- Joined
- Jun 4, 2024
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By Jules of Singapore

When I graduated a decade ago with a degree in Life Sciences and the government promise of a good job in a future industry, I never expected to take a month to land a job.
My first full-time job at a private education company paid a basic salary of $1,800 a month. So much for the value of a degree.
The perks of my job were being able to ghost write assessment books under other authors’ names, teaching 10 two-hour classes a week and not being able to see the sunset on a regular basis. But I also gained the humble experience of washing toilets, taking class attendance and selling stationery at the front counter, which are essential tasks to running a small business and it is hard to find enough people to do.

This is the reality of many graduates who pay tens of thousands to obtain a paper qualification because we are needed to run the future economy and fulfill the dreams of our parents.
I wonder how graduates nowadays feel when they read the news of fresh graduates earning a median monthly gross salary of $3,300 (or a monthly basic salary of $2,820) and realise they aren’t even there yet!
How accurate is the survey? I can’t say for sure, knowing that once I was informed by a university representative that we should refrain from the hassle of filling in the survey if our pay didn’t hit our expectations.
I wonder how graduates nowadays feel when they read the news of fresh graduates earning a median monthly gross salary of $3,300 (or a monthly basic salary of $2,820) and realise they aren’t even there yet!
How accurate is the survey? I can’t say for sure, knowing that once I was informed by a university representative that we should refrain from the hassle of filling in the survey if our pay didn’t hit our expectations.

To my friends in the Financial sector, thank you for propping up the economy with higher productivity levels than the rest of us. Your pay scale and perks are enviable (7 month bonuses for a diploma holder who only joined for 2 months???), but many of you are getting retrenched and left in the cold.
Life is unfair and no one with a degree, Masters or Ph.D. is immune from being let go (I should know).
It’s not a joke that you are being retrenched now. I sincerely hope you do have enough savings because your financial background makes it easier for you to understand the importance of emergency funds and hedging your bets.
More at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2016/03/how-useless-is-your-degree.html