the 2.9k pay, i say that is pretty average considering a bad market now for jobseekers. Your other NUS friends would already have longer working experience than you and have been promoted or working in an Oil/Finance/Ministry industry.

You could expect your increment to be about $100 i guess.

Thanks people. my degree was a 4 year Bachelors (hons) and a 2 year M.Sc apart from a one year internship..

You should just leave your education as Bachelors (hons) in the cv since your M.Sc is not supported by work experience. It will just create impression that you are some ivory towel academic and look bad to pte employers.

I see!!! I never thought about this...Let me try tweaking my CV then :( Thanks guest!

You cannot do that! That will be lying. You may be able to do that on your cv, but when you complete the job application, you will have to report all your educational qualifications... And you will have to sign and verify whatever you submit is true. Omission of information can be viewed as misrepresenting yourself.

It's too late for you to 'doctor' your CV... The fact is you have now accumulated experience at the poly albeit on a low pay... You'll still be disadvantage by your low pay unless you have skills and credentials which no other candidate has. By the way, omitting your master's degree from your cv is equivalent to lying. If you are ever found out, you'll be fired. And word will spread, that'll jeopardize your other job opportunities. Best to sell your capabilities. Do your research on your job market and move on if you are really not happy with the present.

Man..Now in short I have spoilt everything by accepting this job. Did my employer/boss really not think about what they were getting me into or did they do this willingly? Anyways, I think it is too late to regret about this. I might as well start working on a different career path way. May be do a second masters in finance or management which seems to be more lucrative :(

employers are always trying to get the best for money employee to do the job.
you cant blame them on trying to lowball you.
neither do they have to plan for your future career path.

i can assure you that with a second masters in finance/mgt it will be equally, if not even harder for you to gain employment.
who would want to pay so highly for someone with 2masters & 1bach for a entry position?

Move on, don't look back and lament about the past. More studying would not be my recommended path. Gaining more work experience should be your top priority.

I am only going for my master's now after 11 years of working and only because company is willing to subsidize the course. In all these years, I have not felt disadvantaged because I did not have a master's.

Remember, don't think that paper qualifications entitle you to a higher salary.

Seriously? I think this is ridiculous! You did not do any research at all about your career, accepted a job offer and then blame your employer for offering you a job. You are behaving like a petuant kid. It is not as if 2.9k is THAT low.

I truly question your capability and attitude. It seems like you are evaluating your job purely based on pay AFTER THE FACT. That does not sound like what a Masters or even Bachelors would do. The only possible explaination is that no one had even heard of your university (despite your claim) and offer you a pay as any distant learning graduate.

This is complete misleading. No employer is going to fire you for omitting a Masters and presenting only your honors in a CV. The other way round cannot, but downgrading is such a common thing nowadays.

You need to start figuring out how to play the office politics game and stop buying useless degrees and masters. Seriously you think only you the only one know how to buy qualifications??? The entire market is flying with Indians and PRCs with PhDs and Masters.

A NUS/NTU honours in Finance will best your masters purchased from some pte uni hands down...

NOT misleading at all. A lie is a lie. The employer reserves the right to take disciplinary action on you. To say "No employer is going to fire you for omitting a Masters ...", now that's misleading.

Rubbish. Employer reserve the right to fire you even if you use office phone to call your wife and steal a paper clip for personal use, but that doesn't mean they will. We are talking about practical possibilities here, not some esoteric legal definition for an academic case study.

There are so many people downgrading themselves due to over qualification or exaggerating their previous experience slightly, going by this kind of anal definition "lie is a lie" maybe 90% workforce will kena fired for "lying" on CV. We are trying to help TS facing real job seeking challenges with his over qualification and you trying to argue over some super remote legal definition of "lie" here.

So if I have a CPA qualification and choose not to state in my CV or job application, is my employer going to fire me because "a lie is a lie"? Get real please.