Fresh graduate seeking advice (Pte vs Civil Service)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi. People have different expectations and I dun see anything wrong with wanting work life balance. The logic of working till 8pm and coming back to work on weekends is absurd. I would say once awhile having to OT until 8pm is reasonable, but if it happens to often then the company is simply understaffed. There is nothing wrong with wanting work life balance and most employees would be able to complete decent amount of work within their regular working hours. It is just that many companies are abusing employees and demand more than what is required. I salute your exceptional loyalty towards the company you are working for and your willingness to devote your entire life to the well-being of the company, but I'm hoping that you won't regret the day you shut your eyes and the only thing you could remember is your company and nothing else. When retrenchment comes, lets see how much you loyalty is worth then.

dude you are living in lala land. working until 8pm is not OT, it is expected. many people are clocking until midnight, it ain't about loyalty to company, the reality is if you dont do you will be replaced with someone willing to.

why do you think so many PMET are working so hard? you think you the only one to know the importance of work life balance and the rest are all idiots who work long hours because they love the company? try going to any pte company say that you expect to go home on time everyday and only work till 8pm "once awhile" and see how many jobs you will get.

fact is those who want to go home on time best is join civil service, but bad thing is you need to give up the hope of every striking rich. those who want a shot at making it big must take the risk and hope they are the lucky few who make it in the end.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

dude you are living in lala land. working until 8pm is not OT, it is expected. many people are clocking until midnight, it ain't about loyalty to company, the reality is if you dont do you will be replaced with someone willing to.

why do you think so many PMET are working so hard? you think you the only one to know the importance of work life balance and the rest are all idiots who work long hours because they love the company? try going to any pte company say that you expect to go home on time everyday and only work till 8pm "once awhile" and see how many jobs you will get.

fact is those who want to go home on time best is join civil service, but bad thing is you need to give up the hope of every striking rich. those who want a shot at making it big must take the risk and hope they are the lucky few who make it in the end.

what is the cause of all these?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

dude you are living in lala land. working until 8pm is not OT, it is expected. many people are clocking until midnight, it ain't about loyalty to company, the reality is if you dont do you will be replaced with someone willing to.

why do you think so many PMET are working so hard? you think you the only one to know the importance of work life balance and the rest are all idiots who work long hours because they love the company? try going to any pte company say that you expect to go home on time everyday and only work till 8pm "once awhile" and see how many jobs you will get.

fact is those who want to go home on time best is join civil service, but bad thing is you need to give up the hope of every striking rich. those who want a shot at making it big must take the risk and hope they are the lucky few who make it in the end.

lol...Then pls continue to work until 8pm and weekends as well. Hopefully the company you are working for will recognize your effort and reward you with higher than average increment and generous bonuses. Imo, that is not gonna happen and your boss will simply be laughing on his way home looking at how employees like you will lessen his workload.

It is not about the time you are spending in the company but the quality of the work you are producing. It is not about working hard but working smart. The last to leave the company for work is usually the first to be go when retrenchment strikes. Till then we shall see who will be the one crying over his/her precious time spent working for the company but not valued.

There are so many ppl around me working regular hours and earning good money in the pte sector. It is all about looking and entering the right companies that value work life balance. Ppl like you can continue letting your company exploit you as much as they like and pay you midget amount since they know you have the such mentality of being afraid to be replaced by others. Lousy companies will take advantage of weak-minded ppl that are so afraid of being replaced..

It is all about understanding your worth and what you can bring to the company and being at the peak of your efficiency during working hours. Let's not debate anymore, it is your choice and I have mine.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

lol...Then pls continue to work until 8pm and weekends as well. Hopefully the company you are working for will recognize your effort and reward you with higher than average increment and generous bonuses. Imo, that is not gonna happen and your boss will simply be laughing on his way home looking at how employees like you will lessen his workload.

It is not about the time you are spending in the company but the quality of the work you are producing. It is not about working hard but working smart. The last to leave the company for work is usually the first to be go when retrenchment strikes. Till then we shall see who will be the one crying over his/her precious time spent working for the company but not valued.

There are so many ppl around me working regular hours and earning good money in the pte sector. It is all about looking and entering the right companies that value work life balance. Ppl like you can continue letting your company exploit you as much as they like and pay you midget amount since they know you have the such mentality of being afraid to be replaced by others. Lousy companies will take advantage of weak-minded ppl that are so afraid of being replaced..

It is all about understanding your worth and what you can bring to the company and being at the peak of your efficiency during working hours. Let's not debate anymore, it is your choice and I have mine.

Yep I was wondering how long it will take for yet another anoynomous guy to come in here telling us what a hot shot he is making hundreds of thousands a year while shaking leg everyday in office.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yep I was wondering how long it will take for yet another anoynomous guy to come in here telling us what a hot shot he is making hundreds of thousands a year while shaking leg everyday in office.

Yea. Definitely not earning big bucks but having a decent salary with good work life balance. You have none... but foolish logic of making yourself cheap for the employers.

A lot of people are in a similar dilemma.

Life is unpredictable. There are risk in civil service. There's the guy who joined SAF for promise of stable life, rose till LTC rank. On an unfortunate day, a NSF he was in charge of died and he was discharged. Bright chap, masters from a top uni, driving a cab now. Joining a civil service is enticing, but be warned, one screw up and you are screwed for life. Having no outside experience, and banned from governmental organisation, nothing but screwed. I sat in his cab a few days back. Can still see the sadness on his face very evidently.

But there's another side in private sector. The guy who work in private sector with a local degree, got retrenched at 50 years old, jobless for two years and is living as garang-guni man. No one wants to pay him for managerial position because of his age. People think he's overqualified for entry position.

I thought for really long before coming to a conclusion.

Go for what you feel like right now. You are young, go out and strive. We will never be able to predict what's going to go on tomorrow.
The biggest regret of life is to live with regrets. If you joined civil service right now, you will enjoy for five years due to the high salary. But after awhile you will start thinking back on your life and wonder how different will life be if you had joined private. But it's too late. You have a family by then and you can't leave your civil job easily and take up a private sector with a pay cut. Weigh your options.

Private sector can be balanced too. My uncle for instance, slogged in the IT industry for 12 years, working long hours before establishing a client base to build his own business IT consultancy firm. He now works as little as one hour a day (to be fair, whole day on occasions), monday to friday. Still earns a respectable salary to sustain his lifestyles and travels. Then there are companies who provides really good welfare outside too.

Never tie yourself down. You don't know how high you can fly. If you are tired, you can always choose to fly lower.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yea. Definitely not earning big bucks but having a decent salary with good work life balance. You have none... but foolish logic of making yourself cheap for the employers.

If you are really so good in work real life, good for you but no need to be rude and insult others in all your replies.

Everyone has their own luck and circumstance that might change for better or worse in the future. Hiding behind online anoynomity while laughing at others who are not as good as you as being cheap, calling people weak, foolish, useless, afraid of boss etc while boasting about how "vaued" you are is cowardly.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I was a fresh graduate last year, didn't had much problems deciding on entering the private sector.

Speaking from someone who is just average and from a humble background (2nd upper honours, local uni), I feel that most fresh graduates these days place too much emphasis on work-life balance. If you place a lot of emphasis on work-life balance, more often than not civil sector will suit you better because you desire routine and work to you really is not all that important in your life at this stage. Overall, I feel that you yourself have already form an inclination towards public sector, but do note I also have fair amount of friends who OT quite a bit.

I am from the private sector so I will share with you some of my experience and thoughts but bear in mind it would be pretty biased since I made the decision to go private pretty easily. Also, I'm strictly speaking from an average point of view as I view myself as average and all my friends are pretty average too. There is bound to be that one talented dude with numerous case competition wins or that one dude with an Ivy League degree that will just conflict with what I am about to say.

Firstly, remuneration. It is clear cut that public sector usually offers much higher remuneration than private when starting fresh, probably as a way to entice more people to work for the government. It works pretty well and I did question myself a lot of times why didn't I just went public in the first place when I first joined my current company. Fast forward 9 months later, I have now already surpassed almost all my public sector peers in terms of monthly base salary and will only jump faster and more exponentially than any of my public sector friends.

Secondly, career progression. If you have a rough idea of what you want to do, what industry to move into, private sector is a much faster way of accelerating this progress. You could start off in a fresh position in company A, move on to assistant manager position in company B, move on to senior manager position in company C, all of which company A/B/C are all competitors in the private sector. This is clearly not that feasible in the public sector.

Thirdly, all important work-life balance. I suggest you drop the idea of having work-life balance unless your family is rich, or if you have an idea to get rich fast. Better buck up to lock in your market worth as soon as possible. The general trend is public sector got more work-life balance, private sector don't have as much. For reference, if I only work 10 hours a day I am very contented already. 60 hours working week does not happen often, but it does creep in once a month or so. Just have to grit your teeth through it.

Fourthly, and a rather biased point but, private sector is really rather dynamic. Anything can happen because it really does not much red tape. You work with people from everywhere and it's just really good exposure I feel. I just think, it's good to dive into something more of the "unknown" rather than just going straight into public and knowing more or less what's gonna happen everyday.

That being said, I must say the variance of work satisfaction in private sector really is wide and it really depends on the company and the job you land yourself into. So do lots of research and don't take up an offer unless you really want it. You yourself should know by now which sector you really want to go into already.

Well-written response from the perspective of an average joe.

Would like to add on that if you really feel stucked after five years, you can always join back civil service. But bear in mind, that the reverse is not always possible, or more aptly, feasible.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

such advice are always base on general trend, i trust everyone knows that generalizing does not mean literally all 100% there will always be exception 20%.

a lot of fresh grads very funny, want to slack and lobo but yet dun dare to admit, so they come out with a nice term call "work life balance" to mean they just want to go home by 8pm & no need to work weekend.

how to make good career decision if one is not even honest to himself????

Who started off by insulting fresh grads??? Look at what you have typed before saying others. You are the one who should learn to respect others' opinions...btw, you still have few more hours before leaving for home. I'm going back soon to enjoy my work life balance...happy working.

[jobhunter1234]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Well-written response from the perspective of an average joe.

Would like to add on that if you really feel stucked after five years, you can always join back civil service. But bear in mind, that the reverse is not always possible, or more aptly, feasible.

I think it really depends on what you want in life. It is okay either way long as you are happy. I have some friends who enter public from pte sector after few years and vice versa. Grass always greener on the other side...lol. Both sectors have their own pros and cons. Just do what you like and won't be wrong. Me is amateur and grad to be...just my 2 cents.

Let us just end all the quarrel and input more useful stuff for TS.