What fresh grads want: Survey
A survey of 300 students from tertiary institutions here has found that the two most important things fresh graduates look for in potential employers are learning opportunities and the salary package.
Diploma holders expect a starting pay of between $2,000 and $2,500, while degree holders expect $3,000 to $3,500, according to the survey by online job portal STJobs. But firms are generally willing to offer diploma holders between $1,800 and $2,000,and degree holders between $2,400 and $2,800.
Graduates also look for perks such as travel opportunities and work benefits, with half of the degree students and over 35 per cent of the diploma students surveyed wishing to work in multinational corporations. Only 4 per cent of degree students and 10 per cent of polytechnic students were willing to work for start-ups.
Sim Lim Sq cellphone cheat jailed
A mobile phone salesman who cheated three walk-in customers at a Sim Lim Square shop in 2014 was jailed for six months yesterday.
Lin Facai, 32, pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiring with Gadget Terminal boss Chung Choon Cheik alias Gavin, 33, to cheat two customers of $400 and $250 in September 2014. He is the third Gadget Terminal employee to be convicted and sentenced.
Lin worked for Chung from March to December 2014, and received a commission of 30 to 40 per cent on the sales made. Chung allegedly taught his staff to offer phones at attractive prices and use dirty tricks to get more money out of customers once they had agreed to the price. A third charge was taken into consideration. Lin could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined on each charge.
11 trapped in MRT station glass lift
Eleven commuters were trapped in a glass lift at Kallang MRT station for 25 minutes on Sunday. The lift had jammed while descending from the platform level towards the station concourse. SMRT's vice-president for corporate information and communications Patrick Nathan said station staff were alerted to the incident at about 2.50pm. "The lift maintenance crew was immediately activated," he said. "As it was a glass lift, staff kept a close watch on the lift passengers while the recovery team made its way to the station."
The passengers were rescued at about 3.15pm. SMRT has apologised for the inconvenience caused.
