i went online for a short while just now and had sort of an argument with a friend from yr3. he is doing VIP with nus and very unsatisfied with his $300/mth pay that he gets. as soon as i went online he messaged me to ask what is the average vip pay. since i did IA instead and very very few of my friends did VIP so i said i m not sure. but given that nus pays $450/mth for IA (in fact they pay all companies that get IA students from nus that amount), i think for a shorter term like VIP, 300 is reasonable. then he started saying some of his frenz are getting 700 and he heard average is 500. i assumed these friends of him are doing it with outside companies and i told him that it's very different inside and outside nus.

there he started calculation of what is his daily pay and what is his transport and food cost, concluding 300 is far from sufficient. i was getting a bit impatient and i got very contradicting views. so i told him sth like this: while you are a student, your prime duty is to study and not earn money. vip provides you a good chance to learn so be happy if you got a position at all. what you learn now decides how much you would be paid later after you graduate. now you shouldn't really be concerned about the pay.

that is truly what i think. the prime aim of an attachment, of course is to learn right? because for bigger bucks any one of us could easily go and teach tuition. if he's so unhappy with the pay nus gives him, he could have chosen to do it with outside companies if he could find. well if he couldn't, then do with what he has and be happy he could find one at all. some of my friends last year couldn't get any IA position and had to squeeze schedule like crazy in the end. and most of them, just settled for whatever offered to them. there is not bargaining of pay. look at it this way, if you don't do it, you would be paying school fees and getting no pay at all. and there are many people who do attachment with no pay, just for the experience, just to learn things.

there he went, telling me his working hr is like 8 to 5 every day (isn't it normal?) and he's doing programming, independent project. i was getting truly impatient now. 'no one pays for my fyp.' i said. which is the bitter truth. independent proj, checked. programming, checked. longer term than a vip, checked. graded, checked. not paid a single cent and a lot of shit from professors, checked.

and then he was telling me i sound offensive, and he's in no mood for a lecture. i thought about it. maybe my tone was really a bit harsh so i said sorry for the harsh tone but i do have very contradicting views as you. and still he went on and on blaming me. i said sorry, isn't that enough?

well... putting myself in his shoes, probably he's pissed now about the pay after comparing with his friends. (but hey, that's just part and parcel of life. vip positions is largely based on luck not merit. and let me state my point again, this is a time to learn not earn money so really don't need to be so concerned about the pay.) probably he just needs someone who would just listen to him whine and complain and take the same stand as him and show some sympathy. too bad i m not that person because i really don't think he's that ill treated.

i m just thinking... are students nowadays asking too much? we want lessons that are interesting and relevant to the real world, we want less school work and higher grade, we want a prestigious certificate, we want more exposure, we also want reduced school fee, and now we want school to give us high pay. what happened to the attitude?