A feather in the CAP

Hi,

Further to your first reply, i would like to add that there is an unwritten rule of ‘good class of honours’ generally means ‘second uppers and above’.

Basically, there are 2 issues at hand regards to your post.

(1) You mentioned that the private sector does not bother about the class of degree. This is not true, in fact, there are some private organisations that look *only* at the class of degree as a first step in recruiting graduates. Unfortunate as it sounds, such companies look at the degree classification to ascertain if your application goes into the shredding machine or to the HR manager. So CAP does matter indirectly in seeking for jobs both in public and private sectors – since CAP leads to the degree classification.

(2) This comes to another point of contention which is the CAP system itself. Not too long ago, someone wrote into the local papers regarding the computation of CAP, point being that one can get straight B+ throughout the entire four years, but if you get a few Cs here and there, then your chances of second uppers disappears – a very unforgiving nature.

NTU used to implement a system without CAP but introduced it for the recent batches to increase transparency. Apparently, the final class of honours in NTU (before the CAP system was implemented) was determined by computing the subjects students take, with increasing emphasis being placed in senior years rather than junior years, the method of computation is not known at all. This is in contrast to NUS CAP computation which places more emphasis on the first few semesters as your CAP experiences the largest movements in the first few semesters before finally settling to a steady state in your final year.

Hello,

What I meant was that there are a number of private organisations that are well-known to ‘only hire the best’. Off the top of my head, I can name some companies in my field that I am in. (Please feel free to censor these company names should you feel that its necessary). I’m from chem engine, by the way

For instance, most of chem engrs know that Exxonmobil/SRC (Singapore Refining Company) usually will hire the cream of the cohort, to an extent that seniors and grand-seniors will tell juniors as that ‘if you are not second uppers and above material, your job application, resume will go directly to the shredding machine’ – these are reputable firms with high standards and are definitely the best places for a young engineer to start out (Engineering is a discipline that relies heavily on on-site experiences, in addition to being creative, not very much like arts which demand a person to be creative and innovative) From then on, if you decide to switch jobs or to jump ship to another company, chances are that you are very highly sought after (by other oil-related companies or competitors) when you leave these oil giants.

Then again, the starting pay for these oil giants are very high (in comparison with other lesser companies hiring chem engrs for engineering tasks).

I would go as far to say that the same thing happens in the private sector as the public section (meaning the starting pay is closely tied to honours classification), *only* difference being that at least in the private sector, you have a chance to ‘redeem’ yourself when you change jobs, most companies will want to look at your job performance of your last employment. That is to say that if you perform well in your job despite starting off at a lower scale, there is a chance you can still get a leg up later in life, provided you perform on the job.

Not sure whether you understood my earlier intention and apologies in advance for not making it clear