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Added on November 12, 2012, 5:28 am
quite a number of folks here have that salary range. budget a bit, resist all the temptations and saving up to s$800 per month is possible. 
Malaysian or not, all pay taxes based on the same calculations.

But do they know how good is your uni?for them, they already know the quality of the freshie from NUS, talking about ranking mean your uni is on top on NUS in the international chart?share with us your uni

When you are looking for job, those thing that you never really cares about are mostly the thing that interviewer care,if they heard about your uni, then you can rank it, if not, most uni also below NUS ranking, hence they offer you salary for a normal ranking salary. Your University ranking determined its popularity hence determined your salary at the beginning when you just graduated. only when you have experience, then university is no longer important.

when it comes to actual hiring, name recognition, reputation and good or bad press / impression makes all the difference.

It's all about something advertisers call mindshare.

Nobody really keeps up to date with rankings religiously, year after year. What matters is whether your university has stuck in the minds of the hiring managers. Ivy League, Oxbridge and ancients/redbricks are there because people remember them. People identify them with a certain perception. If they are up a few places in one ranking one year, down a few places in another ranking another year really makes no difference. Sure, if they screw up their rankings for 10-15 years and get caught in some sort of degree mill scandal - that might hurt them. But otherwise, it's all about the reputation and the hold the name has on the mind of the individual hiring you.

For instance for me, I'm quite cognizant of the Asian, Aussie and UK universities. I can probably rank each one into a few buckets according to my perception of how good they are. My knowledge of US and non-English speaking European universities however is rather sparse, except for the usual suspects like Harvard, Princeton, MIT, UCLA etc. And it probably doesn't help that I've been indoctrinated since young by my UK educated elders that American bachelors degrees are not worth the parchment they are printed on. That you need a masters for your US education to carry any actual weight.

So if it were me hiring, I'd put NUS quite a ways ahead of Illinois. I've heard of Illinois but it doesn't mean anything more to me compared to... say Buffalo, Rhode Island or Michigan. Not immediately bad but doesn't excite me either. Certainly "top" would not be the adjective I would use to describe it. NUS on the other hand, I have extensive exposure to. Read about it all the time. Meet its graduates every day. It's inevitable that I will believe that NUS is better than Illinois hands down.

It will be the reverse if you are interviewing in the US or Canada, I suppose. But you are looking for a job in Singapore... so I hope you have been diplomatic about it.

UIUC? They have a R&D centre in fusionopolis. If you are in CS or ComE and you are good, give it a try.

So, the new US degree have the UK rating "First class" printed on it?

In some extend, most local Gov body and private company only know a few top names in US, the rest are "NO CLASS" degree according to their perception.

There are good Uni, good unique program from US. If you really have the confident with your skill, find a jobs for US MNC first before you branch out. UK trained boss will always think their education is better, you may not have a fair review in the beginning.

Which field? Why didn't you consider working in the states?

SGD2.5k is pretty low for a Deg holder.

Don't mind if i ask a unrelated question.. How much and how long did you spend for your studies in the states?

Oh well, economy is on the downturn.. SG is also tightening up the foreign labour pool.

I think you should aim for 2.8, but if you don't mind 2.5 is pretty decent living as well.

Tax wise, almost negligible, less than SGD200.

http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page04.aspx?id=282