Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34149)

does anyone already know the annual salary increment / promotion increments for civil servants for this year already? If so, can share the details? tks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34014)

i personally find my job quite interesting. basically you are in charge of a few areas of responsibilities in your portfolio, and you deal with policy recommendations and proposals in that portfolio. for e.g. you might identify a gap in the current policy for xx area, and you can staff up a paper for discussion and subsequent implementation. You must be ready to defend your recommendations though! You might also have to react quickly to emergency situations and think on your feet (e.g. calls from your bosses at 1am) . You get to go for inter-agency meetings (this is both good and bad) and staff your bosses on calls/trips. you also go for seminars and courses to strengthen your knowledge in the area.

of course, not everything is rosy. There are mundane stuff like minutes writing, preparing logistics for calls, looking at legislation etc etc. working with slow colleagues can also get frustrating, or when you get bogged by red tape. but i guess every job has its goods and bads, just that we need to be okay with it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34279)

I don't understand why the mundane stuff can't be done by the admin colleagues...even university grads also have to take care of the mundane stuff in addition to the more important matters such as working on policies? I mean, taking minutes of meetings? You don't need a university degree to do that, for crying out loud...

Not ranting at you, just ranting at how it seems like such a waste of one's education to be taking minutes...

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34014)

i personally find my job quite interesting. basically you are in charge of a few areas of responsibilities in your portfolio, and you deal with policy recommendations and proposals in that portfolio. for e.g. you might identify a gap in the current policy for xx area, and you can staff up a paper for discussion and subsequent implementation. You must be ready to defend your recommendations though! You might also have to react quickly to emergency situations and think on your feet (e.g. calls from your bosses at 1am) . You get to go for inter-agency meetings (this is both good and bad) and staff your bosses on calls/trips. you also go for seminars and courses to strengthen your knowledge in the area.

of course, not everything is rosy. There are mundane stuff like minutes writing, preparing logistics for calls, looking at legislation etc etc. working with slow colleagues can also get frustrating, or when you get bogged by red tape. but i guess every job has its goods and bads, just that we need to be okay with it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34284)

you probably do not understand the importance of minutes taking. wait till u are in civil service, if you do get in, and you will find out what it is all about.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34279)

I don't understand why the mundane stuff can't be done by the admin colleagues...even university grads also have to take care of the mundane stuff in addition to the more important matters such as working on policies? I mean, taking minutes of meetings? You don't need a university degree to do that, for crying out loud...

Not ranting at you, just ranting at how it seems like such a waste of one's education to be taking minutes...

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34284)

you probably do not understand the importance of minutes taking. wait till u are in civil service, if you do get in, and you will find out what it is all about.

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34298)

The person who originally posted the comment probably doesn't appreciate what it takes to draft good minutes either.

I have had many painful hours vetting and amending crappy minutes from my staff (who are uni grads). Going by the way they write, you'd think some of them were doing transcripts!

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 34315)

Taking minutes entails not only noting the main discussion points that have taken place, but also understanding its essence, significance and even intricacies. Do you know what kind of meetings necessitates minutes taking and the people who sit in it? And do you know who may read the minutes of the meeting? If you really think it is a no brainer, you can't be further away from the truth. It requires a very sharp mind to discern the facts from the unimportant stuff. And good command of English is only one of the many prerequisites of good minutes writing.