Man earns S$5K from odd jobs asks what proper jobs offer now

SINGAPORE: A man took to social media asking about the discrepancies in starting salaries.

In an anonymous post to popular confessions page NUSWhispers, the man wrote that he has held multiple odd jobs since graduating in 2020 where they paid about S$5,000 but had very few prospects for career progression. “Also made my degree look completely useless”, he wrote. “This probably made sense in 2020 when the “proper” jobs I applied for all low-balled me at only 2-3k (which could barely cover rent, food, bills, tuition loans, public transport at that time omg)”, the man added. He then asked about his prospects if we were to join the “formal” workforce.

“But wondering if I start considering applying for and joining the “formal” workforce now that it looks like the job market is recovering (and that I’m financially more stable). Curious to also know what typical progression rate is like”, the man added in his post. While no one commented on his post, a similar question was posed by another who was working in the audit industry.

The other netizen working in the audit industry for two years took to social media, stating that his salary was still lower than that of fresh graduates. In an anonymous post to popular confessions page NUSWhispers, the man asked: “Wondering do fresh grad really earns that much nowadays?”. He added that he saw a post that mentioned that graduates earn a salary of S$4,000 to S$5,000. “Is the median pay really ~4.5k for fresh grad?” he asked. The man said that when he just started working, his salary was a low S$3,000.

“After working in the audit industry for 2 years, my salary is currently still lower than those fresh graduates despite working for long hours. Am I getting low balled or it’s just unfortunate that I’m in the wrong industry” he asked others in the group.

Man in workforce for 2 years says his salary is lower than fresh grads; asks if median pay for them is about S$4.5K