Help with Career Advice

[sicc]

Hi all,

I'm a 23 year old diploma holder in chemical engineering with terrible grades (2.0 gpa). Was rather comfortable with my current job earning 2k at entry level in the civil service but after reading much of this forum; I am seriously questioning myself.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think i need some advice from all the old birds on what I should do in my life now.

So my main dilemma is this: with terrible grades like that do you guys think going into a private uni for a degree is still worth it? I feel like I don't know what degree I want to take yet because I'm not sure what I'm interested in right now and i definitely am not interested in continuing to an engineering degree.

I feel like I want to be able to command at least a 3k salary by the age of 30 and if I stay at my current diploma level, it seems to be out of reach.

1. Should I take a bank loan (RHB) to study overseas? I feel like while local unis are cheaper the only one i can go to are the private ones and isnt the recognition from them the same as overseas universities? Am looking at some unis from UK now, possibly banking/business/finance/marketing degrees; if you guys think the degrees i listed above all no hope, any other suggestions for possible areas of studies that can at least have decent salary?

2. Is the difference of overseas/private uni really that bad compared to NUS/SMU/NTU?

Whatever degree you choose to take, please confirm with HR first.
If not take already, then not recognize, it will be a waste of money.

Originally Posted by sicc

Hi all,

I'm a 23 year old diploma holder in chemical engineering with terrible grades (2.0 gpa). Was rather comfortable with my current job earning 2k at entry level in the civil service but after reading much of this forum; I am seriously questioning myself.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think i need some advice from all the old birds on what I should do in my life now.

So my main dilemma is this: with terrible grades like that do you guys think going into a private uni for a degree is still worth it? I feel like I don't know what degree I want to take yet because I'm not sure what I'm interested in right now and i definitely am not interested in continuing to an engineering degree.

I feel like I want to be able to command at least a 3k salary by the age of 30 and if I stay at my current diploma level, it seems to be out of reach.

1. Should I take a bank loan (RHB) to study overseas? I feel like while local unis are cheaper the only one i can go to are the private ones and isnt the recognition from them the same as overseas universities? Am looking at some unis from UK now, possibly banking/business/finance/marketing degrees; if you guys think the degrees i listed above all no hope, any other suggestions for possible areas of studies that can at least have decent salary?

2. Is the difference of overseas/private uni really that bad compared to NUS/SMU/NTU?

First ask yourself if you are willing to put in the effort to get a degree with decent grades. To be very blunt, a 2.0 GPA for poly is terrible. Don't waste your money and time on a degree if you are going to end up with a pass grade.

Second check that getting a degree, even a private one, will help you advance in your career. Overseas uni could cost you 50k/year. If you go for a 2 year course, that's 100k in debt. You might need to repay 1k/month for 10 years to fully pay it off. Imagine if your salary remains at 2xxx, how are you going to survive with half of your salary going towards loan repayment?

There are also private degree courses by places like Kaplan in SG, worth a try for the lower cost.

[aplover]

i wanted to say you can try to buy SPU degree and apply for IDA. They have no right to reject it now since they publicly admit it's a proper uni. In fact, the whole Civil Service and stat boards should have similar standards and accept SPU degree now.

But i will give you proper advise. Yes, there's a difference in perception of degrees. SIM or private unis are below the local unis. But so are the local unis considered lower than ivy league ones. But qualifications only help you so far in the 1st couple of steps in your career. Later on it's about what you do with your career and how you build it up. I believe in getting a degree even though it's now so common but it still separates the normal staff and the supposed higher potential staff. The difference in a masters and a bachelor is less perceptible, so just aim for a bachelor's degree.

If i were you, i would focus hard on working well. See whether you can grow internally in your company. Move to a bigger company and work smart. Save up money and study part time or if you can afford it, quit and study full time in a local uni like NUS/NTU/SMU/SUTD/SIT. If you choose to still hone your skills in the engineering sector, focus on getting a degree in NUS or NTU.

Let's be honest here. With grades like that, you are either not cut out academically or are in the wrong course altogether.

What do you hope to study? What do you hope to do? Your best bet is private after getting some work experience.

i suggest u not waste ur time. honestly with this kind of diploma grade & only work exp at junior level that is not even consider exec, the only deg u can get are those low rep like mdis, kaplan, shri etc.

they are not very cheap either, to buy that deg can cost 12k upwards which is silly becase the starting pay for this type of deg grad is barely 2.2-2.5k in pte sector. the few hundred extras u can get aint enough to pay off the study loan. also this kind of deg very hard to compete if u wana join civil service MX scheme or stat board Div I officer.

also there is no guarantee taking this kind of generic deg can actually help in the career. u r better off just slowly gaining work exp, to get 2.8-3k by 30 is still possible.

I was doing ops previously and had increasingly low job satisfaction.
I am in my 30s, kind of in a mid life crisis.
If possible, I would like to move out from ops but tough, as that's where my experience lies.
If I apply for ops roles, I may still get some calls from recruiters. Otherwise, none.
Another issue I sense is that companies would rather hire cheaper and younger staff for ops.
I am unsure what jobs I can switch to? Or should I look for ops roles, still?
Thanks.

If u r local, can consider UniSIM part time degree... Heavily subsidies and you can take it at your own pace.. Up to 8 years to complete it

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If u r local, can consider UniSIM part time degree... Heavily subsidies and you can take it at your own pace.. Up to 8 years to complete it

UniSIM is already bad enough, to take it as part time is doubly worse. That's like a notch better than degree mill.

what made you condemn it so much?