Salary.sg Forums - View Single Post - Graduate income
Thread: Graduate income
View Single Post
  #22 (permalink)  
Old 12-03-2012, 08:53 PM
Unregistered
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
I saw that you listed alot of engineering related fields as your choices.

I don't know you and I am not here to tell you what to choose.

I think you got 1 point right that your decision will play a very significant role in your life from now on.

So, I will urge you to read the threads on engineering. Hear real life comments from engineers who have gone down the path. You don't have to believe everything they say. Hear the real life comments of the successsful engineers as well. Ultimately, your goal is to get as much data points as you can, and make a decision for yourself.

Someone's experience maybe totally different than your own. The right decision for some maybe the wrong decision for you, vice versa. However, from MY Experience, I believe that there is always an element of truth in the masses. And it seems to me, from my reading of various threads so far, that engineering is a hellish path to take if you are approaching it without aptitude and interests.

My own brother went down the engineering path.
My good friend from JC went down the engineering path.
I know many people who went through the engineering path.
I myself could have ended up down the engineering path.

If anyone important to me asks me for an advice, I would say pick engineering ONLY if you are very sure that it is the path for you. If you are not sure, stay the hell away.
I respectfully disagree. If pay is your key variable, i have learnt the hard way that u have to go to the industry that pays well.

However good an engineer u r, if u r in a cost center in a money losing industry, u will never make good money. Ie if u are the best maintenance or process engineer in a semi con fab, u will find ur pay constrained because (1) the company may not be making money (2) there are plenty of indian or chinese engineers willing to do ur job for less (3) company can get an experienced replacement for a low cost (4) simply no point paying way above mkt for exceptional maintenance engineers. So u realise u r in a dead end job but u can't switch cos u hv to take a pay cut if u switch to a job u hv no experience in and its a crap shoot whether u can earn more in that other job in the long run if u r taking a pay cut to get into the job now .

This is where many disillusioned engineers find themselves midway through their career because they unthinkingly accepted the politically correct nonsense about choosing passion and doing well, and the money will automatically follow.

Reality is. You hv to plan your career carefully. Go where the money is. Not go where u want and hope that money will follow if u do well .

As i always say - there are always exceptions in life. But optimal decisions are never made on the back of exceptions.

Reply With Quote