‘We take a financial hit’: Singaporean man ‘frustrated’ by how national service sets back men's careers; netizens feel otherwise
SINGAPORE: A Singaporean man recently questioned whether the time spent in uniform can have a knock-on effect on men’s careers, particularly when their peers are already gaining work experience.
In a post on the r/asksg subreddit, he wrote, “Looking at how things play out, it's hard not to feel frustrated about the career math for guys serving NS.”
“You spend two full years in uniform while peers who don't serve NS enter the workforce, start building a professional portfolio, and secure early pay bumps and promotions. When you finally graduate and hit the private sector, you're starting at entry-level pay while being two years older than those who entered the workforce straight away.”
What's worse, he wrote, is that private companies usually don't care about military leadership or logistics experience when setting civilian job pay grades. They just look at direct industry years. “So you end up taking a financial hit right out of the gate purely because of a mandatory national obligation.”
The man felt there was something rather unfair about the situation.
Keen to know whether other men had felt the same frustration, he asked, “What’s your perspective as a male who had served two years of national service but, when going into the workforce, gets paid less than people who did not have to serve national service because of those two years spent?”
He also wanted to know how others handled this setback on their resumes, asking, "“For those who have already navigated this or are heading into the private sector soon, how do you deal with this gap? Does it ever genuinely even out later on, or does that two-year deficit stick with you?”
‘It’s all about timing’
Contrary to the original poster’s concerns, many Singaporean Redditors who responded said NS had not caused any meaningful problems in their careers. For several, the two-year gap simply stopped being relevant once they had graduated and started working.
The top commenter said he rarely thought about NS after entering the workforce.
“To be honest, I don’t think about it. Once you graduate, you are on your own; stuff like NS is behind you. Just work hard and deliver. In fact, I earn more than some of my peers or those with more experience, so I don’t think NS is an obstacle.”
Another commenter shared that he had not noticed NS men being paid less than their female counterparts at the same level. “I'm a guy, and to be honest, I haven't seen any guy who served NS and got a lower salary than their FT/female counterpart at the same level. In fact, some of my friends working in local non-SME companies got an additional $ component because they served NS.”
He did acknowledge that there could be exceptions. A woman who entered the workforce two years earlier could potentially get ahead if she performed particularly well and climbed the career ladder quickly. Still, he regarded this as a relatively “rare” scenario rather than something that routinely puts men at a disadvantage.
A third user, a 42-year-old man, said the impact of NS can depend quite a bit on when someone happens to graduate. In his own case, he considered himself lucky to have graduated in 2010, as the two years he spent in NS turned out to be “actually a blessing.”
This meant he did not have to enter the workforce at the height of the fallout from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, when the economy was in a particularly grim state and the job market had largely frozen.
Looking at the current generation of graduates, however, he said he could understand why young Singaporean men might feel particularly bitter about the timing.
“I can imagine the fury and anger of our Singaporean guys who graduated in 2025 and 2026. Those two years made all the difference, and instead of graduating into an employee’s market, they’re graduating into an AI-driven desert of a job market.”
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“It’s all about timing. If I were a young fresh grad, I’d be bitter for sure and cursing NS every day.”
There were also commenters who were perfectly comfortable with the fact that NS had delayed their entry into working life.
One man said he did not regret serving at all. If anything, he valued the experience and the role he played in national defence. “NS, and the ability to do my part for national security, as well as the experience gained during NS, made me who I am.”
Another shared, “You win some and you gain some. In the grand scheme of things, when you look back, it can be priceless for many. You gain an experience that cannot be had elsewhere.”
“You gain a new group of friends. You get a break from the through-train hustle of studies, and you can really use the time to take stock and plan for your future. I've got friends who did badly for A'levels and, under the encouragement of fellow NSFs, retook and scored well!”/TISG