Career in Engineering - Is it better now?

Originally Posted by Path

A mixture of both. I had the dilemma between engineering or accountancy/finance several years back, but chose accountancy/finance due to the seemingly better future. The subject was pretty interesting during uni, and hence I continued with it all the way.

However, a year upon graduation and into the workforce, I've been facing many issues, including interest, motivation, fit and performance. These issues caused me to think whether I'm in the right industry/career, and whether I would probably be a better fit and also perform better in engineering.

Just because accounting isn't your cup of tea does not mean engineering would be your cup of tea either. It could well be a cup of poison to end your career journey.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Just because accounting isn't your cup of tea does not mean engineering would be your cup of tea either. It could well be a cup of poison to end your career journey.

Sometimes I wonder why Singaporeans never seem to be able to think out of the box. It seems their universe is only either Finance or Engineering...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Sometimes I wonder why Singaporeans never seem to be able to think out of the box. It seems their universe is only either Finance or Engineering...

Why not you suggest some areas that TS can also consider?

Originally Posted by Path

My situation is quite unique actually.. I'm a new accountancy/finance graduate, and am in first year into my job. It is considered to be a decent job in the market.

However, I'm starting to wonder whether this is for me over the long term.. This is due to:
1) Personality: I somewhat feel that I'm a more "hard/technical/science" person, rather than a "soft/business/fluff" person. I'm not in any of the extreme ends, but slightly more towards the former. This causes a certain fit issue with my existing environment (not sure if it's a job nature, industry or company thing though).

I treat it as your aversion to uncertainty. Only you would know yourself. But accounting and finance are also not exactly that soft since they deal with data and figures. Unless you're in business or sales where there are more fluffy empty talks in business networking and relationship building with customers.

Originally Posted by Path

2) Interest: I don't exactly hate what I'm doing.. but it doesn't interest me that much either.

OK.

Originally Posted by Path

3) Hours: Hours are long; OT daily. --> But from the above, engineering is similar?

Yes. Engineering is the same. And maybe still pays lower than accounting/finance. I have not heard of engineer with stable working hours, and if any machine breaks down over the weekend or in the wee hours of the morning, engineers are required to go down to take a look. They are like 24x7 on standby.

Originally Posted by Path

4) Pressure: High-pressure, fast-paced environment. Demanding boss.

Engineering is the same. Do not assume it is something easier.You may be required to step in and resolve technical issues during a critical system breakdown. And you have management and customers breathing down your neck asking for updates every 30 minutes.

Originally Posted by Path

Just a note, I know that no job is perfect. Just that I want to weigh my options.. It can be a little late for me, but there's like 30 years ahead of me in my career. I don't want to regret only 10 years down the road..

Flip through the current job listings in engineering. Pick maybe 10 to 20 random engineering jobs. Does any of them strikes you as interesting? If none, then you better think whether you really like anything in engineering.

[Path]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I treat it as your aversion to uncertainty. Only you would know yourself. But accounting and finance are also not exactly that soft since they deal with data and figures. Unless you're in business or sales where there are more fluffy empty talks in business networking and relationship building with customers.



OK.



Yes. Engineering is the same. And maybe still pays lower than accounting/finance. I have not heard of engineer with stable working hours, and if any machine breaks down over the weekend or in the wee hours of the morning, engineers are required to go down to take a look. They are like 24x7 on standby.



Engineering is the same. Do not assume it is something easier.You may be required to step in and resolve technical issues during a critical system breakdown. And you have management and customers breathing down your neck asking for updates every 30 minutes.



Flip through the current job listings in engineering. Pick maybe 10 to 20 random engineering jobs. Does any of them strikes you as interesting? If none, then you better think whether you really like anything in engineering.

Thanks for the insights. Perhaps I may be suffering from the "grass is greener on the other side" mentality.

[Path]

Has anyone here switched from Accountancy to Engineering (or Engineering to Accountancy), and can please share your experiences?

Engineering career is definitely making a comeback. My friend worked as a project manager at a mobile development firm (they serve banks) recently hired app developers, one at 12k per month, another 7.5k per month, both demonstrated app development experience, both are FT. Mind you, this is not a bank.

The trouble with engineering career is that, government was too late to realize the importance (after multiple SMRT breakdowns, CPF portal downtime, difficulty at pushing local startup industry and smart nation initiative, then they finally realize). The damage of looking down on engineering career of local culture is already done. Many experienced engineers already switched careers or moved overseas.

Suddenly now there is a shortage of good engineers, where do you find 5-year, 8-year experience people? Either hire FT or wind up the biz. Local trained, experienced engineers are super rare. If you happened to be one, you can ask for 6k+ salary no issue, just need to find a good, revenue-making firm that is desperate at looking for local engineers. Because there is a quota of hiring FT, they need to hire one or two citizens or PR holders. That's your stake for salary negotiation.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Engineering career is definitely making a comeback. My friend worked as a project manager at a mobile development firm (they serve banks) recently hired app developers, one at 12k per month, another 7.5k per month, both demonstrated app development experience, both are FT. Mind you, this is not a bank.

The trouble with engineering career is that, government was too late to realize the importance (after multiple SMRT breakdowns, CPF portal downtime, difficulty at pushing local startup industry and smart nation initiative, then they finally realize). The damage of looking down on engineering career of local culture is already done. Many experienced engineers already switched careers or moved overseas.

Suddenly now there is a shortage of good engineers, where do you find 5-year, 8-year experience people? Either hire FT or wind up the biz. Local trained, experienced engineers are super rare. If you happened to be one, you can ask for 6k+ salary no issue, just need to find a good, revenue-making firm that is desperate at looking for local engineers. Because there is a quota of hiring FT, they need to hire one or two citizens or PR holders. That's your stake for salary negotiation.

Most experienced engineers are now earning >200k p.a.

Google just open their first developer office in SG. You can expect $8K starting pay jobs for software engineering to appear in SG now.

Hopefully kids will start to pursue engineering instead of the usual law/medicine/banking path.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Google just open their first developer office in SG. You can expect $8K starting pay jobs for software engineering to appear in SG now.

Hopefully kids will start to pursue engineering instead of the usual law/medicine/banking path.

Many software related programming jobs are already hitting 14-15k for those with 8-10 years experience. It's up to locals to grab and not leave it to foreigners.