Compare civil service salary

Getting $3280 for 2nd upper in 2007 is above average, especially in a social ministry.
Unless you have a professional degree, ie Eng, acct etc.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

cannot remember every year la. only remember my first starting and my current pay.


2007 - fresh grad 2upper with ns - $3280, MX13
2008 - MX 12 (promotion/confirmation)
2010 - MX 11(promotion)
2015 - MX 11a (promotion)
2017 - MX 11a

somewhere (can't recall which years) there was a review of MX schemes and there was a 5/10% increment across the board.

Fingers crossed that i will get my MX10 this 2018!

what is the average now for a fresh grad in a social ministry?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

what is the average now for a fresh grad in a social ministry?

By "fresh grad" you mean no prior work experience I assume, rather than relevant work experience but graduated recently.

Regardless of the Ministry in question, the salary range depends almost entirely on your university and academic performance. Absolute top-tier universities like Harvard, MIT, Oxford, etc., will command the highest starting pay (3.8k to- 4k). Local universities like NUS and NTU come in second (3.5k to 3.8k). Reasonably high-ranking foreign universities like the University of Tokyo will come in third (3.2k to 3.5k). Fourth place are middle-ranking foreign universities like the University of Queensland (2.5k to 3.2k). Fifth place is everyone else, including private universities like SIM (2.1k to 2.5k).

Things like volunteering and CCAs are only taken into account for actually getting you the interview and later the job. It does not affect your pay.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

By "fresh grad" you mean no prior work experience I assume, rather than relevant work experience but graduated recently.

Regardless of the Ministry in question, the salary range depends almost entirely on your university and academic performance. Absolute top-tier universities like Harvard, MIT, Oxford, etc., will command the highest starting pay (3.8k to- 4k). Local universities like NUS and NTU come in second (3.5k to 3.8k). Reasonably high-ranking foreign universities like the University of Tokyo will come in third (3.2k to 3.5k). Fourth place are middle-ranking foreign universities like the University of Queensland (2.5k to 3.2k). Fifth place is everyone else, including private universities like SIM (2.1k to 2.5k).

Things like volunteering and CCAs are only taken into account for actually getting you the interview and later the job. It does not affect your pay.

Oh and just an add-on, only 1st class honours or higher from local universities like NUS are considered to be in the second place, sometimes first place. 2nd upper is around the third places, and anything lower is relegated to the fourth and fifth places.

Likewise, if the candidate is from a foreign university, honours is not compulsory for many of their degrees. As such, this is factored into account in our calculations. But, if they took honours in a good foreign university and did well, like say first class honours from the University of Tokyo, we regard them as the same as a "first place" candidate.

I could tell you not to worry about your academics, but the truth is, we will automatically discard 80-90% of applications based off the academic profile alone. We have a fairly strict quota for interviewees that we can't go over or under, so unfortunately even if you're technically qualified, if it so happens the job posting had too many outstanding candidates, we will overlook the "just okay" candidates.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Oh and just an add-on, only 1st class honours or higher from local universities like NUS are considered to be in the second place, sometimes first place. 2nd upper is around the third places, and anything lower is relegated to the fourth and fifth places.

Likewise, if the candidate is from a foreign university, honours is not compulsory for many of their degrees. As such, this is factored into account in our calculations. But, if they took honours in a good foreign university and did well, like say first class honours from the University of Tokyo, we regard them as the same as a "first place" candidate.

I could tell you not to worry about your academics, but the truth is, we will automatically discard 80-90% of applications based off the academic profile alone. We have a fairly strict quota for interviewees that we can't go over or under, so unfortunately even if you're technically qualified, if it so happens the job posting had too many outstanding candidates, we will overlook the "just okay" candidates.

You mentioned something interesting. You said that "only 1st class honours or higher from local universities like NUS are considered to be in the second place, sometimes first place." Noting the fact that there is nothing higher than 1st class honour, that suggests that fch graduates are split into two groups. One that gets 'first place' salary and the other getting 'second place' salary.

From my very limited knowledge of HR work, starting salary are based on honours class and not the absolute CAP of the grad (although higher CAP = higher chance of getting job). So a CAP 4.95 NUS grad should be drawing the same pay as a CAP 4.50 NUS grad. From your style of writing, it seemed that you are somewhat involved in HR work, so maybe you would like to shed some light on this.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

HR here. You're slightly off. The 'high profile' Ministries do get a bigger budget to work with for bonuses and so on. But, the difference is negligible unless you are AD and above.

MSF is the worst funded of the lot. A fellow HR there complains to me that they don't even get enough funding to hire permanent staff for certain roles.

MFA is the best funded. Technically they don't have as big a budget as, say, MTI, but taking into account the low number of people in comparison to their budget, they probably have the best bonuses.

Ah i see. Thanks for the sharing! Much appreciated!

Hi I got a job offer from NEA for senior engineer, think 11a. Monthly salary quoted is higher than current salary in private sector. However annual bonus seems to be lower. How many more this of bonus can be expected for this rank?

Just to add I have 10 years of working experience private sector with masters.
Wanted to move due to work life balance

Originally Posted by Unregistered

By "fresh grad" you mean no prior work experience I assume, rather than relevant work experience but graduated recently.

Regardless of the Ministry in question, the salary range depends almost entirely on your university and academic performance. Absolute top-tier universities like Harvard, MIT, Oxford, etc., will command the highest starting pay (3.8k to- 4k). Local universities like NUS and NTU come in second (3.5k to 3.8k). Reasonably high-ranking foreign universities like the University of Tokyo will come in third (3.2k to 3.5k). Fourth place are middle-ranking foreign universities like the University of Queensland (2.5k to 3.2k). Fifth place is everyone else, including private universities like SIM (2.1k to 2.5k).

Things like volunteering and CCAs are only taken into account for actually getting you the interview and later the job. It does not affect your pay.

thanks for the detailed responses, the discrimination is really real in this case. I believe the figures you quote is for no prior experience, how about for relevant work experience but grad recently, would the increment be in terms of few hundred dollars above the quoted figures as indicated?

when talking about honours system in local uni, does having a higher honours place one in another band altogether or just increment from base pay (say for MX13 its 3000 base pay for local uni), but for second lower, second upper, first it will be $100, $200, $300 extra/on top for example?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi I got a job offer from NEA for senior engineer, think 11a. Monthly salary quoted is higher than current salary in private sector. However annual bonus seems to be lower. How many more this of bonus can be expected for this rank?

Bluntly speaking, you don't join the public sector for bonuses. You join for the stability. Given appropriate qualifications and good performance, you can expect a stable rise in salary, alongside benefits, alongside a bonus which also slowly increases over time. If you want a sudden influx due to high bonuses, then remain in the private sector as that's the place to be if you're a young, hungry, Type A sort of person.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

thanks for the detailed responses, the discrimination is really real in this case. I believe the figures you quote is for no prior experience, how about for relevant work experience but grad recently, would the increment be in terms of few hundred dollars above the quoted figures as indicated?

when talking about honours system in local uni, does having a higher honours place one in another band altogether or just increment from base pay (say for MX13 its 3000 base pay for local uni), but for second lower, second upper, first it will be $100, $200, $300 extra/on top for example?

I never understood why its called "discrimination". It's not - it's literally numbers and data. Objectively speaking, those from the top universities will perform better.

if you have relevant work experience but you graduated recently the increment can be substantial. It depends on the position at work, years worked, and performance at work. For example, Person A worked as an Admin Assistant for 2 years while completing a Bachelor of Commerce. This lets me know they can multitask. If I call the reference and it's a good recommendation, then I know they are a good worker as well. In this situation, I'm justified raising the salary by 500 to 600 a month.

The Honours system does matter, but mostly for the public sector. The private sector don't care that much I've found. For local universities, however, even top honours would only allow me to warrant maybe a 200-300 increase in monthly salary. This is due to the relative reputation of the university combined with the "idea" of how easy it is to get the honours from that university.

However, summa cum laude-type honours (ie. very limited places per cohort) are always looked upon very favourably regardless of university. If you are from a local university like SIM, the only way you stand on the same level as say, an NUS graduate with 2nd uppers, is with something like valedictorian qualifications. Or, way more work experience.