SINGAPORE: A man took to social media complaining that having a degree from a local University only made his life worse. In an anonymous post to popular confessions page SGWhispers, the man wrote that he graduated with a Computer Science degree and has been working as a Cyber-security Engineer. “However, I am not well paid and take home only $4k+ after CPF deduction”, he said.
Referring to In-Camp Training (ICT) during National Service, the man added: “While going back for my first ICT, I got to catchup with my comrades whom I have not seen for years. Almost everyone drove a car to camp and intending to purchase a condo has (sic) they have their BTO already. Those were the ones who didn’t enter a local university after their diploma or A levels and decided to start their own business. Meanwhile, those who are broke just like me who took public transport to the camp, did not dare to start our business because we did not want to waste our degree and also do not have the courage to suddenly not have a monthly cashflow from our 9-7 job”.
He said he was still trying to find the courage to start a business. “For those of you who are considering starting a business or accepting a local uni’s offer, I would highly encourage you to choose the former. Having a 9-7 job pay you peanuts unless you are a lawyer or a doctor working for years”, the man advised others.
Netizens who commented on the man’s post advised: “Do you know 90% of entrepreneurs fail in the first 5 yrs? Do you know 90% of those who survived for the first 5 yrs fail? Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, what you see is just the glamor…You didn’t see the struggles, the late nights and the sacrifices they had to make. Want to be rich without running your own biz? Learn investing…. It’s not that degree make life worse… It’s your tunnel vision that need[s] fixing”.
Another commented: “Correlation, not causation. As a degree holder, you will be better off salary-wise than a non-degree holder. How much better off is debatable, and there is a diminishing marginal utility curve with this. But salary alone is not the only cause behind money. Might want to figure out what these bo tak cek (uneducated) people do to compensate for lack of paper qualification salary.