Is it okay to graduate without an honour?
 

Let say if my GPA 2.7 when I graduate, from NTU
what will happen?

is it okay to graduate with just a normal degree?

is my degree worthless if dun have honours?

anyone here grad without any honour?

pls advise

A degree in what major?

a degree without honours is fine but a degree without honour is not.

If you're looking for a job in the public sector then its not fine. Else, it will be ok. I assume you're those bordering on 2nd lower and 3rd should you decide to pursue honours? If that is the case, and you want to work in private, then there's no need to go for honours. Better to graduate w/o honours with a "better" degree than to graduate with a low honours.

Having said that, should your major be specialized like Sciences, it will still be important to have honours if you intend to work in related fields, even in private. The competition is stiff out there.

It is fine to grad without honours for engineering if you work in private companies. It will be tough for you to get civil, public and banking jobs and normally these are paid better than private. Be prepared to earn lesser in the first 3 to 7yrs or so.

Coming from a engineering grad w/o honours and 5.5yrs working experience. Only recently, able to meet the average salary of my peers who are in public and civil.

May I know what is the avg salary of your peers after 5.5 years?

5.5yrs in public sector should be around 90k to 100k

Huh? Average person earns 90k min after 5.5 years? That's 5.6k per month with average of 4 months bonus. That's pretty high I feel For a average joe. Or maybe I'm out of touch hahahaa.

You talking about 90-100k Malaysian ringgit is it??

6 years in public sector earning $100k? Pub sector abt 3 months bonus on average last 5 years

So that means MOST people should be earning $100k/15 = $6600/month by they are 28-30??

HAHA WAKE UP!!!!!!

If you include CPF contribution, MAYBE can get $80k/year.

From what I know, 6 years working in public and civil sector monthly salary ranges from 5k to 6k. yearly bonus around 4 months. That is roughly 90k to 100k.
The other thread on civil salary does justify that and there are a number of people earning more than 6k after 5 years.

Definitely not worthless..

I graduated without honours from NTU in 2010. Started off with about $3100, now getting about $4800 gross salary. It's not high salary for sure, but it's okay for me.

Some government agencies will still take you in. Otherwise, you can try gain some relevant experience first.

Grad with 2nd lower NTU with NS in 2007, in Local GLC.
2007 Start – 3000
2015 Now – 4100 only (with 1 promotion)

it seem that civil service or stat board is better

Graduated from NTU in 2009 without honours. Private sector engineering.

Join the workforce in Dec 2009 with $2,350 gross salary (annual around $32,000/yr)
Currently with $5,400 gross salary (annual around $95,000/yr)

Wow your increment and bonus is high

I major in Computer Science

Yah. Was lucky in 2 job change with significant pay increment.
But it will be very tough for me to get into public sector.

still possible with your years of experience. but would have to take a pay cut for sure.

Will I be penalised for no honours?

bear in mind that its all about meritocracy. i wouldnt say penalise but gotta be realistic in your expectations. if you did read enough, some people on this forum stated they had to take a 1K pay cut when they switched from pte to public.

but i suggest you think carefully abt joining public sector as the skills arent that transferrable to pte sector if you ever decide to leave public for the pte sector in future.

Hi there,

To be honest honours or not, it does not matter to me. Although yes, results defines your attitude towards work but it does not evaluate your character and work experience.

What you have to do to market yourself valuable is to have the experience in what employers are looking for. Like for example, specializing in something and be damn good at it. You can do it as a professional freelancer on sites like odesk or butlerfactory.com.

For me, I became a freelancer because I didnt know what to do. So i tried out other platforms. Only thing I dont like is that they start charging the freelancers, so I decided to move to butlerfactory.com where it is free for use for all freelancers.


I am not sure if freelancing will be able to help you increase your marketability but it worked for me.

Cheers

i grad in 2009 with 2nd lower hons but i can safely say that im more competent at work than most of my peers wif better grades

current;y earning >130k pa

Which industry are you from? Job title?
More doors are shut for those deg without honours.

I was from local U Engin and w.o honours so engineer or govt job is cmi for me. Eventually went into foreign bank with 4+k starting and got promoted after 2 years of working now 5+k...

My advise is: internship, certain certifications (e.g. CFA), network (and luck) help a lot before you graduate...

Did u enter foreign bank as a fresh grad with 4k + salary?
How old are u now?