Fresh graduate seeking advice (Pte vs Civil Service)

[freshie86]

Hi guys, I am graduating from a local uni this coming May. I am currently actively looking for a job but I am in a dilemma of whether to join the civil service or private sector.

While many have claimed that the progression is better in private, I have also realized that there are many who are unable to progress in the private sector (<$4k with more than 5 years of exp). If that's is the case, wouldn't civil service be better since you get your annual increment even with average performance?

I am sincerely seeking advice from adults from both private and civil service and hope it can be a good guidance when choosing their career path in time to come. If possible, it would be nice to share your progress and remuneration along the way. Thanks in advance !

About myself: Graduating from a local uni, bright and competencies are above average. Able to cope with demanding challenges but desire a good work-life balance. Very interested in civil service but am pretty worried about remuneration and progression wise. Afterall, I gotta support my family once i gradaute.

[jobhunter1234]

Originally Posted by freshie86

Hi guys, I am graduating from a local uni this coming May. I am currently actively looking for a job but I am in a dilemma of whether to join the civil service or private sector.

While many have claimed that the progression is better in private, I have also realized that there are many who are unable to progress in the private sector (<$4k with more than 5 years of exp). If that's is the case, wouldn't civil service be better since you get your annual increment even with average performance?

I am sincerely seeking advice from adults from both private and civil service and hope it can be a good guidance when choosing their career path in time to come. If possible, it would be nice to share your progress and remuneration along the way. Thanks in advance !

About myself: Graduating from a local uni, bright and competencies are above average. Able to cope with demanding challenges but desire a good work-life balance. Very interested in civil service but am pretty worried about remuneration and progression wise. Afterall, I gotta support my family once i gradaute.

Hi freshie86. I'm in the same dilemma as you. I have been trying to seek opinions around as well if you would browse through my previous postings. There is really no one good answer to the question you have asked. No one knows how you would perform in the private sector and what possible opportunities are there to come by.

Imho, I think fresh grads who are ambitious would like to venture into private sector and you are right to say that there is no guarantee that they will succeed. You have to weigh the likelihood of you earning big bucks in the future; industries and job scope are the decisive factors. On the other hand, the need for work life balance might be non-existence for the private sector esp MNCs. I do have friends who rather enter public sector than to trade off their time for a better paycheck. To add on, the current job market is not too encouraging for the fresh grads and many bright/above average grads would rather enter public sector than to accept pathetic offers by MNCs. We cannot blame MNCs for doing that since they have a large pool of candidates eyeing for the same position.

My advice to you is that you could try applying for jobs in both sectors and see for yourself the difference in terms of salary package and decide to see which is a better offer. No point pondering about which is better without even being offered a job.

what class of honours will u be getting?

[jobhunter1234]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

what class of honours will u be getting?

Nothing screw up should be 2.1

up for a good thread

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.

This kind of thread has been started for endless times before.

In summary want to slack and lobo go civil service, want to take risk for the high pay go pte.

[jobhunter1234]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This kind of thread has been started for endless times before.

In summary want to slack and lobo go civil service, want to take risk for the high pay go pte.

lol...well summarized. But I dun totally agree with the former. Not all civil service positions are slack.

Originally Posted by jobhunter1234

lol...well summarized. But I dun totally agree with the former. Not all civil service positions are slack.

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????

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????

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.