Logo
    • Education
      • Pre-School
      • Primary Schools Directory
      • Primary Schools Articles
      • P1 Registration
      • DSA
      • PSLE
      • Secondary
      • Tertiary
      • Special Needs
    • Lifestyle
      • Well-being
    • Activities
      • Events
    • Enrichment & Services
      • Find A Service Provider
      • Enrichment Articles
      • Enrichment Services
      • Tuition Centre/Private Tutor
      • Infant Care/ Childcare / Student Care Centre
      • Kindergarten/Preschool
      • Private Institutions and International Schools
      • Special Needs
      • Indoor & Outdoor Playgrounds
      • Paediatrics
      • Neonatal Care
    • Forum
    • ASKQ
    • Register
    • Login

    Starting salary

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Tertiary Education - A-Levels, Diplomas, Degrees
    48 Posts 1 Posters 37.0k Views 1 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • sharonkhooS Offline
      sharonkhoo
      last edited by

      If you are referring to civil service, I don’t think there was ever a distinction between 1st class and other honours degree holders? I think the line was set between upper and lower 2nd class honours, and between honours and general degrees? Can’t quite remember now. I do remember that there was no distinction between upper 2nd honours and a masters! And I don’t think there was any difference between local and overseas universities; it was based on class of degree. But I don’t know how it works now.


      Private organisations may have been different. I would think a lot depends on how they see the candidate, not just his paper qualifications.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M Offline
        mjl
        last edited by

        ngl2010:
        Last time, first class honours fresh graduate will get higher starting salary. Is it still true now?


        How about local graduate vs overseas graduate (Ivy League university)? Which one will get higher starting salary?

        TIA
        My daughter's friend who will be starting work in a govt organisation soon, he has a 2nd Class upper honours and his pay is about $100 less than one with first class honours but $500 more than one with 2nd Class lower honours.

        My daughter will be graduating from NTU soon, and will be joining an investment company (doing Tech), her starting pay is the same as her future colleague who is graduating from Cambridge, doing the same job.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • lee_ylL Offline
          lee_yl
          last edited by

          \"Skills, not degree, at a premium now.\" :razz: jokes aside...


          For the civil service, those with 1st class Hons & 2nd Upper Hons will come under special consideration, and some premium schemes (such as AO) only recruit those with with 2nd Upper Hons and above. For engineering graduates, with the introduction of an engineering incentive in the civil service, the starting pay for a guy with 1st class Hons BEng could reach $4.8K.
          One department I know don't even recruit 2nd Lower nowadays.

          They also have a higher starting pay than those with 2nd Lower Hons even though all of them may start at the same grade, for example, graduates join at MX13, starting pay can be $500 difference.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • sharonkhooS Offline
            sharonkhoo
            last edited by

            mjl:
            My daughter's friend who will be starting work in a govt organisation soon, he has a 2nd Class upper honours and his pay is about $100 less than one with first class honours but $500 more than one with 2nd Class lower honours.

            That's very fine distinctions! It sounds like it's going against the trend now? Is the difference only because of the class of degree or are there any other differences in experience, other skills etc between the 3?

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • N Offline
              ngl2010
              last edited by

              slmkhoo:
              If you are referring to civil service, I don't think there was ever a distinction between 1st class and other honours degree holders? I think the line was set between upper and lower 2nd class honours, and between honours and general degrees? Can't quite remember now. I do remember that there was no distinction between upper 2nd honours and a masters! And I don't think there was any difference between local and overseas universities; it was based on class of degree. But I don't know how it works now.


              Private organisations may have been different. I would think a lot depends on how they see the candidate, not just his paper qualifications.
              Our family friend who became a teacher 30+ years ago told us that her starting salary as first class honours graduate was $400 higher than non-first class honours graduate (she didn't say whether they are 2nd class honours upper, lower or general). So I wonder how it is now.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • M Offline
                mjl
                last edited by

                slmkhoo:
                That's very fine distinctions! It sounds like it's going against the trend now? Is the difference only because of the class of degree or are there any other differences in experience, other skills etc between the 3?

                All 3 are fresh graduates and have done internship with the organisation. The civil service tends to give a starting salary based on the class of degree, not by skills and job experience.

                It is very important to do internships during undergrad years. My daughter and most of her friends received job offers from the organisations that they had interned with, a year before they graduate.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • starlight1968sgS Offline
                  starlight1968sg
                  last edited by

                  Nowadays fresh grad are earning much though am ignoring the inflation

                  I remembered my first gross pay in 1991 was $1841 and after CPF deduction, the take home pay was only $1600+

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • sharonkhooS Offline
                    sharonkhoo
                    last edited by

                    starlight1968sg:
                    Nowadays fresh grad are earning much though am ignoring the inflation

                    I remembered my first gross pay in 1991 was $1841 and after CPF deduction, the take home pay was only $1600+
                    My starting salary (gross) was $1600 in 1986, after the pay reduction because of the recession. I was at NTU for a talk yesterday, and they flashed a table showing that starting salaries were around $3K to $3.3K for graduates from most courses.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • lee_ylL Offline
                      lee_yl
                      last edited by

                      mjl:

                      The civil service tends to give a starting salary based on the class of degree, not by skills and job experience.
                      To give credibility to the government's emphasis on skills, the civil service should lead by example.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0

                      Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.

                      Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.

                      With your input, this post could be even better 💗

                      Register Login
                      • 1
                      • 2
                      • 3
                      • 4
                      • 5
                      • 1 / 5
                      • First post
                        Last post



                      Online Users

                      Recent Topics
                      New to the KiasuParents forum? Tips and Tricks!
                      How do you maintain your relationship with your spouse?
                      Budgeting for tougher times ahead. What's yours?
                      SkillsFuture + anything related to upskilling/learning something new!
                      My girl keeps locking her door. And I don't like it
                      How much do you spend on the kids' tuition/enrichments?
                      DSA 2026
                      PSLE Discussions and Strategies

                      Statistics

                      4

                      Online

                      210.5k

                      Users

                      34.1k

                      Topics

                      1.8m

                      Posts
                        About Us Contact Us forum Terms of Service Privacy Policy