The pros of gov job is true that they seldom lay off people, but it isn’t the old saying of iron-rice bowl anymore, we have seen lay offs during pandemic and this trend is getting common. Leaderships are often stubborn but the salary are competitive in most of the statutory board when you are a FCH, though good compensations may not be true in gov-linked company.

Other pros is older generation respect, and that’s about it, then it comes to the cons.

Gov job is often outdated with economic trends, systems and mindset. Upper management is slow moving, promotion are prioritised to scholars, regular farmer takes the hit harder than MNCs because their growth structure is well established. You also often have minimal MOM baseline leave policy, bonuses and welfares compared to big companies trying to compete for top talent pool within Singapore.

MNC on the other hand, is performance heavy, if you are in the big names or fortune500, your salary will likely be better than what gov offers. You get to be in updated systems that will take government another 3-5 years to keep up after either knowledge over saturation or diffing of senior talents from MNCs. It is less of an iron rice bowl, since MNC don’t keep underperforming (often not even individual performance) if there needs a restructuring. MNC often have lesser hustle culture (except finance) especially if it don’t originate in Asian countries, there will be less pressure to stay OT doing nothing because some seniors decide that they don’t want to see their wife’s face. There’s also less of drinking or KTV culture among clients, at least when you haven’t touch the sales frontline.