Provisional offer to uni scholarship
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In my view, career trajectories are subject to too many variables such as the macro economic situation, one’s luck and choices or even parental connections, which do not provide a good reflection of the universities’ capacity to teach and prepare its students for the real world.
Indeed, the IGPs looks scary for NUS as compared to other AUs, but at the end of 3-4yrs, the median salary for Accountancy graduates for NUS, NTU, SMU and SIT are similar. Unless NUS Acct graduates can command a much higher premium otherwise it would not be worth the while. Similar comparison could be applied to other faculties, including Law.
Employers likely have employed graduates from all the 6 local unis before so they should know what are the fresh graduates worth.
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The BAcc graduates. My understanding is NTU and SMU (not sure about SIT) have the biggest cohort at 300+ each (NUS barely 100+). If most of these grads (from NTU/SIT) are fed into the accounting profession (ie big 4 and SME audits/tax) then naturally the median starting salary is low cos it is quite well known they do not pay well. SMU BAcc graduates, I don’t think many are interested, perhaps due to pedagogy. My eldest is pursuing something in investment related field. Her friends are doing sustainability not ESG research.
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It is heartening to see that employers are giving all local uni grads a similar shot, as reflected by similar starting salaries, than differentiating based on the university the graduate comes from. How the graduate advances in his or her career will depend on a whole host of other factors, including his or her capabilities and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors. This should give students who are choosing among the universities, some assurance that employers do not ‘differentiate’ between the university graduates when hiring fresh grads, and they are not disadvantaged and can decide based on other factors.
This is nowhere near a good corollary, but in the same way, unlike US universities which practise legacy admissions and what not, I am glad our local universities too, give all candidates the same measure of consideration, regardless of which JC or poly or school the candidate came from. If you make the grades or portfolio for shortlisting, or for aptitude based admission consideration, you will be considered. Many of our kids end up choosing schools that they feel they can benefit from, or a community they wish to be part of. Not everyone necessarily chooses to be in the top ranked school that their grades allow them to.
Each university has a different community and environment - kids can explore the range of programmes on offer, hear out feedback from seniors, check out the open houses, and make their decision. Those who want to experience a campus life, I think NUS UTown is quite vibey
For others, they may find it too overwhelming. Maybe I am over-romanticizing NUS, because I feel I missed out of something as I didn’t study at NUS? Haha. I’m sure though, all local universities are a good value proposition. -
Thanks for sharing. Oh I didn’t know that most SMU Accounting students are not interested in Big 4. I always thought it’s natural that Accountancy graduates would want to go Big 4 as their 1st job.
Ya, could be due SMU pedagogy or under senior’s influence to go into high finance / investment banking. Maybe this also explains why SMU graduates’ starting pay are higher than those fed into Big 4.
I did ask my dd2 to consider Accountancy but she is not keen citing various reasons. Maybe I can tell her there is NO NEED to be an accountant and can look to go into investment banking using her accountancy degree.
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@lee_yl Is your daughter interested in Accountancy in the first place, even if not constrained to work in the Big 4? What are her other reasons for not wanting to study this? If there is something else she prefers, it’s generally best to follow her interests.
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I posed the same question to my daughter who replied that she had no idea what the Accountancy course entails.
As DD2 has similar interests as her elder sister, so likely will choose either Biz Ad or Economics.
Reasons for not picking Accountancy because accountants work long hours (9am to 2am?) regularly and the pay does not justify the long hours put in. DD2 once mentioned accountancy is a sunset industry. I guess she meant the mundane work can be handled by AI in the near future thus reducing the number of human accountants.
Most people told me can be tax compliance officer, but if most people think the same way, are there enough tax compliance roles to go around?
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@lee_yl said in Provisional offer to uni scholarship:
I posed the same question to my daughter who replied that she had no idea what the Accountancy course entails.
As DD2 has similar interests as her elder sister, so likely will choose either Biz Ad or Economics.
Reasons for not picking Accountancy because accountants work long hours (9am to 2am?) regularly and the pay does not justify the long hours put in. DD2 once mentioned accountancy is a sunset industry. I guess she meant the mundane work can be handled by AI in the near future thus reducing the number of human accountants.
Most people told me can be tax compliance officer, but if most people think the same way, are there enough tax compliance roles to go around?
I don’t know about Accountancy in particular, but I find that the hype that things “can be done by AI” is only partially true in many fields. There will always be a need for the human brain to deal with the more ambiguous decisions, anything that involves ethics, etc. While AI can certainly take over the mundane jobs (which is a concern for those who are less able in some way), I don’t believe that humans will ever be completely excluded. So I guess it depends on where in the pecking order a person is. The more mundane, predictable and repetitive a job, the more likely that it will be taken over by machines.
I do have a friend who has his own growing accountancy firm, and he says it’s very hard to find good staff these days. He still needs people who can see what clients want and advise, especially since every company is a bit different. Those are things that machines can’t do (yet?).
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Once DH met up with a friend who just returned from US. He told DH that the job displacement is already happening in US and at a very aggressive pace. Prior to that, a job that needs 10 accountants may only need 3 now. In Singapore, we are always slower than US so we have yet to see it here but I guess it’s just a matter of time.
Maybe long working hours, burnt out and low pay attributed to your friend having difficulties to retain good accounting staff.
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Unless a child is going into a highly specialized field, don’t think they will be too confined to a specific path or industry.
What is important is being able to embrace change and learn / re-learn fast.
Jamie Dimon says to get a job at JPMorgan, what you study in college ‘almost doesn’t matter’
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jamie-dimon-says-job-jpmorgan-220827006.html
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Chance upon these series of interviews on what NUS/NTU/SMU students think about their respective Uni. Get to hear some candid replies. The ones that left some impressions on me are from NTU students: their “Starwars” problem , monkey stealing food, and a student chose NTU bcos NTU offered him a scholarship. My daughter is offered a provisional scholarship by NTU too but SMU is her first choice, even without scholarship. I told her I will support her decision.
https://youtu.be/N3O109N8Auo?si=LMLwc20ALAHymg5W
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