Analog or PLL R&D Electrical Engineer

[ak77]

Hello all,

I'm a newbie, just registered few hours ago. I'm currently working in Penang and would like to apply for a job in Singapore. Mainly for better financial. Few questions. I would like to apologize first, as the info given below is mainly to provide sufficient informations.

1. Would it be fair if I ask for the same figure but just in SGD?

2. I have achieved the highest level position (for an R&D engineer) in the company that I work for (US based test and measurement company). I'm between 30-35 years old. As I'm not a singaporean, would it be fair if I ask for housing allowance, car allowance, kids education and etc. I heard of this before.

3. Any recommended company for the job title mentioned in the title?

Direct MYR to SGD coversion will only work for lower level jobs <RM6000. If you are making more than that, you will have to moderate accordingly.

What exactly you mean by highest level in R&D engineer? It does not seem plausible that one can reach highest level in engineering in a US MNC at your age. Do you mean that it is the highest non-manager technical position?

Housing allowance, kids education, car allowance etc. are considered expatriate benefits usually only for Senior Managers, I don't think you will qualify. At most you can negotiate some sort of support allowance, you need to elaborate more on what level you are now so that I can estimate max. you can ask for.

[ak77]

Hello WiredJustice,

Thanks for your replies. I really appreciate it.

In management path, you have few levels say up to Senior Manager Level. The same goes to technical path, but as you might know, the maximum level for technical path is limited. There is no CEO equivalent for technical path for example. In the US MNC company that I work with, my level/salary is 1 level below Senior Manager.

I've been in R&D for more than 5 years working on several high profile projects. Have several IPs (intelectual properties) and have few paper publications in US distinguished magazine. Few more supporting info for having achieved the current level at my current age. US grad. CGPA=>3.85. Math CGPA=4.0. Got mixed of A or A+ for all EE courses, except 1 course for A-.

The info above are solely meant to provide the additional information you required. Thanks in advance WiredJustice.

nice..more fts coming to sinkgapore

Originally Posted by ak77

Hello WiredJustice,

Thanks for your replies. I really appreciate it.

In management path, you have few levels say up to Senior Manager Level. The same goes to technical path, but as you might know, the maximum level for technical path is limited. There is no CEO equivalent for technical path for example. In the US MNC company that I work with, my level/salary is 1 level below Senior Manager.

I've been in R&D for more than 5 years working on several high profile projects. Have several IPs (intelectual properties) and have few paper publications in US distinguished magazine. Few more supporting info for having achieved the current level at my current age. US grad. CGPA=>3.85. Math CGPA=4.0. Got mixed of A or A+ for all EE courses, except 1 course for A-.

The info above are solely meant to provide the additional information you required. Thanks in advance WiredJustice.

Hmm… First off, you need to be more specific in terms of your current salary, saying you are 1 level below Senior Manager tells me nothing as companies tend to have vastly different interpretation of what constitutes a “Senior Manager” and what is “1 level”. Be that as it may, I am going to assume based on my guesstimation that your monthly salary is currently between RM9.5k – RM12.5k level.

I won’t comment on your major projects, IPs and publishing since not much info on that.

What I can comment is at your level, you are past the point where you can demand for a 1:1 SGD conversion in salary. The Singapore market for engineers and researchers (except biotech, pharma and financial) tends to be very competitive due to the huge influx of foreigners, many of them not lacking in academic achievements. What this has done is to depress market rates significantly resulting in high attrition of talented engineers to the banking industry due to much better pay & benefits.

My best bet for you would be to argue for a Cost of Living adjustment from you current pay (Penang to Singapore should be ~+40% to 50%) together with some rental support up to S$1,500 and maybe a once-off relocation amount of S$3,000. As for car allowance, school education etc, these are seldom offered to people below VP / Senior Director level these days, so not much hope there.