The best thing that ever happened to me was my Poly Education

Recently, a blogger wrote a post to declare that Poly kids (including his) have no future in Singapore and that their private university certificate is not going to get them anywhere. Thus, they are better off skipping that useless private university education, get into the workforce early to start earning some income to create their passive investment portfolio. After which, they should perhaps migrate to somewhere cheap and live their lowly lives there. Singapore has no place for them. 

Since I am a graduate from poly, I thought I should write a post to console his poor kid and many other soon to be poly students, uni rejects, and parents that their life is NOT over in Singapore.

I graduated from one of the top JCs in Singapore. Thus, not making the mark into local university was quite an unpleasant experience. I’m glad my parent didn’t have the internet or social networks to rant on then :-p. The only wise choice was to go poly and later did I realised this was the best thing that ever happened to me.

#1 Find your passion

The beauty about going poly is that you get to pick courses you truly enjoy. According to a study by talent firm Awn Hewitt, Singapore employees are the least engaged in Asia. Why is that so, maybe this has to do with our education system. Everyone is just studying to fulfill a certain score which hopefully gets them into a seat in the local university. Thus, when our graduates get into the workforce, we are just working for a salary and hoping to eventually reach the top of the ladder. It may not be what we truly loved or enjoy, thus least engagement.

I noticed that whenever I had gatherings with my JC mates, I would be the only one excitedly talking about the work that I am doing and dreams. They seemed pretty miserable and unmotivated with their work.

#2 The world is your stage

After poly, going into a university is still a wise choice. You can either opt to enter the local universities (2 years, I think) or overseas university(1-1.5 years). Our poly has affiliates with many foreign universities (typically UK and Australia) where you get exemptions to complete your study, For example, it only took me approx 1- 1.5 years to finish my studies. Your certificate is the same as any normal graduates from that foreign universities and these universities can be pretty well-known and respected within their country or even worldwide. In fact, I remembered during one of my early interviews with an MNC, the hirer actually commented that I came from a good university and he was from the other side of the continent.

The experience staying and studying overseas will change and transform you. Your world becomes bigger and your ambitions are not just limited to Singapore. That was the difference I saw between me and my JC mates. I was constantly trying to get myself posted all over the world. Their world is always Singapore, Singapore and Singapore. I think this may have changed recently as our local university graduates now have exchange programs.

#3 Your career has nothing to do with that paper after the 2nd move.

The only time people looked at where you graduate from is during your first interview. After that, nobody cares unless you’ve written a really lousy resume or you graduate from Harvard or Stanford or you are trying to get into the government or research units.

The Singapore government has a system that really discriminates poly graduates. I was working in a government agency for 6 months to earn my university school fees. They have different ladders for different class of graduates. If you are a first class honors or above, you have a special path where you get a mentor to groom you up the ladder. If you are anything below and degree graduate, you are just a worker. If you are poly graduate, you will never reach the level of a university graduate regardless how hard you try. It’s a completely different promotion ladder altogether. I am not sure whether this has changed. So poly graduates, don’t waste your time there. 

#4 The future is for the creators 

One of the beauty about studying in poly is that it’s very hands-on and practical. They have projects that really prepares you for the workforce and challenges your creativity. With the upcoming 4th industrial revolution, I believe that the creators and innovators are the winners in the future workforce.  

BTW, do you know that the Carousell Founder Quek Siu Rui and Creative Founder Sim Wong Hoo graduated from poly? 

http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/news/1208/PDF/ACE-st-19aug-p36.pdf

#5 I am a woman

If it consoles you further, I am a woman. According to statistics, I am suppose to earn 18% less than man. If you scroll through my timeline, you will see that my first pay check was only $2,200. My poly education didn’t stop any local or MNCs from hiring me. In fact, I even managed to secure an expat contract overseas.

My income so far has been decent (I don’t think I earn much less than my JC mates) and  I think my journey so far has been very fruitful and fulfilling. If I were to turn back the clock, I would still pick poly + foreign university over local university.

One more thing, please do not skip university to earn income to build a passive investment portfolio and always listen to Crazy Rich Warren Buffet, “You should never borrow to invest in the stock market”.

I hope this post gives the soon-to-be poly students, uni rejects and parents some perspectives. Your only limit is YOU.

  1. Hi

    I am also a poly graduate and subsequently took a private degree. I agree with you that the government agency does not recognise the effort of poly graduates. I started my career in a government agency. I realised that my private degree was not regarded as the requistic for the so called “Division 1” category after getting my degree through part-time study

    I subsequently moved on to the private sector. The private sector focused on the performance in which I was rewarded for my effort.

    The above situation goes to show that there is always an option for poly graduate for progression if he/she is willing to venture out to the other arena.

    WTK

  2. Lady You Can Be Free,

    I was scratching my head when I find trash talking about poly graduates recently.

    When I were in secondary school 35 years and more ago, parents were proudly showing off their ah boy or ah girl went to poly to other parents!

    I guess not fun for mom when she had to reply I went to “Metro” after my O’ levels. Talk about awkward pause.

    LOL!

    Really? Standards have gone done so much in 30 years!?

    Fantastic! Finally someone did some cheerleading for Poly graduates 😉

    You go girl!

    If we let a piece of paper “define” who we are, then we pretty much deserve what treatments others gave us.

  3. Smol,

    I agree with you. We judge ourselves and not judged by others. There is no point in deciphering the view of other on ourselves. It’s none of their concern. The most important thing is how we view ourselves and give ourselves the right to live on our own term.

    Poly graduates are also pillar of the society. They also contribute to the economy of the country. I do not understand why some organisation disregard their capability without giving them a chance. Such organisations do not deserve working for. There are so many organisation the poly graduate can work for and their effort will be given due recognition if they can deliver the results.

    WTK

    • Lady, You Can Be Free

      Hi SMOL and WTK,
      I wasn’t too affected by the discrimination. It happens all the time to us woman :). I just ignore them or sometimes use it to my advantage.

      I feel sorry that the blogger is having a hard time starting out a new career and trying to promote his investment training business to feed his over-leveraged portfolio and family. However, I am worried that innocent young teenagers who are currently at a crossroad, will just take his advise innocently. This is a critical juncture for them and any missteps could be a disaster for their future.

  4. Thirteen

    IQ (your education) gets you the job, EQ (your attitude) get you the promotion and AQ (your resilience) ensures you stay there… I am also a poly grad since 1995 and did not manage to upgrade due to commitments in life… I am not saying I am successful in life but I have a fully paid for 5 roomer HDB, currently staying in a 2 room condo and also have an apartment in Malaysia. I am practicality debt free and building my retirement nest… emergency funds of 1 year and invest in the rest…in two more years I would have met the FRS 181,500 and building up my spouse one as well…
    I hope to be financially independent at 55years (in 12 years time) and trying to beat inflation by 1m55, dividends in stocks, ETFs and REITS.

    • Lady, You Can Be Free

      Hi Thirteen,
      Awesome and well said ! Love your IQ, EQ, AQ ! I hope more poly grads come forward to share their stories and experience so that the younger ones can be more confident of the path they have taken and learnt from the missteps that we may have taken.

  5. Hey there! I think I might have read that not-so-positive post about poly grads. Thanks for speaking up for poly education. I’m a poly grad too and still end up pretty ok in life. Don’t have my 7 figures yet, but it’s not my dream anyway. That one piece of paper is just an introduction to the world. The rest is really up to the individual. And you’ve done SO VERY WELL for yourself and your loved ones. Blessings.

    • Lady, You Can Be Free

      Hi latemonkey,
      Good to meet a fellow poly mate. So true, the rest is up to individual, one piece of paper is just an introduction to the world!
      All the best to you in fulfilling your dreams 🙂

    • Lady, You Can Be Free

      Hi Curious to Know,
      No. I mean “NEVER borrow to invest !!”

  6. RemantSector

    Hey there, i came across this amazing site and thought i could leave some comment too. I’m too grad from poly with starting salary of less than 2k, but i doing pretty decent. Thanks to the huge hands on and early technical skill i gained, my growth was much faster than my co-colleague then. i did not gave up continual study too, and took my part time degree while working full time. today, i see myself doing pretty decent. @ 35 year of age, i’m debt free and had cleared my exec HDB loan, cleared my car loan, exceeded my FPR CPF limit, saved enough for a years job crisis and pretty much the rest in sizable investment. i would really like the world to know, education does not matter on the paper, but how you use your skill gained from the studies to make you stand out.

    • Lady, You Can Be Free

      Hi RemantSector,
      Thanks for the beautiful sharing :).

  7. Thomas Heng

    IQ (Intelligent quotient – your education/experience) gets you the job, EQ (Emotional Quotient -how you treat others and yourself) gets you the promotion, AQ (Adveristy Quotient – Problem solving) makes sure you stay there…

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