Redditer: Overseas scholar, horrendously jaded by working in government, AMA

[Tragedeigh]

Overseas scholar, horrendously jaded by working in government, AMA​

Discussion

I studied in the UK/US at a great uni and am currently serving my 6 year bond. My work thus far in the public service for an economic related Ministry/Statboard has been so bad and I honestly preferred my time serving NS in my chiong sua combat unit…. If I had known what it’d be like I would’ve passed on the scholarship and gone to local U happily

Micromanaging bosses, meaningless paper pushing work, bizarre SOPs and internal office initiatives are bad enough. Realizing that I’m not developing any skills and that I will be so irrelevant to any decent company outside govt/SG after my bond is another thing entirely. I believe in helping the public and volunteer extensively outside in my local CC, so I came into the job a year ago with lots of enthusiasm but now I feel completely dead inside. I sense that my leaders + bosses + colleagues are mostly very uninspirational and do not care about excellence or actually creating impactful outcomes at work - they’re happy to show up and skate by on the bare minimum. Comparing this to NS in the army (which is also a govt organisation): at least I genuinely respected some of my NS regulars who were really damn good at certain aspects of their intense job. I can’t say the same about ANYONE where I work.

While abroad, I interned at pretty good MNCs and had return offers, but of course I couldn’t take them due to the bond. Saw all my friends go on to earn big bucks but more importantly, open up way more doors for their future career trajectory by starting their career in coveted roles. Despite being initially promised exciting exposure to policy and shaping national strategies when I signed the scholarship, I’m now working in ultra-generalist menial roles that I genuinely think a secondary school kid could do. Feel like I was sold lies coming out of JC as I haven’t used my brain since joining or learnt a single useful thing that’d give me any leverage in the job market if I wanted to leave. The other scholars around and above me are all either resigned to their fate, or also horrendously unhappy. Why did the govt pay $500k for each of us to come back and rot?

I feel like I’ve been pushed and pushed myself my whole life to excel ambitiously. But in govt, there’s hardly a no point (or benchmark) for achieving excellence because my work is so slow and detached from driving real outcomes, and the bonus structure doesn’t give me any real incentive to do so. This would be a great job if all I wanted to do was lepak and collect the steady paycheck but I feel like I am just wasting my life.

I have actually made some money trading stocks and I am in a position to break my bond soon, am recruiting very heavily to get out of it which provides some solace. But man does it make me sad to realise how much time I wasted, and how the system here is wasting their human capital investments.

Almost every overseas scholar I’ve met across agencies and through friends hates their life and shares similar sentiments. Especially those that made the most of their experience abroad and didn’t just stay to the SG bubble.

The people at the top need to seriously re-examine how they develop talent or even hand out these scholarships - the current system is a product of a bygone era and sticking to it just will create a massive adverse selection problem for our country’s future. When your ‘brightest’ and most dynamic people come back to sub par opportunities, they’re gonna leave or break their bond ASAP. The yes men are predominantly the ones that stay in govt and rise up to become our future leaders and politicians. It’s very insular, and maybe this is why most new policies that come out of the government these days (especially related to job creation and upskilling) feels backward looking, behind the curve, and attempting to address problems from a highly detached position.

All I can say is, my exit interview will be glorious. Feel free to ask me anything, not like I’m doing anything important at work

 

[nabeifuckpap]

Only stupid people sign on PAP system

 

[eatshitndie]

if bored and unappreciated he can proposed writing a paper on why sinkies like to take upskirt pics, sniff soiled panties, steal washed panties, live lonely lives, stay away from women (like one samster here), and die alone with foul odor causing neighbors to vomit. all of the above have economic and population growth (thus gdp growth) implications.