Happy Engineer
 

Travel all over the world, Germany, various part of China, Switzerland, Prague, Thailand, North till south of Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Canada, Various part of USA.........no control on where I stay and what I eat (all claim to company). Sometime, bring my wife along with me for the trip too:p

Age 35 drawing 5.5k.

Report to west coast of USA (so, does not need do night conference) factory directly. Handphone, internet bill all claim company as only required to return to office twice a week and the rest of the time work at home when not travelling. Frequecy of flying is about once a mth.

Pretty flexible. IT industry? 5.5k per mth includes bonus? If not, what is the average bonus?

No, not IT as I don't consider that as engineering and 5.5k for IT personnel is considered as underpay to me. I am in Manufacturing line

The long term future of our nation will be in for some serious trouble if capable professionals in the engineering/technology sectors are compensated so poorly. Science & technology forms the backbone that spearheads the industrialistion of any country. So it is really tragic that Engineering/Science faculties are being treated as the metaphoric 'dumping grounds' in universitys & polytechnics.

I remember being dispatched to an Engineering Course in NTU despite nearly flunking my A level Physics. I had expected to go into FASS (my first choice) since I did reasonably well for my humanities subject & GP. Apparently the university (or perhaps the entire matriculation system in the greater scheme of things) decided that they would trust me to build a bridge more than they would trust me to learn about economics or political science. I know for a fact that Engineering faculties in other countries (while being equally rigorous academically in terms of lesson time), seem to attract a higher calibre students as reflected by their higher entry hurdles and Engineering graduates eventually move on to jobs which pay rather well. This unfortunately appears to be a Singaporean phenomenon.

No wonder engineers here are paid so poorly. They can fail physics at A level and yet read engineering in university!

It's no surprise the good students (including those who at least muster a pass in physics) are reluctant to take up engineering lest they mix with the incapables and go down the path of mediocrity.

There are two sides to every coin.

Engineering belongs to one of those professions like teaching and taxi driving that are relatively kind to mediocre and poor performers. No matter how bad, even the worst performers will get some income and won't starve.

At the other extreme, entrepreneurs and soccer players earn astronomical incomes but only if they are at the very top of their games. The majority in fact either lose their shirts or starve.

For mediocre to poor performers, engineering represents a relatively safe career option but the problem is of course everyone thinks that he is the best and going to become the next Bill Gates or Messi.

what a moron with load of crap. comparing engineering with teaching n taxi driving. this seems to be a singapore phenomenon where there are no hi-tech companies.clearly, in many advanced countries, engineering is a very good profession.but then afterall, singapore is an asian country. where students choose career paths based on opportunities n money. most slog in their school life to get to college and most likely, do not enjoy their work. and so its natural that they pick fields with money in singapore.

finance n banking is full of engineers.they are those who cant make it big so they switch as soon as possible hoping they will do better there.

Why engineering need 4 yrs to complete but bank & finance or accountancy only take 3 year? Why a 4 yrs engineering course can't be drawing higher salary or as prestige as a law studies (4 yrs) or Medicine course (5,6 yrs)?

If a 4 yrs course earning lesser that a 3 yrs course with inclusive of 1 yrs of opportunity cost losses, who will want to take up engineering course?

Ya, not to mentioned that engineering course tution fee is more expensive than those 3 yrs course like business studies, IT etc

so, quit complaining and do a biz degree. engineers in singapore are on par with taxi drivers, as someone mentioned above.