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Old 28-11-2010, 10:04 PM
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Hi well paid engineer,

It's so cliche. Any Tom knows if you are good you will be paid well. The best chefs get paid millions but the general tze char chef is paid modestly. Even so, there are exceptions. Talented artists like Picasso and Mozart in his twilight years don't get their talent recognized.

How many engineers are like you? As you were probably hinting at, you are one of the super rare breed engineers who cost a lot to hire. However, the discussion here is more about the general engineering profession. For every super successful engineer like you, there are thousands whose pay sucks. Whereas the general professional working in finance banking sector gets paid twice as much. That's also partly why SMU "younglings" smirk at NTU nerds.

Anyway, if one is truly smart he wouldn't be working for anyone. Those who are well paid are certainly quite smart but they also need to be lucky to have their talent appreciated.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
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.
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