Hi younglings,

First of all in any profession you will be paid more if you are profit center not a cost center. Therefore if you love engineering then you need to get a job in the company where engineering makes or breaks company therefore you do look for work where you do get to design next generation iPhone/etc. Don't look for huge payout if you are the cost center, that would be irrational.

Same thing actually goes for finance: biggest payouts for finance guys are in companies where finance is a core expertise of the company. If you are just a finance guy in manufacturing company the only thing going for you is a proximity of robust FSI sector that can poach you so discounting too much is not going to work. Situation is different for engineering guys because SG doesn't really have companies where engineering is core expertise and a differentiator from competition, if engineering is just a back office function, engineering guys in similar maintenance positions like finance guys are not in danger of begin poached because face it, SG is not even on the map as far as decent R&D concerned. However if you do end up in whatever few positions in SG where engineering is a profit/product center you will be treated well.

This is coming from mid-30's engineer making over 200k and on the way to 300k. And no, I don't have any managerial duties, I'm just a profit center for my employer, that's all. And no I do zero sales, I suck at sales but I'm a very good engineer. Why I'm not being replaced by cheaper Indian or Chinese ? Well, the Indians or Chinese who are as good as I am cost the same.