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

Singapore Engineer = Low cost + low tech + dedicated slavery worker

Hi, is enginnering really that bad in Singapore?

im in NS now and im considering to take up meachanical engineering in NTU. Do you think its a good idea as i studied meachnical engineering in poly and managed to get diploma with merit.

Hi atropois,
Depends on what you mean by bad. If you think 5k salary is good enough for you, then I don't think its bad. But if you want the 5 fig. salary per month then I think it will be hard to do it in Singapore as an engineer (unless you become a manager of a > medium size tech firm).
That said, this is Singapore, its a city and not really a country. Thus the chances for technical development are really limited as the city has kinda reached its saturation limit. Do engineering as a first degree if you are keen on it and will be good for going into banks and management. If you want to be practical you don;t need a degree just do a sales and marketing job. There's pros and cons.

It;s hard to have a conviction in Singapore .....

to atropois,

First Engineer is about getting recognition about the work you have done and take pride on your design or the technology that you have invented. But remember is not a good pay job, when you consider the hours that you have devoted to solve the problem is more like slavery. In fact, you might ended up working more than a blue collar worker. Also remember most of the time engineer is not paid for over time. Is more on your passion for the job. If you love money more than your job that say good bye to engineering for now.

I graduated from engineering NUS. From a cost-benefit analysis standpoint, graduating with an engineering degree is not worth it. Just look at the number of hours required to get that degree compared with a business graduate or law graduate, and yet when we go out to work, finance and law related employees get a better salary. When i first started work with a manufacturing company, i was shocked that technicians with diplomas are earnimg more than me cos of Overtime, but we as executives have to stay back with no OT pay. From a per hour salary engineers a really underpaid. So frankly, unless you love fixing things or love to troubleshoot problems,use some common sense and decide what is best for you. For those midway in their course of studying engineering, pls get that 1st class honors to get into banks. For those with 2nd upper (like me) and below, pls think of a business idea and start a business with that logical mind of ours or maybe polish up your sales and human relations.

to ex engineer.

I totally agree with you. I have been working as an engineer for 3 years. Now i am thinking of calling a quit.

Wow...very intresting discussion...
I'm basically a fresher who has got an opportunity to work as a s/w engg in singapore..
The pay they are offering is abt 2.8k S$ which i thought was decent. If you compare that with salaries they give for a fresher her in india, the singapore offer wins hands down. Although i realise the cost of living in singapore is significantly higher when compared to other countries it still is an "INTERNATIONAL" experience which not many freshers here get.
An international offer is seriously a very "BIG" deal here(I'm guessing in other places too)..
Maybe thats one of the reasons singapore still has engineers who accept offers for a lot less pay.
If you intend on saving some money it accounts for a lot of local currency when you take it back home .
Also if the guy wants to do an MBA or something later,the experience should help right?

I work as a software engineer.

Salesman bring in the deal, engineers got to fulfill whatever promises made by the salesman within the given time and budget.

End of the day, engineers are a bunch of overwork underpaid people

Hmmm..i guess its not the best place to be in for the long term..at least for a s/w engineer.

what about the IT departments in large banks?..are they no better?..how tough is it to get into one of those?..

Don't lose your focus. If I were you, I'd use the offer you got as your entry to Singapore. Once you've got a PR here, it'll be a lot easier to look around. Use this as your first step in.