Engineering and Technology Careers are Not Valued - Singapore is "High Cost Low Tech"

Well, engineers start off higher but ends up MUCH lower down the road . I used to be happy when my friends in non engine field started out our careers.

10yrs down the road & I don't even bother to ask about their pay checks already. After 10yrs, I finally understand being smart in school is stupid. Thanks to the lecturer that told me to switch back to science cos my results were good for science.

Very interesting discussion. I have worked for 10 years as an engineer and have been top of band performer, but yet to cross 6 figure yearly. And I am one of the higher paid ones. It is not as easy to earn money as an engineer, but that is not the main point. Most people who are still engineers after 10 years are really contented people. Else they would not have stayed on.

The main problem engineers face in Singapore is a catch-22 situation. Because we do not value engineers, there are few really good engineers, so there are few high value jobs done here. Look at what big companies do in Singapore. Then you understand you can't get many good engineers trained. With only low value jobs, we can use cheap overseas engineer with less experience and are cheap. Using an experienced engineer is a waste of money only some sectors can afford.

The govt attempts to keep some engineering activities in Singapore despite the outflow of manufacturing activities. It provides a livelihood (not a fortune generator) for engineers so again you are clear that we can't really be in it for money.

The main problem is livelihood for engineers is not assured despite the lower pay. Singapore abandons industry every 10-20 years. Some past examples are computer and peripherals, HiFi, pcb, home appliances. General electronics is on the way out. Semicon is non-competitive but simply subsidied by the govt to provide jobs. The bleed is low so it should last at least 5 years more. Health science is new so it will probably be out in 10-20 years. Without perseverance, you cannot excel. So Singapore will NEVER excel in engineering and the govt recognize this. Yet they need to maintain it as a major slice of GDP.

Engineers that stay too long in any industry will face irrelvance. Engineers cannot switch fields that easily. No manager will hire a 20-year experience power/ectronics/semicon engineer to be in working in genes.

It is easier for people working in finance/banking, doctors, lawyers, services, management (project or otherwise). But the important thing for someone who wants to stay as an engineer is to remain relevant and you need to make a major field jump every some years to make sure you have a livehood.

Hi all, just like to find out what is the reasonable starting pay for a fresh Masters graduate from Mechanical Engineering.
Thanks

Dear Singaporeans,
All of us should realise that Singapore owns a very strong financial sector.Singapore also act as a financial hub for regional countries.It took two years for me to believe that this true fact really affect us.
I started working as an associate engineer in electronics industry after getting my rigorous engineering diploma.What i get in return is a retrenchment exercise by the former electronics company and i thought it was just my misfortune and continue my journey taking the same job in a giant electronics company.
What i get in return is another retrenchment exercise as this the telecmmunication giant iam working now is ceasing business here.
Worse still engineering companies nowadays either hire foreign Chinese engineers and pay them big bucks(dun know why)or pack up and move all their operations to China.
I apply for business programme at uniSIM and thank god im accepted and lookig forward to a career change(anyway im 26 still got hope).
At least I know i dont have to compete with foreign Chinese when i jump into financial sector as speaking English is their main weakness.(unless singapore decide to turn itself as a mini CHina which nowadays i think its gonna happen soon)

My experience is that engineering is no doubt having less stress as compared to investment banker lets say. Also, it might be true that after 15- 20 yrs an engineer will start to enjoy the high salary. compartively, if you work for the financial world, more stress more money, but if you invest those money early wisely, there is a gd chance you will be sipping lime juice at Hawaii. Thus, even when u get retrenched (in banking) say after 3-5 yrs of good pay, you are well ahead in your bank account, i say why not. Another consideration, engineering jobs are everywhere, so no worries when u decide to quit from financial world.

I graduated with a First Class honors in engineering and worked as an engineer in manufacturing for the past 5 years. My annual package inclusive all bonuses is not even 50k. My sister is a banker with similar number of years of experience; make 2 to 3 times more than what I make.

An engineer average starting salary is about $2.7 and gets about 3 to 5% increment each year if lucky. Promotion from engineer to senior engineer on average takes about 4 to 5 years and the pay jump is about 5 to 10%. I have witnessed several rounds of retrenchment and production moved out of Singapore in my last two companies and not to mention the frequent pay and bonus freeze. Does this job sound attractive to you?

I have seen very few good engineers in both my current and previous companies. Most of them just follow what those guys in HQ say and over time, we just became followers. We don't really use much of our brains anymore. I've seen friends with good engineering degree that don't end up being engineer because they associated the job to low pay and poor career advancement.

Engineers certainly play a very important role in our day to day life. But somehow in Singapore, engineers are often unappreciated and not well compensated.

My friend graduated with second upper honours in engineering whereas i just achieved an honours degree, in engineering as well. I had always been asking my friends if engineering is what they want to really stick to in life, and was kinda shocked by their blank stares. Nobody really gave a thought to that - engineering was just 'tan chiat' and nothing else. It was a guaranteed way to earn a decent salary and my friend was one of them - upgrading himself always and when we both started out, he was earning around 3K while my pay was 2.5K. In those days, 500 was enough to give you a huge ego boost.

However, I knew engineering was a dead end, so I immersed myself into sales, and let's not even talk about financial industry, just the sales aspect of any sector. Fast forward 3 years, my friend is getting a proud 4K senior engineer pay, and as for me, due to the rarity of sales-focused engineers, is lucky to get a 300K annual package with stock options.

Bottom line is, engineers are plenty, but just like the bankers, companies reward mostly the ones who bring in the cash, so it might not be too late to change your inclination. My 2 cents advice from my personal experience. thanks

Chanced upon this link and find some very interesting comments here. My personal experience as an engineer is, manufacturing engineers salary is pretty standard. No such thing as front office or back office whereby people from certain department getting paid many times more than those from another department. Engineers starting pay typically range from $2,500 to $3,000. After around 5 years, if you are lucky can get between 4 to 4.5k but this will usually mean that you will have to job hop at least once or twice because yearly increment is typically 0% to 5%. Chances of getting bonus that exceeds 3 months is definitely much much lower than getting bonus that is less than a month. To get a 6 figure annual compensation you must be one of the super lucky few and get yourself a director title after maybe 15 years.

Your first home will probably be a 4 or 5 room flat and your first car which you can finally afford after a few years will probably be a Toyota Vios, Nissan Sunny or Mitsubishi lancer. After 10 years or so, you might probably be able to afford a Toyota camry and live in a Heartland Condominiums.

During the first few years, you will see many of your ex-classmates or colleagues who work as engineer starting to move into other industries. Those who stayed on are those that either cannot move out to other industries, those who lives in their own world or those that really have interests in their job. Many of your techie friends or colleagues will whine and whine about their so called low pay. But after awhile, this will automatically stops because they learnt to accept the fact that they are engineers and not lawyers, bankers or doctors. You can also forget about having team mates that graduated from top universities like Cambridge, MIT or Stanford because I have not met a single one after so many years.

Come to think of it, it is not too bad. Don't worry, be happy.

Annual compensation inclusive of all bonuses for a rookie investment banker with a top tier bank in singapore could possibly be six figure. An engineer can never be paid so much unless you start your own company.

It is pointless to compare the average with those from the cream of the crop simply because most of us are just not in that league. Have you heard of any engineers that get paid more than a million dollar a year? More likely you have heard of top lawyers, bankers, surgeons or politician getting that kind of compensation.

Grad engineer(mining/Oil/gas) in Oz is getting 70K plus.. doing nothing but surfing web in the office..