Compare civil service salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks for the clarifications. I'm a local uni undergrad, thinking of joining a civil service or stat board after graduation.

Was wondering if skills in stat boards eg EDB, MAS is transferable to private sector. I'm keen in doing policy.

Passed a good chance to sign on in SAF when i was in NS and skills that are nontransferable was my main concern then (and now).

I can't be sure, but I don't think the experience you gain at doing policy work is going to be transferable to the private sector. I mean just think about it - how many private companies hire employees to do policy work? Almost zero. Doing policy work is almost exclusively a government type of job.

I'd be happy to be corrected by someone else who knows better though.

[jobhunter1234]

Originally Posted by Incognito

I can't be sure, but I don't think the experience you gain at doing policy work is going to be transferable to the private sector. I mean just think about it - how many private companies hire employees to do policy work? Almost zero. Doing policy work is almost exclusively a government type of job.

I'd be happy to be corrected by someone else who knows better though.

Yea...I totally agree with Incognito. For me, I'll not apply to roles under policy formulation despite those positions are considered as better within govt sector..because you deemed as the brainier ones to come out with plans and directions.

Originally Posted by Incognito

I can't be sure, but I don't think the experience you gain at doing policy work is going to be transferable to the private sector. I mean just think about it - how many private companies hire employees to do policy work? Almost zero. Doing policy work is almost exclusively a government type of job.

I'd be happy to be corrected by someone else who knows better though.

When i was working in a bank as a office boy before i started uni, i came across a few guys in my office known as policy analyst.

They spend most of their time in office reading newspaper, generating weekly briefs for the team. In school i felt really fun to analyse governmental policies and their exact impacts. I envisioned doing this kind of job.

That's why i signed up for political science.. But yea, after being in the course for a while it became clear that most of us are going to land in government job. (Good news for some, bad news for me. I hated thick bureaucracy)

I'm really curious if skills are transferable. Will appreciate if there's more input.

i agree that policy work is almost always non-transferable. If you want transferable skillsets, go for corp services jobs such as Finance, or for market development jobs (SPRING, EDB etc). If you already have a specific industry in mind, you can join their regulators (e.g MAS, if you are thinking of transferring to the private sector (financial industry) as compliance officers in the future. (but why not just go private sector in the first place?) Statuatory boards are closer to industries, and as such, would usually have more transferable skillsets than the civil service.

"They spend most of their time in office reading newspaper, generating weekly briefs for the team. In school i felt really fun to analyse governmental policies and their exact impacts. I envisioned doing this kind of job." On your extracted quote, i'm not sure if you know what a policy job is like. Since you are an undergrad, take the opportunity to do more internships (both public and private sectors), and experience both sides. You'll need it to bolster your resume anyway. However, public service internships usually give interns research projects to do, which is very different from the day to day work. Anyway, what you describe seems to be more of a research type of job, rather than policy. Research jobs usually have looser timelines.

Anyway, my personal experience is that civil service only pay lip service to work-life balance. Our hours are approximately 9-11, and sometimes including weekends. Of course, it is highly dependent on your area of work and bosses. Others might find it different.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i agree that policy work is almost always non-transferable. If you want transferable skillsets, go for corp services jobs such as Finance, or for market development jobs (SPRING, EDB etc). If you already have a specific industry in mind, you can join their regulators (e.g MAS, if you are thinking of transferring to the private sector (financial industry) as compliance officers in the future. (but why not just go private sector in the first place?) Statuatory boards are closer to industries, and as such, would usually have more transferable skillsets than the civil service.

"They spend most of their time in office reading newspaper, generating weekly briefs for the team. In school i felt really fun to analyse governmental policies and their exact impacts. I envisioned doing this kind of job." On your extracted quote, i'm not sure if you know what a policy job is like. Since you are an undergrad, take the opportunity to do more internships (both public and private sectors), and experience both sides. You'll need it to bolster your resume anyway. However, public service internships usually give interns research projects to do, which is very different from the day to day work. Anyway, what you describe seems to be more of a research type of job, rather than policy. Research jobs usually have looser timelines.

Anyway, my personal experience is that civil service only pay lip service to work-life balance. Our hours are approximately 9-11, and sometimes including weekends. Of course, it is highly dependent on your area of work and bosses. Others might find it different.

Yes i admit i'm lacking in experiences, but yea from what i observed during my stint in bank, yes there are such job called policy analyst. They are research based.

Well anyway this thread is about civil service, and from your response i figured that skills sets may not be transferable. I'd have to give in my best shot and join a private sector right after graduation.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Anyway, my personal experience is that civil service only pay lip service to work-life balance. Our hours are approximately 9-11, and sometimes including weekends. Of course, it is highly dependent on your area of work and bosses. Others might find it different.

Hi, would like to you how you find your job scope to understand life as a civil servant. Is it mundane and repetitive?

yup, i dun disagree with you on there being policy analysts jobs. just that this may be quite different from civil service policy jobs. Anyway, both public and private sector are so large, there may be a wide variance in job scope.

anyway, gd luck in your job hunting!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, would like to you how you find your job scope to understand life as a civil servant. Is it mundane and repetitive?

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.

hi,

im going for a second round interview with iras soon. just wanted to see if anybody here knows what I should expect for the interview. thanks in advance!

and just a rough gauge, how much should i be expecting if i have a 1st class honors and served NS?

and how is the career progression like?

thanks for the help!!!

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