even u want to work for the nation, u r much much better off in the
non-uniformed civil service...
DXO is non-uniformed. They don't get uniformed pay. They don't
wear uniform to work. DXO is just Mindef's way of saying normal
exec like those who apply to MOM, MOH, etc. DXO have no rank
(military rank lah eg LTA, CPT). Then u may wonder why Mindef so
'eng' got special name for their normal G2000 shirt wearing execs?
Cos Mindef is the one ministry (besides MHA) that have a
predominantly uniformed workforce lah. Thats why got special name.
It makes sense that the term DXO was coined more to convenience
themselves in-house when the the uniforms speak to one another to
refer to the minority in Mindef in CVs. Basically within Mindef,
there is uniformed and then non uniformed, both have different
salary scales. Then within uniformed, there are even more subsets
of species (scholar vs farmer, officer vs spec, combat vs combat
support vs combat service support) and pecking orders. Life and of
cos pay scale for each species are different from another.
DXO are generally degree holders as this is the stated mimimum
requirement qualification-wise for most of the DXO jobs. But there
are some rare positions that are dip + experience, but these are
rarer. As per all govt jobs, unless you have 2nd upper and above
dun bother applying. Even different grade of hons makes a
difference to the pay. If you have a recognised 2nd upper degree
and made it to OCS, rather than be DXO may as well sign on as LSA
which is given out in lelong quantities easily to any tom, dick and
harry. Cos the pay will be much more and at least got more
glamour.
And just like LSA, as a DXO no matter how much you work, you
will never rise very high, they are normally hired in droves to
fill mostly entry level and to a lesser extent some mid level jobs
in Mindef. The top posts are all filled by the uniformed which is
logical and justified, because Mindef IS a uniformed ministry
controlling a fully uniformed force (SAF). And no matter how hard
you work your butt off, you will forever be reporting to some BG.
If you look at the top people in Mindef, the ministers and perm
secs (PS) ... of cos they are civilian non uniformed, don't
think its some consolation lah. Cos they are former
uniformed also.
Air traffic controllers get uniformed pay, but they are not
combatants and neither do they do combatant work. They are also
commissioned and have a rank. People who wish to get high uniformed
pay and want to enjoy air-con relaxed environment can consider air
traffic controller..
