NUSWhispers – Confession #9956

In recent times we've constantly seen news reporting things like: "Shrinking pool of engineers poses national risk", "Engineering should be the core of our economy", "More should do engineering". Let me shed some light on this matter as a recent NUS Engineering graduate. Im wasnt the typical engineering student, who chose engineering for its job prospects and future. I wanted to be an engineer, to transform ideas into applications, to create new solutions for existing problems and all that inspirational stuff. I took on a government scholarship which allows me to serve a 3 year bond in any local engineering firm upon graduation, i worked hard, graduated with good honours and a shiny resume of 3 internships, overseas exposure and a couple of Project Director positions during Uni. I graduated amongst the top of my cohort. Discounting the foreigners in my cohort, whom mostly joined the industry under their mandatory scholarship requirements (SM 1/2/3 scholarship). Almost half my singaporean peers joined banks and the finance industry, the remainder landed civil service positions, further studies, and maybe alittle less than half joined the engineering industry. It was incredibly puzzling why so many chose to join the finance industry until i started work. In engineering, most of us work in the west, Tuas, Jurong Island, some at Sembawang. We get up on average 5+am daily and travel 1-2hours to get to a place closer to Malaysia than our homes, most of us work late without OT pay, and without public transport in the area, call cabs home. All with the average 3k+ salary, the lucky few in the big MNCs get 4k. Which is about half of the salary of those engineering students who joined the finance industry. Btw im not comparing with biz/arts students who join the banking/finance industry, im refering to fellow engineering students. The work environment is unpleasant, glamorous, and you would be lucky to have afew singaporean colleagues to hang out with, as most foreigners there just want to finish the stint and go back to their country. The remuneration scales poorly compared with other industries partly because companies would simply hire a cheaper indian/chinese engineer to replace you if you ask for more. In summary, Engineering is tough, you work long hours, with long travelling times, unexciting environment, with low and poor increment in salary, my question to everyone who demand engineers in singapore is: why should anyone do it? I intend to join a bank when i finish my bond, im sure the finance industry is tough too, but its surely nothing i can't handle. With about double the pay, better conditions, better prospects, who would want to stay in engineering?