is public sector good for fresh grad?
 

Hi all, my friends and I have very differing views on public sector work for fresh grad. May I know if anyone (been a fresh grad there for long), would you recommend starting your career there?

Many said public sector is a dead end. Is it true that most skills are not transferable? hence the high pay?

Sharing from own experience. I graduated 4 years old, in the private sector. Can only say that I am glad that I didnt join the public sector. Personally I develop better in a more dynamic environment which the private sector can offer. Its true to some extent that some skills are not transferable. You can try staying in public sector for long enough, your value may not be as high. So I would recommend private sector. You get to see the real working world.

Go to private sector if u have the drive and think u belong to the top 20%. Altho, the problem is 80% of the ppl think they are the top 20%.... 3/4 of them are going to be very disappointed at the end of the day.

For me, im not someone who has strong career ambition nor do i need to drive big cars or live in bungalow. So civil service is the place for me.. i dun have to worry about the poor market condition, i still get my bonus even tho the economy is going from bad to worse, i dun have to OT till 9pm everyday.

Altho civil service will nvr pay me big bucks, it is enough for me to afford a decent standard of living.

Elite MNC vs Elite stat board, which is better?

Well said, although if you belong to the 80% you will earn more in the CS than pte. Easily $120k in your early 30s, which is more difficult to achieve in pte.

Go private cos there's more money there if you are good.

I feel public sector is not suited for young fresh grads (I'll be bored to death)

On average or generally, civil/public servant able to achieve 120k annually by early 30s? Can anyone second to that? What I heard now is that most civil/public servants earn 120k annually by mid 30s - end 30s. Please do not mislead others by giving the minority numbers.

elite MNC. esp for a fresh grad.

because it is much easier to jump from elite MNC to elite stat board than the other way around.

sounds to me the overall conclusion s that public sector is slow and doesn't learn much skills.

then why do so many smart graduates join civil service? (pay is also not exceptionally high )

Decent pay, school environment, iron rice bowl. Most are just scared of the real working world.

True indeed. Scared of the real working world.

exam smart and corporate smart is different.

No more rice bowl in public service.

it quite boring working in public sector, you might not gain any working experience if you are fresh grad and working in public sector. The job you doing might not relevant, i think your skill might outdated.

can it be considered retirement village?

many take public sector as a retirement job..

cos is most stable no need scared retrench when you are 40+

when you are young should go out and see the different working industry..

that what i think..

Be the way, recession is on its way, and many people are applying for public sector jobs. Heard the interview process is increasingly becoming more difficult. Are you sure you can afford to be pick and choose? Better grab a job soon before the storm hits.

I can't speak for all roles in the public sector, but there are many transferable skills.
Skills wise, the government does what they preach. There is constant upgrading and training. Take myself for example, I am constantly being exposed to and trained in the latest tech for my industry. My fellow university friends in the private sector are still using tech a generation behind. How are these skills not transferable? Tech wise, some private companies cut training to save cost. The longer you stay, the more obsolete you become. Difficult for a one-size-fits-all analysis. You gave vague details on your field of study.

Where ever you go, be it public or private, there will be people who do the minimum. End of the day, it depends on yourself.

Then let's be specific then as I am interested to know about your upgrading in your domain. You mentioned tech. Do you mean software development?

If so, how are your skills in software development being upgraded. Let's not be vague. Have you ventured in using languages outside C# or Java? What methods are you using now in machine learning? Has your program infrastructure evolved to anything that uses proper design patterns? What about data management? Are you using languages specific to handling large data sets like KDB, Hadoop?

My point is that it's very easy to get the idea that you've upgraded your skills when the government pays for a 3 hour group lesson. It's another thing to actually get upgrade when your company, can be private or public, spends the next 6 months adopting the technology.

Many here are simply parroting what they heard elsewhere about public sector. The truth is that it doesn't apply to all, maybe around 60-70% of public sector is like that. The other 30-40% are doing industry leading work that is well sought after in the public sector as well.

My brother-in-law is moving from a ministry into private sector after 13 years inside. He received a healthy 30% pay increment due to a jump in position. The private company had chased him since January via a headhunter, he made his final decision in April and has been handing over his work for the past 2 months. Also collected his PB for last year which adds up to slightly more than the annual salary of a junior staff (2-3 years experience).

There are not many public sector companies that one thinks of when you mention their work as industry leading. Shall we get down to which public companies are in this group? I share what I know well because I genuinely wish to find out who to look out for.

Disclaimer: Let's not confuse industry leading with meaningful. I believe the upkeep of Singapore's economy depends on the public sector. But that's entirely different to being at the forefront like where Google is.

For industry leading, I would think of GIC, Temasek, AStar. That's it!
GIC: They're starting a systematic trading group since last year. It doesn't take much to see the masses of quantitative analysts they're hiring on their careers page. Btw, systematic trading started like 20 years ago, matured about 7 years ago. Hardly industry leading but I'll put them here since they're setting something new up.

I know from trusted sources that these companies do NOT do industry leading work - MAS, EDB, IE.
MAS: Many policy setting, lots of processes, letter writing, presentation to ministries.
EDB, IE: They're not profit driven and the decisions they make on supporting local or overseas companies do not go to their PnL, thus the lack of drive to do insightful work by their managers.

I'm welcome any corrections. I'm just someone wanting to know how impactful is the work of public companies.