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Originally Posted by Unregistered

Relevant in terms of soft skills, communication skills, coordination skills?

IR requires a lot of coordination, protocol and staffing (including writing briefs) work, right?

Yes youre right on the soft, comms n coordination skills. And yes thats quite basically the general workload u can expect of an IR role.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Ah. Nice to meet someone who have had more or less the same experience. Agree with what is said here - both about the learning curve, and also about getting to work with amazing, committed and intelligent folks.

For me, I've too moved on to a more functional role but still work very closely with those in Policy. Knowing their set of rationale/concerns makes working really does empower those down the stream (i.e. execution).

Deadlines are deadlines. Some are realistic, and some are ridiculous. 3/4 AM OT tends to be seasonal, but working at home until 9/10 PM is rather normal. That was so for me back then, at least.

All in all, you need to be comfortable with writing. Copious amounts of writing. And I think this is the third time I said this now, but you would definitely need to be comfortable with your paper being discussed (in some cases, torn apart). The bright side of all these is, as the other contributor shared, you learn a LOT in Policy. I am not sure where else one can learn as much but then again I could be biased, since I started out in Policy and all.

Hope this helps you, as well as all others who are or may be considering a career in Policy.

Your paragraphs reminded me of the good old times I had at IR policy and research - plenty of writing and re-writing for various reasons - some stupid, some worthy. It was extremely fast paced and we work over weekends. Fortunately, I had a bunch of wonderful colleagues. When times were okay, we enjoyed life together. When times were bad, we roughed it out together. It was this strong sense of camaraderie that kept me going. However, as life would have it, 5 years into policy formulation, I stumbled upon a certain train of thoughts - if I were to be a Head, I would be re-writing the papers that my officers submitted; if I were to be a DD, I would be be re-writing the papers that my Heads submitted, etc.

The question of whether I could keep writing on similar issues for the long haul kept echoing in my mind. Not long after, I realised that I could not do the same thing over and over. I quitted, took a pay cut, and did random writing/teaching work offshore.

The funny thing is that 10 years later, when I want to settle down and hence considering applying back to CS/PS, I kind of miss the good old days that I had, and wondered what would life had been, had I stayed on? Most of my friends left. The last one remaining had become the DD that I had imagined earlier. (He's terribly disgruntled now) I really wonder if I should rejoin CS/PS. This forum has been very useful in answering my questions on how has CS/PS changed over the years. I think I may have found my answer.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Ah. Nice to meet someone who have had more or less the same experience. Agree with what is said here - both about the learning curve, and also about getting to work with amazing, committed and intelligent folks.

For me, I've too moved on to a more functional role but still work very closely with those in Policy. Knowing their set of rationale/concerns makes working really does empower those down the stream (i.e. execution).

Deadlines are deadlines. Some are realistic, and some are ridiculous. 3/4 AM OT tends to be seasonal, but working at home until 9/10 PM is rather normal. That was so for me back then, at least.

All in all, you need to be comfortable with writing. Copious amounts of writing. And I think this is the third time I said this now, but you would definitely need to be comfortable with your paper being discussed (in some cases, torn apart). The bright side of all these is, as the other contributor shared, you learn a LOT in Policy. I am not sure where else one can learn as much but then again I could be biased, since I started out in Policy and all.

Hope this helps you, as well as all others who are or may be considering a career in Policy.

Thank you very much for ur insights. It puts a lot of things into perspective. Guess I can go for my interview 2molo in peace now since i understand things better now and with the knowledge tat they most probably wun meet my expected pay. I will still go for the interview exposure. I haven't been interviewing for 4 years liao. Need to brush up my interview skills.haha.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes one rejected me after i went for the interview, the other just didnt get back to me at ll. But call it blessing in disguise, this SB im currently in was the one which i had assumed to be hardest to get into. Haha

How was the selection process at this SB? Did you have to do a psychometric test, a writing test, participate in group discussion, get interviewed by HR and then get interviewed by panel?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How was the selection process at this SB? Did you have to do a psychometric test, a writing test, participate in group discussion, get interviewed by HR and then get interviewed by panel?

Quite straight forward, just 1 writing test and a panel interview with the department folks you are applying for and HR. These 2 events happen on the same day (writing test first then department interview).

Assuming you make it past here, the next round will be with someone from the senior management, probably 3rd-4th ranked guy in the organisation. Though I believe this round is more for formality as the department would have most likely chosen you to join their team, and would like to let the senior management screen you once more.

All in all, from the time you get the call by HR to go for interview, to the time you land the offer, I'd say about 1-1.5 months.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That is a good thing for our country, no? Or should civil servants not be accountable?

Of course one needs to be accountable, just highlighting the point that civil service is no longer as 'civil' as it used to be, and in some cases, your own bosses will not bother to shield you either. So yes, a lot more accountability and ownership of work at officer level, particularly in the policy roles.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Quite straight forward, just 1 writing test and a panel interview with the department folks you are applying for and HR. These 2 events happen on the same day (writing test first then department interview).

Assuming you make it past here, the next round will be with someone from the senior management, probably 3rd-4th ranked guy in the organisation. Though I believe this round is more for formality as the department would have most likely chosen you to join their team, and would like to let the senior management screen you once more.

All in all, from the time you get the call by HR to go for interview, to the time you land the offer, I'd say about 1-1.5 months.

Were you in mx12 when you left the ministry? What was your performance grading?

Did the HR at the SB enquire about your MX grade? Eg. Whether you were in mx12 etc.

I'm wondering whether they would do some sort of pegging of grades, even though the two schemes are different.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Were you in mx12 when you left the ministry? What was your performance grading?

Did the HR at the SB enquire about your MX grade? Eg. Whether you were in mx12 etc.

I'm wondering whether they would do some sort of pegging of grades, even though the two schemes are different.

Ya was on MX12 when i left, left on C+.

The SB HR didnt enquire about my mx grade, n just told me matching my last drawn wasn't an issue. I didn't ask for more pay since i took a year break and they just gave a 5% increment over the last drawn. As for the scale here, we just go by senior officer lvl 1 onwards, with 1 being the entry level.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Ya was on MX12 when i left, left on C+.

The SB HR didnt enquire about my mx grade, n just told me matching my last drawn wasn't an issue. I didn't ask for more pay since i took a year break and they just gave a 5% increment over the last drawn. As for the scale here, we just go by senior officer lvl 1 onwards, with 1 being the entry level.

After the interview with the senior management, how long did HR take to make you the offer?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

After the interview with the senior management, how long did HR take to make you the offer?

About 1 week.