Accountancy vs Chemical engineering.

[tastoon]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

take accountancy, then use your spare time to take a math minor, if you can find such program. Then get some certificates such as CFA during school years. Then aim banking.

forget about chemical engineering. the only engineering still has some future in Singapore is computer engineering.

i have to admit, im rather ignorant but why computer engineering?? does this have something to do with advances in "cloud computing" or "big data" ?

sorry if im just spouting random phrases..

Isn't Singapore a big player in oil and gas apart from being a financial hub? you know.. like oil refining.

does this mean that if i go into chemical engineering and dont score FCH, im basically going to have a max of 5k salary like the various singaporean engineers im reading online..?

Yeah, why suddenly Chemical Engineering career prospective seems to be so dark? Plus I believe it is harder to get higher GPA to be FCH in Chemical Engineering because the course is highly sought after by students. Last year, I still hear NUS professor warning Common Engineering students that they may have difficulty to enter Chemical Engineering because there is high demand from students.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yeah, why suddenly Chemical Engineering career prospective seems to be so dark? Plus I believe it is harder to get higher GPA to be FCH in Chemical Engineering because the course is highly sought after by students. Last year, I still hear NUS professor warning Common Engineering students that they may have difficulty to enter Chemical Engineering because there is high demand from students.

Difficulty of the course does not equate to a good job prospect! Business and Accountancy are arguably much easier than engineering, yet they have better job prospects. Pure Physics is even tougher than engineering and biz but have no lucrative prospects either.

I'm from an O&G major and based on my own experience, my package (all in) was about $150k after 5 years. Not sure about accountancy. And I'm pretty sure a chemical engineering degree is much harder to ace than an accountancy one.

[tastoon]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm from an O&G major and based on my own experience, my package (all in) was about $150k after 5 years. Not sure about accountancy. And I'm pretty sure a chemical engineering degree is much harder to ace than an accountancy one.

Wow, impressive. I'm assuming you are in one of the global oil MNCs in singapore like exxon and shell? May i know what is the current outlook for chemical engineering grads in 4-5 years down the road who are hoping to enter oil and gas in singapore?

Originally Posted by tastoon

Wow, impressive. I'm assuming you are in one of the global oil MNCs in singapore like exxon and shell? May i know what is the current outlook for chemical engineering grads in 4-5 years down the road who are hoping to enter oil and gas in singapore?

It is quite difficult to predict for the o&g industry, as with all other industries. With low crude oil prices recently, everyone is scaling back on major expenditures and some are stopping recruitment. What will crude oil prices be in 4-5 years time? nobody knows. What I do know is that o&g industry is likely going to remain a profitable business in the long run unless there's major breakthrough in science that allows substitution of fossil fuels for our energy consumption.

[tastoon]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It is quite difficult to predict for the o&g industry, as with all other industries. With low crude oil prices recently, everyone is scaling back on major expenditures and some are stopping recruitment. What will crude oil prices be in 4-5 years time? nobody knows. What I do know is that o&g industry is likely going to remain a profitable business in the long run unless there's major breakthrough in science that allows substitution of fossil fuels for our energy consumption.

i see... and lastly, is it true that trying to get into Exxon or Shell as a process engineer is as hard as getting into investment banking department of jp morgan and goldman saachs? Which means i most probably i have to have at least a FCH in chem eng and a ton of internships?

Originally Posted by tastoon

i see... and lastly, is it true that trying to get into Exxon or Shell as a process engineer is as hard as getting into investment banking department of jp morgan and goldman saachs? Which means i most probably i have to have at least a FCH in chem eng and a ton of internships?

not really true. It also depends on the recruitment requirement of the company when you graduate. When I graduated, Exxon took in about 20+ chemical engineering grads (mostly first class and second upper honours, I think there were some second lowers too). Most of them had done a 6 months assessed internship. Shell on the other hand also provides assessed internship but the number is relatively smaller. There are other alternatives to get in though, like going for a graduate assessment day which will put you through a series of interviews and activities in a packed day to see if you have the attributes the company is looking for. Again, they don't just employ FCH.

It is hard to score well in Chemical engineering, and if you do not have a fch or atleast a second upper, the chances of you getting into the more lucrative career is dim.

biz and accountancy is much easier to score and you always hear the success stories of their graduates getting 5-digit starting pay in investment banking. But they failed to mention that these individuals are really the extreme minority. For the remaining majority, their career prospect is no better than an average chemical engineer. In fact, even for the top jobs, such as investment banks, consultancy etc, they do not hire biz/acc major exclusively. If you are good and have relevant internship experience, you will stand equal chance at these top jobs compared to a biz/acc major... just that other faculties are less likely to announce to the world that their best graduate is earning high income in a completely unrelated field.

Exxon used to take in normal fresh degree engineers in the past, but I doubt they do it now. Anyway Exxon isnt really high paying in the chemical industry by SG standards. SRC (JV of Chevron & Petrochina) and Shell Eastern are much higher and harder to get in.

Also people need to distinuish b/w Chemical and O&G industry. Most of the jobs put up by all these big co like Shell, Exxon, Chevron etc pay more comparable to Chemical industry then O&G industry in Singapore. Only trading ops, some of the global project management jobs and marketing/procurement side is more like O&G environment.

Chemical is a lower profit and lower paid subset of O&G. An O&G engineer (where the big money is) would be something like Wells Engineer, Reservoir Engineer, Petroleum Physcist, Geologist, Subterranean Specialist, Seismic Risk Analyst etc. You will not get to be an O&G engineer by stuyding Chemical Engineering in NUS.

Chemical engineers are much more well paid than they typical PWC auditor and most other industry, but to compare to investment bankers and hedge fund managers is exaggerating. Only a selected number of jobs in SG that really belong to the oil & gas side (not petrochemicals) are comparable to your finance / banking top shots.