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It's hard to go overseas, but it's not impossible. There are still opportunities, so you have to pull the ropes and make it easier for you to be hit by luck. Networking, is seriously important. My son will not work in Singapore. He is an engineer-passionate boy just like I was. The west has definitely more opportunities, even today when Europe is facing crisis, it is still more optimistic than Singapore. I hope my experience in the last few decades definitely paints a better picture for all engineers. Richard/ |
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Unfortunately Singapore is not meant to be an engineering hub. Our small size, high cost, and numerous constraints environmental standards makes it hard for engineering firms to be effective. I do agree that Asians are really fantastic in what they do. I have a few Chinese engineers and they are much better in work than I did. But like most Singaporeans, they lacked the charisma and networking required. And no, the proportion of Singaporeans who are motivated is surprisingly low. If you catch up on the news these days you would have realized that. This generation of Singaporeans complain a lot, refuses to work hard. You fight for pay, fight for great welfare, but when asked to deliver work, you deliver substandard work. Let me bring in this example to prove my point. This is from a local business consultancy publication. When asked to develop some algorithms for a software company in Singapore, a team of Singaporeans did a decent job in a week, A team of Indian nationals did so in two days. And that's possible because they stayed back and work after office hours to do their work, and they had laser-like focus. Surprisingly, the work by indian nationals are better too. Hiring purely Singaporean is not the best of policies. I would rather have a team of Indians and Chinese nationals than Singaporeans. We are all Asians, but on demographics, they fare much better than us, they are more motivated, they complain lesser. I regret that your challenge is impracticable, and I admit losing your challenge with the above-mentioned reasons. People will definitely pay you well IF you are good. My guess is you are not. My counterpart in our automobile company did not head to Germany like i did and he stayed in Singapore due to family commitments. He's a charming and intelligent engineer, graduating with first class honors. He hopped around different industries and today he's really successful too, commanding six digit salary presently. There are a few engineers in this forums that command six digits salary too in their thirties. You guys refuses to believe them. You call them liars. I'm going to say it's possible. They are real. Engineering no matter how socialist you put it, is still rather meritocratic to some levels. It will always be in the company's best interest to pay you ten grand more every month for you to stay and help the company if you are really excellent. Richard/ |
The pay is dependable on how the job title of "Engineer" is been used.
Most singapore engineers are considered as merely highly educated technicians. Local university engineering graduates are products from a mass production factory (NTU and NUS)to support the industries. We (I was an enginner in this area too) do not think, we do only. So a pay from $2.5k to $5k is the norm. Some overseas educated engineers and few local engineers could be better as they can think and do. Those with this "think" factor normally are rewarded with higher pay, at least $8k and above. Richard is right. Read for new knowledge is important! |
Not in singapore
I graduated with an engineering degree from the states. Highly passionate about it. But decided not to practise engineering when i returned to sgp after graduating. Realised Pay is crap, work is dull, career prospects non existent
Engineers in the silicon valley work on developing core products. You can be sure that engineers at places like google apple etc are very well paid. Im guessing richard the german automobile engineer probably worked on core product engineering for a bmw or daimler chrysler. What do engineers in sgp do? For most part, they keep the mfg lines running, or maybe do system integration and deployment of products developed elsewhere. How much can someone expect to make doing somethig like this? Was it the right decision for me not to practice engineering in sgp? Absolutely. I wld probably be making a third of what i make now if i had gone into engneerng here |
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@Richard #542
Problem is, the more naive managers are so conditioned to think that FT engineers are cheaper and "better" than the SG counterparts that they probably won't even realise it if a truly talented SG engineer comes knocking on their door. Unfortunately, plenty of major local engineering companies have upper management with that kind of mindset and complains that they can't find good SG engineers. That aside, I don't know if FT engineers are more hardworking or better or more professional than SG engineers, but I do know that lots of FT engineers are indeed available for a very low pay. |
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Based on my experience in my industry. |
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Yes that's what many people says about Singapore too. But for you to earn the ticket to go to other countries to do engineering, you have to excel in your field. I have a friend who worked in oil industry in jurong island in the 80s, and we were from the same course. I kept forcing him to go beyond his comfort level and go the extra mile to do great work. He is now in dubai with his family, really good life. Perhaps even better than me. Point being at the end of day, it's not totally hopeless in sgp. I believe if you perform well, the whole world will be your playground! Unfortunately about the pay wise, yes you will make a third of what you are earning. And for you to earn more, you have to head overseas. Fight for the opportunities. Yes you are right. I was from BMW. I work in product development, but also overseeing sales for the global market. It was sort of the best of both worlds, engineering and business. |
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You are unfortunately right. Singapore never aspired to be an engineering hub, not even in my time. You have felt the same way as I did. We have had many years of experience in this field. Young graduates, you will earn the most from hearing what we have to say. Engineering is an excellent career. But the most important lesson I'd like to advocate is that you have to be passionate in what you do. Once you did, you will find work to be so much of an enjoyment and you will perform to your best. That's how you succeed. If you are in engineering school because you have a passion of engineering, fiddling with gadgets since young, gets excited to see how things work, remember that's your passion. If you are not, you have to find what you love. Don't go to where the money is. That's not how the world works. Money goes to where the best people are. Richard/ |
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