Since I often get asked the question of why I dislike working for my country's government, I thought it'd be a better idea if I put it into writing. I would, in particular, like to address this post to Benedict, who is currently keeping a lookout for IT-related jobs for his freshly graduated GF. Nothing I am writing is new, and whatever material I am posting here has already been covered in the papers over and over again. I am just reorganising the material.
First, understand that potential and performance are two qualities that lead to very distinct consequences in the official appraisal system. One can be judged as having high potential but in practice performs terribly,or, alternatively, one's performance can be judged as outstanding, and yet have his potential assessed as being low.
Now, Performance is linked to annual bonuses and increments, whereas potential is linked to promotions. The govenment measures potential through your CEP, or current estimated potential, score. Factors contributing to a good CEP score are scholarly-like academic results from young, having undertaken leadership roles in NS, > 2nd upper grades from NUS (notice that I intentionally left out the other local unis) or qualifications from an Ivy League or equivalent institute. And of course, who could forget the psychometric test that everyone of us has to undergo when we apply for that civil service job.
What this effectively means that your CEP score is assigned to you even before your first day of work. Thus you can see that nothing you do in terms of actual work, (whether it is utterly brilliant or utterly dumb) can actually affect your CEP score. And of course, disclosures of your score will never be made known.
If you do badly in school and join the service, your CEP score will be assessed as low. Even if you produce top tier work year after year, you will get promoted slowly, if at all. Now suppose a PSC scholar performs terribly year after year. He will not get good bonuses, because bonuses are tied in with performance. But he will get promoted yearly because his CEP score has been assessed as high. This is because CEP is a measure of your latent abilities that cannot change.
To quote someone else:
"Thus how much career success you can achieve in the civil service, by the age of 45 or 50, has already been determined. It was determined when you were 22 or 24 years, at the time you first joined the civil service, on your very first day at work. Sorry, before your first day at work."
The development of the sequel to the game that radically changed the RTS scene has been announced. Yes, there will be a Starcraft 2. And you can be 15025326% sure that I'll buy the original.
I can't wait till 2008.
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