Aerospace Career advice
 

Hi guys. I'm kinda new here was hoping you all can help me out.

I just graduated in november with a bachelor's in engineering mechanical, with little to no job experience. I'm in my late 20s now was hoping if anyone can guide me on progressing my career in the aerospace industry.

Advise like should i start my career as a technician with a salary of 1.8k eventhough i have a degree or should I seek something out of the aerospace industry for the mean time while i grow my work experience and finally land a job in the aerospace industry.

Thanks in advance for your guidance!

Where's your degree from? PT or FT? Campus or DL? Late 20s means like 28/29 years old?

Degree from university of Newcastle.
FT.
Yes 28 this year.
Sorry what do you mean by campus or DL?

Newcastle I assume is distance learning degree?

Generally for such degrees can either apply for fresh grad engineer role with SME or diploma level associate engineers with bigger co.

Pay level is ard 2.2-2.5k, try to apply as many as you can as the economy is not good and you will need many applications to secure 1 offer.

Thanks for the feedback I'll try doing that. Didn't know the pay level would be so low. Mind if I ask, you're from the aerospace sector as well?

Used to be, but I have now moved on to banking industry. Aerospace is not doing well now, so you will need to be patient. For this type of generic pte distance learning degree most mncs and glcs do not consider them as proper degree, so at most they will hire you at slightly higher than dip unless you already proven yourself previously during internship with the co.

Hmm. I see what you're saying. Seems pretty sad that Aerospace has declined quite badly in Singapore. Thanks. Any line in engineering you might recommend?

i would suggest that you can try applying to smaller aerospace companies first. Such as ACE, Parker, Folker, etc.

check this out

://.singapore-companies-directory.com/Categories/singapore_aerospace.htm

Harder to get into the bigger MNCS in the beginning with your background but u have a chance if u take the alternative route.

was offered by parker before, in short typical stingy company trying to lowball salary. i was deg with 2+ years exp & they offered 2.5k despite i state clearly expectation was 3k.

Most of these small/mid companies are like that. If given a choice of average candidate asking few hundred $ less than a good candidate, they will choose the average to save that small amount.

I guess its a normal trend in Singapore for this sort of employment in every industry right. I'm giving multiple companies a try right now, though my hopes are pretty slim and I feel like I'm being forced to move into a different sector just to survive here.

It all depends on personal expectations at the end of the day. You might think joining small/mid companies with a lower starting pay is not good, but if you think from another angle it makes a lot of sense also.

If a PT private degree can also join MNCs at the same starting pay, why would anyone bother to study hard in JC/poly and get into the local unis or branded unis overseas? Might as well everyone just do whatever they want, then spend some money get a private degree and in the end still the same.

To be fair I know some private degree holders who are competent and have a good career over long term as well, but I notice a lot of private grads seem to have unrealistic expectations and expect to get the same offers from top MNCs as those from good and hard to get in uni.

Just to be clear, is a salary of 2.5k an unrealistic expectation? Am asking out of curiosity as I am not to clear how the market is right now.

2.5k is a bit on the high side, but still possible. i think ur biggest prob is age, not recognized degree, no exp and poor job market. if compare against a 19-21 yo poly fresh grad asking for 2k, i think most companies will choose the poly instead.

if really cannot get then just take up whatever freelance/contract job for the time being first.

Understood. Thanks for advise, I see what you're saying there and will try my best to take whatever comes my way. Wish me luck! :)

Definitely not a technician role. Why did you even try to have a degree if you decided to be a technician, a diploma should suffice.

A technician path and an engineer path is very different, I am sure people from these sectors will agree with me. Don't waste your time because you are damaging yourself and the reputation that your private uni is trying hard to build.

I do not know where did you get your degree from but I would advise you to talk to your Uni's career services and attend more career events to network.

My friend, do not just spend all your time searching for job ad and apply blindly. Go and craft a good Linkedin profile which skewed towards your interest in Aerospace Industry.

Distribute your time on:

Research on the company that you are interested in and know their business priorities/pains. This will prep you up for a good discussion if you manage to get a contact with the potential hiring managers.

Get in touch with the people from the company that you are interested from Linkedin and express your interest to join the company, you might just get lucky.

OP: Your UON degree is from PSB or in-campus from Australia?

If latter you can try applying for engineer positions in those mncs and emphasize in your cv and make sure they don't mistake it for the PSB one which is very common among private graduates in Sg.

If former, my advise will be to focus on the smaller companies who are not directly doing aerospace engineering, but provide services to aerospace industry along the value chain. Don't restrict yourself just to engineer jobs, broaden the search to sales, procurement, safety, trainer, project support etc. Go for areas less popular = less competition and since your expectation is 2.5k should have a good chance.