[SME] vs [MNC]? All you need to know thread.

Goddofinga

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I am writing this as a high GPA scorer in big 3 uni..

Gave up my first job offer in MNC of $3k+ per month

Joined a SME ( or rather, kena convinced), into $2.5k per month, with no benefits at all.

Let me summarise the pros & Cons of each. Let's forget about office politics. Trust me, office politics is everywhere in life, not just office but between ur friends, your mum's friend with their auntie friends in wet market, between warehouse staff, between chefs in the kitchen, between cashier & manager in mcdonalds or any other fast food restaurants, between ministers in singapore offices, between our government and other foreign governments, u name it , life has it.

Let's dive on into SME vs MNC.


PROS:

SME:
1) None

MNC:
1) Branded company, it will Really help in your resume.
2) Good market rate salary & benefits
3) Good network and connections
4) Most of the time, welfare and safety is taken care of.
5) U get to share workload with colleage in some cases.
6) Strict office timing and most allows u to leave on time.
7) 14 days Annual leave.

CONS:
SME:
1) Below the market rate salary. ( I took a $950 pay cut compared to my initial offer, yes i was stupid)
2) No insurance benefits
3) You get only 7 days annual leave
4) sometimes require to work on Saturday morning
5) No AWS, No Variable bonus, No performance bonus
6) No taxi claim
7) You do all the jobs. For example, if you are doing customer service in SME, u will sometimes informally get ordered to do HR, Logistics, warehouse stock check, production, sales, finance, delivery, buy coffee, and many other things.
8) The SME owner's children will override whatever decision you have
9) Husband and wife hierachy in SME. They are the only staff the company needs and everyone else is expandable.
10) They try to delay your salary.
11) They will get many student interns in the company and u will train them and if anything goes wrong u will be blamed.
12) They will use u to do sales.
13) SME owners will ask u to enter their office and have a "Talk" with u monthly to :
- discipline you
- prevent u from asking for salary increment
- tell u that company is not doing well thus no 13th month bonus
- tell u that u need to take on more workload
- tell u that u did a good job but u can do better
- tell u that they need u to justify your salary, thus mind-***** u to volunteer to take up more task.
14) They will not pay for your lunch even if your boss eat with u.
15) No Company annual Dinner & Dance (Only apply to those poor SME owners with no buildings or factories or warehouses.
16) only give u $10 ang bao for Chinese new year.
17) Only treat u to lunch or dinner in restaurant for celebration maybe once or twice a year, because it is your boss's birthday or wedding anniversary, then just ask u along to eat and take this chance to use the expense to make it feel like u are included in the company and gives u the impression that the company is generous.
18) Boss has several company names that u are not familiar with and is owned by your boss / boss's wife or boss's relative.
19) They will find 1 to 1 heart to heart talk time with u and try to sell u a story about their goal and ambition and how u can get a career in their company, but they are just squeezing u with the undermarket pay.
20) People say that u will learn everything that u wont in MNC but i think this is ********. U will learn everything because u will be working OT and harassed by ur boss even on the weekends because company is always short handed and u are required to die for the company's sake.
*** any others please comment in this thread just let me know to add on.



MNC:
1) U might be contract based and contract may not get renewed.
2) U might be in a specialised department ( i think it is a good thing to be specialised. U don't need to learn in SME environment. SME environment is the worst because u will get squeezed like a coolie worker and people simply just like to say that they learn alot, which i really disagree. U need to specialise your field in a MNC and get high salary.)
3) Other than point 1, i think there are no cons.
 
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Goddofinga

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Engineering??
Yes.applies to all other discipline mostly PMET.
- biologial science in NTU -> jialat. if u go SME with this degree, u are gone case.

Thanks for sharing. But really all SME also like that?

-yes i believe so. However, maybe 1 or 2 is good and actually have a career prospects. Some good signs that the SMEs are good:
1) The building is extremely big, with factory, own warehouse, and everyday there are deliveries.
2) The boss is genuinely good and treats u the same from first day to a few years down a road without a change in attitude.
3) The boss is not stingy and will not try to psycho u to save money through heart to heart talk.

However i would say this is very rare that the boss is a good person.

I am a freethinker. However, i have met 1 SME owner who is considered quite nice, he is a christian. I was just an intern back in poly days, and this small company he even invite me to d&d and give me ang bao $50 and voucher doorgift of $20. I was a nobody in this sme but he still would say hi to me. and he has around 30 foreign workers, who seem to still work with him till now. Well, because he has a constant order with a large organization, means his income is already stable if he supply his stocks every month to this large organization.

However, i would advise against going SME as a FULL TIMER or for your future CAREER. SME is FINE to take up for 3 month internship or something...
 

jen1512

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I worked at an SME for a while (<1yr). Bosses were really nice and always encourage staff to self improve. Never really push more work to people just cause not enough man power. Sometimes needed but they do try to hire more help so it's just temporary.
Colleagues were nice too.
Maybe I was lucky :s8:
 

Goddofinga

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I worked at an SME for a while (<1yr). Bosses were really nice and always encourage staff to self improve. Never really push more work to people just cause not enough man power. Sometimes needed but they do try to hire more help so it's just temporary.
Colleagues were nice too.
Maybe I was lucky :s8:

what's ur monthly salary, benefits, working hours, best experience? worst experience? company dinner & Dance? boss age? boss's networth agar agar? who are the management team? what's ur role? what's ur job scope? have u worked outside your job scope? how long have u worked? what's the employee size?
 

jen1512

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what's ur monthly salary, benefits, working hours, best experience? worst experience? company dinner & Dance? boss age? boss's networth agar agar? who are the management team? what's ur role? what's ur job scope? have u worked outside your job scope? how long have u worked? what's the employee size?

I was a part time staff (work 3 or 4 days a week depending on clients requirements). Working hours also depends on how much work I have. Paid per hour by project. The company got no dinner and dance but every cny the bosses book restaurant (heard from the full time staff). Part timers not invited but the bosses will give angbao to the part timers. About the bosses net worth etc I really don't know cannot answer.

I report to client more than my boss actually. Was there for the duration of 3 projects (concurrently) less than a year. I think they got about 30 employees but about one third are part timers (we chose to take part time load, not forced or anything).
 

havetheveryfun

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The main con of MNC is

if you make too many mistakes, or just a single medium to large mistake, or the higher up boss buay song you... you gg and sure out instantly.. your manager also no power at all to defend you.

Also in times of pandemic like this.. they are very ruthless in cost cutting.. because they just can't afford it. Imagine if revenue is down by 80% but they got 1000 over employees to feed.. compared to a SME which maybe only have 10 person to feed...

for annual dinner d&d type of events in mnc.. most are pretty pointless as the company is too big.. most usually go there also because they are "Forced" to go and stick with their own cliques which is their own team...totally defeat the purpose of it lol

anyway there are good and bad SMEs just like there are good and bad MNCs.. just that you hear a lot more about bad SMEs because the numbers are a lot more (even though the ratio might be similar)
 

bigbadber

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what were the reasons that u quit an MNC and joined a SME?

who and how did they convince u to join a SME?
 

havetheveryfun

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what were the reasons that u quit an MNC and joined a SME?

who and how did they convince u to join a SME?

if one's first job is MNC... most of the time is always the case of grass is always on the greener side.. cos they never experience SME before so they think should be same or better.. cant be that bad.. change job already then realize is wtf man..

is the same when you see ppl 1st job civil serpent then complain no progression, lousy pay increment etc... outside ppl arm chio at them :o
 

Ocence89

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I’ve worked for 2 SMEs and 3 MNCs (1 Asian 2 US). Seriously, I told myself I will never go for SME and Asian MNC ever in my life.
There’s no job security, almost zero benefits in SME. All jobs are busy and stressful, if you need to slog, why not slog for a well-known company, which can help you to build up your portfolio.

My first MNC was a huge US conglomerate, the job was indeed stressful and it was hard for me to fit into the US culture. But it was where I learnt the most out of the 5 companies I worked for and people are impressed of my background. The progression was really slow though. There are people who had 3-5 years of experience but were given a junior or executive role. People who were of higher positions had to drop their rank by 1 or 2 levels.

On the other hand, it’s easier to promote in a small company. You can easily be given an assistant manager role with 3 years of experience.

At the end of the day, it depends what kind of person you are and what you want to achieve. Are you satisfied being a big fish in a fish tank or a small fry in the sea?
 
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