Hello
Let me try to help you out with this one. I am currently in service
and will try to sketch out the career path, the conditions and the
pay..of course without infringing on OSA. As I am not an
engineering officer, I am not that qualified to speak about the
tech branch and will not elaborate on it.
Basically, upon signing on, you will spend about 8 to 9 months in
Midshipman Wing in SAFTI OCS. If you are a graduate, your take home
pay should hover around 2000-2200. The Midshipman course is divided
into 3 phases - Basic Naval Term, Midshipman Sea Training
Deployment and the Advance Naval Term. In BNT, you will learn about
the basic knowledge such as the Rules of the Road (the traffic code
at sea), basic chart work and other navigational fundamentals which
you must know for your work at sea. In MSTD, you will basically go
on a cruise of between 3 to 4 weeks onboard an LST, visiting about
2 to 3 ports in the region. MSTD is generally regarded as the most
fun but the toughest part of the training and most of the time you
will feel tired 
It will expose you to what the navy is all
about. After MSTD, in ANT you will be given more advanced but still
rudimentary training in navigation and warfare related subjects.
You will also go for training deployments onboard the mine counter
measure vessels and the patrol vessels.
Upon commissioning, you be posted to the ships where you will be
known as an Attached Officer. You will spend 3 to 4 months learning
about the ship and how to perform the duties of the Officer of the
Day (OOD) - the equivalent of the army DSO. However, you will be
required to know much more than them. You will learn about fire
fighting, ceremonies and protocols, the SOPs for all the various
shipboard activities. After that, you will be certified in a
practical assessment and awarded your Certificate of Competency.
Upon getting your COC, you will be posted to Naval Advanced School
(NAS) for about 3 months where you will begin the training to earn
your Bridge Watch Keeping Certificate (BWC) which will qualify you
to keep watch onboard a ship out at sea and a Navigator Certificate
which will qualify you to be a navigating officer onboard ships.
This training will extend beyond the 3 months in NAS to another 3
to 4 months onboard ship. After which only you will become a
Navigating Officer. Contrary to what most people think, Officers do
not learn a lot of rope work or basic housekeeping stuff such as
paint chipping or line throwing.
You will serve about 6 to 1 year as a navigating officer before you
proceed back to NAS where you can choose a number of specialisation
courses of about a month to 2 months. After graduation, you will
become either a weapons officer, communication and electronics
officer, mine hunting officer or an anti submarine warfare officer.
I think all these terms are pretty self explanatory. You will spend
about 1 to 2 years in these appointments before proceeding for a 4
months course back in NAS - The Naval Warfare Officer Course. This
course will teach you naval warfighting tactics and doctrines,
qualifying you to lead a team of specialists in the combat
information centre of the ships to fight a battle at sea. You will
return to ships to become and Ops Officer and then an Executive
Officer (2nd in Command). This tour will probably be about 2 years.
At this point, you should be around 29 to 30, assuming you graduate
from school with a basic degree at around 23 to 24. Of course, it
is also possible now to be awarded the SAF Post Graduate Award for
you to pursue a masters somewhere.
Next, you will proceed to a staff tour in MINDEF/HQ RSN/ Formation
HQ or go to Singapore Command and Staff College for an 8 months
course called the Command and Staff Course (CSC), preparing you for
a LTC appt. The staff tours will last between 2 to 3 years after
which you will return to ship for a junior command, in command of
the patrol vessels and the mine hunters. After that you will
proceed to another senior staff appointment in the mentioned places
for about 2 to 3 years before returning to hold a senior command
onboard a missile corvettes, landing ship tanks or an Executive
Officer or Operation Officers onboard the Frigates. The subsequent
tours will be quite diverse already and I will not go further. By
now, you could be between 35 to 38 perharps
As for living conditions and routines onboard ships, it varies
actually. If you are onboard the patrol vessels and mine hunters,
you should expect about 10 to 12 days out at sea per month on
average with each sailing duration of between 2 to 3 days. If you
are onboard the LST, you should expect fewer frequency of sailing
but each of longer duration. The same applies for the frigates and
the missile corvettes. For example, a deployment to the Arabian
Gulf could last for 2 to 3 months while a deployment to an exercise
say in Australia could last up to a month. If you are in harbour,
your working day should start between 0730 and 0800 and end by
1700, often earlier as our philosophy is for our guys to spend as
much time as possible with their families and loved ones when they
are in harbour, considering the time they will spend out at sea
nowadays. Living condition onboard? Again it varies. The food
ranges from mediocre to great - depending on the mood of your chef.
Living quarters could be cramped - 4 to 6 in one large cabin
onboard the corvettes, 2 to a cabin onboard the rest of the ships
with qaulity of the room varying with the most luxurious being on
the Frigates and LST - the LST have ensuite showers and toilets for
the officer cabins! Life out at sea is pretty comfortable. Most
of the time, you keep watch for about 4 hours and have a rest of
between 8 to 12 hours where you pretty much free to do your own
stuff - be it to read, eat, sleep or watch tons of DVD with your
guys, with most the planning and preparatory work being performed
prior to sailing. The scenery is often great. Of course ideally you
should have a stronger than average stomach to cope with turbulent
sea and have understanding partners and family who realise the
nature of your work.
As for the pay, you can find that out pretty easily from the naval
recruitment website. Just note that you will also have a ship board
allowance of about 300 dollars. Also, the officers pay scheme is
divided into Scheme A, B and C. Scheme B being the default for
graduates. Scheme C being the most and requiring a interview and
CO's recommendation to get it. Pay difference between scheme B and
C could be as much as 800 SGD.
Ok I hopes this help...please forgive me for any subsequent
inaccuracies discovered!
