Not elite enough

I was scanning the recruitment pages and websites recently and found many companies placing "Good Honors" or "Honors" as a preference or a pre-requisite for candidate application. This is definitely discrimination against those who did not get honors in their Bachelor’s studies. These companies are definitely not Equal Opportunity Employers. Who are some of these discriminatory companies? ExxonMobil, Shell, SIA, just to name a few. All of them have listed "Good Honors" as a preference for candidates applying on their websites. I remember attending a Job Recruitment Exercise at NTU organized by ExxonMobil during my undergraduate years. When I quizzed the HR personnel about the Honors mentality and she hesitated before the HR Manager stepped in and said that they will look at non-Honors students too. What a load of bull! My classmate's uncle was working for ExxonMobil and he said not a single fresh university graduate working there had less than a 2nd Lower Class Honors! Honors only represents the academic inclination of the person and does not represent the working aptitude. This just smacks of discrimination. In Singapore no less!

What is a bigger discrimination? CAAS! Our very own Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore! Apparently if you want to be a pilot with SIA, you must pass 5 'O' Level papers in one sitting, which is considered easy for some. However, this will immediately wipe out the chances of late bloomers, people whose results improve after this stumble and make good later on. One of my former classmate only had 3 'O' Level passes but he worked hard. He went through ITE, later Polytechnic and NTU in the end. This is true dedication and making good later on. However, all his hard work is for naught if he ever aspires to be a pilot. This is because he did not pass 5 'O' Level subjects even though he is now a Bachelor Degree holder, from a local university no less! He will be rejected outright by SIA! I asked a friend of mine, who is currently a cadet pilot with SIA, about this and apparently it is not SIA's decision but CAAS'! Can anyone explain to me how a person with 5 'O' Level passes and say a Polytechnic Diploma is academically more qualified than a Bachelor Degree holder with only 3 'O' Level passes?