Compare civil service salary

So bad for CAAS? Always thought the aviation industry will always be higher.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So bad for CAAS? Always thought the aviation industry will always be higher.

I am from LTA, we just received the 5% adjustment today. CAAS should have too, since we all all under MOT.

hi all,

i recently got an offer of 7k/month base from ida as a consultant.

i have a phd from nus and worked 9 years in a*star as scientist.

hr says this is the highest they can offer so non-negotiable.

want to hear from you folks is this offer reasonable? seems kinda low from reading the hundreds of pages above.

how is bonuses and increamental and promotion potential in ida like?
what track is consultant in?

many thanks

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hi all,

i recently got an offer of 7k/month base from ida as a consultant.

i have a phd from nus and worked 9 years in a*star as scientist.

hr says this is the highest they can offer so non-negotiable.

want to hear from you folks is this offer reasonable? seems kinda low from reading the hundreds of pages above.

how is bonuses and increamental and promotion potential in ida like?
what track is consultant in?

many thanks

I have heard that a*star pay is quite on the high side because they need the premium to attract highly qualified people with phd like yours, so prob plain vanilla stat board will not match up?

Anyway, stat board is just like public service, as in the job is tied to a grade with a rather inflexible salary bracket. I'd think the hr hands are tied also.

Ask how much is the bracket maximum and see if you're far off - I guess? If you're near the ceiling, maybe can ask further about prospects for promotion to the higher bracket.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi all! I was interviewed for (and likely to be offered) an executive role in policy planning at a top ministry. Just checking the salary range which I should be expecting. Thanks.


Work Experience: Fresh Graduate with NS served
University: NUS
Honours Class: 2nd Upper

You can most likely find out what is the grade you will be appointed to and it would come with a fixed salary bracket, from minimum to maximum. Then you can already make a good guess what is the offer.

I'm just curious as to why many of these bodies advertise for policy planning positions, for fresh grads without work experience... I would think that for such roles, i.e. setting up policies, a lot of related industry experience would be needed in order to make wise, well-informed decisions.. and such valuable experience should be able to command higher salaries. Maybe only the top guy decide on the policy! The rest just do the needful!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You can most likely find out what is the grade you will be appointed to and it would come with a fixed salary bracket, from minimum to maximum. Then you can already make a good guess what is the offer.

I'm just curious as to why many of these bodies advertise for policy planning positions, for fresh grads without work experience... I would think that for such roles, i.e. setting up policies, a lot of related industry experience would be needed in order to make wise, well-informed decisions.. and such valuable experience should be able to command higher salaries. Maybe only the top guy decide on the policy! The rest just do the needful!

Aiya, you think really policy work meh? If you are in a ministry and non-scholar, most prob is arrange meetings, write minutes, collate info from stat boards or industry. Even if you are scholar also bo pao u do policy work ok? They need to determine if you have the higher level wtf policy thinking before letting you sniff a bit of policy work. All in all, policy work means write minutes and arrange so-called high level meetings. Book rooms la, set up projectors la, revise that PowerPoint slide for the zillionth times la. So many policy ppl here so u get Aku's idea la. U complain to management , they will tell u that u need to learn the higher level thinking from these meetings. so u keep quiet and learn. By the time u reached 3rd year, you forget how to speak up properly in meetings sia.

You in stat boards lagi jialat. Policy work confirm plus chop is arrange meetings and write minutes. Remember hor, when you write minutes must be in reported speech. No problem for that ah hiang who graduated with 2nd upper. His English must be powerful one. But Aku also find his pride a bit silly. Top ministry? Hmmmm, so he think he executive in top ministry very good hor?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I have heard that a*star pay is quite on the high side because they need the premium to attract highly qualified people with phd like yours, so prob plain vanilla stat board will not match up?

Anyway, stat board is just like public service, as in the job is tied to a grade with a rather inflexible salary bracket. I'd think the hr hands are tied also.

Ask how much is the bracket maximum and see if you're far off - I guess? If you're near the ceiling, maybe can ask further about prospects for promotion to the higher bracket.

Alamak, from where u heard that a star pays well? Your info a bit sala leh. A star pays quite low la. But researchers there are lucky bunch ok. They got steady income from gov to do research. Compare to researchers from other countries la, need to constantly rally for research money ok? He think he 9 years PhD very big hor? $7000 for him good already lo, still complain. Some stat boards also got a lot of PhD ok?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Alamak, from where u heard that a star pays well? Your info a bit sala leh. A star pays quite low la. But researchers there are lucky bunch ok. They got steady income from gov to do research. Compare to researchers from other countries la, need to constantly rally for research money ok? He think he 9 years PhD very big hor? $7000 for him good already lo, still complain. Some stat boards also got a lot of PhD ok?

u r right abt a star.it is generally acknowledged as lower paid than private sector research. but compensated with stable money therefore slightly less streessful life. but still IMO way harder job than 90% job in civil service. we do need to come out with paper/patent stuff to meet kpi, and those not like those report that a secondary school kid can write already.

$7k for phd+9years is quite weak actually from private company r&d pespective. just think abt it, NUS/NTU hiresvfresh phd+2years post doc as assist. prof. with $7k. I can only guess the positiion not that demanding in terms of technical stuff thus probably offer according what the job needs instead of candidate portfolio.

btw: just check previous posts, many in civil service take $7k with only degree and <7years in their early 30s

Civil service offer usually can negotiate or not if not meeting expected salary?

Is it a take-it-or-leave-it situation since the offered salary amount is approved by management and is derived according to civil service HR guidelines and policies, and unlikely to be revisable?

For example, in resume, we state amount $X as expected salary as instructed in the job listing. $X is a conservative 50% percentile market rate for a professional in certain industry and number of years of experience.

Then an offer below $X comes for a civil service position. Maybe HR trying to drive a hard deal to save money for govt. Then how? Request to negotiate or give an answer on-the-spot (accept/reject)?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You can most likely find out what is the grade you will be appointed to and it would come with a fixed salary bracket, from minimum to maximum. Then you can already make a good guess what is the offer.

I'm just curious as to why many of these bodies advertise for policy planning positions, for fresh grads without work experience... I would think that for such roles, i.e. setting up policies, a lot of related industry experience would be needed in order to make wise, well-informed decisions.. and such valuable experience should be able to command higher salaries. Maybe only the top guy decide on the policy! The rest just do the needful!

OK thanks! Any idea where I can find the updated salary bracket? The latest I found in this thread dated back to 2011.

And yup, since its an executive role, I am expecting the job scope to be more administrative, research and analysis based. rather than really driving the policies. Hopefully I can have a bigger say in policy formulations in the near future when I have more exposure and experience to these issues though!