Among news like a monk and an infidel GP doctor making six-figure income, there’s an interesting piece in ST two days ago – ex-top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow worries that Singapore is becoming “high cost, low tech”.
“The United States has overtaken Britain because while some of their best went to Wall Street, their best still go into engineering.”
His concern is valid.
In Singapore, the best JC students are attracted by glitzy ads and employment survey reports (see example) glamorizing the banking and finance industry and repeatedly highlighting that top dollars are made there.
For engineers and techies, they only get to hear things like “with a basic degree, you get to wash test tubes”.
Or that engineering and tech talent are a dime a dozen from China and India.
It is no wonder that students die to get into the in-demand courses like business, finance and accounting, while engineering and technology-related courses are dumping grounds.
See my previous posts on getting out of engineering and dead end career.
We all know that techies are undervalued in sunny Singapore. You’re a techie, you make 5k and be happy. Stay happy. Else get out and go to countries like USA, Japan, or even China and Taiwan where tech talent are much more highly valued than over here. Or, get into banking or do a sales job.
So Mr Ngiam worries about the lack of local high-tech talent.
There’s always a simple solution (right?): Start paying top dollars for engineers.
Start with tech-related ministries and agencies like Mindef and MDA. Then, move to tech-related GLCs like Singapore Technologies and JTC.
Pay millions for, say, the Chief Innovator in DSTA and ask the media to cover this ad nauseum (much like the way life sciences were glamorized in the not too distant past).
Hopefully we get to confuse the students again.
202 Comments
i think the story goes like this …
the retail investor loses some of the money he puts in, & the banker is laughing at the money he makes from the retail investor ….
sg is becoming more like hong kong, a services economy, rather than manufacturing economy & let’s face it, even if sg needs a engr base, it still doesnt pay, compared to financials.
I refer to what Nicholas mentioned about engineering where “Engineering is more than one or two person’s efforts and decision”. But, in a construction industry,a PE is qualified and will have to endorse all the structural plans before the building is allowed to be built. And who come after the PE if something goes wrong, be it his negligence or others such as his subordinates who did all the design ? The PE (Professional Engineer). He will need to face the music as BCA will come after whoever that endorsed all the plans. Read the Building Control Act and you may get frightened.
So, what is the reward if he has to be accountable and responsible with building contracts that may be more than $100 million ? The PE may earn $10-20 k after netting the overheads and expenditures. If you compare with a doctor, I say it is peanuts but come with a great burden. I am not refering to the wage statistic for all ages. One have to compare apple with apple. Professionals !
Engineering is an interesting field but it comes with a price to pay for those engaged in this line. There are all sorts of work hazards and one must be careful in going about the daily chores. More so if you are working in a shipyard, steel manufacturing, construction, workshops, etc. You put on the requisite PPEs and expect to sweat a lot especially for those working on sites. Even for engineering directors, they have to sweat from time to time at the worksites or workshop floors. Even those engineering staff working in so-called clean environment may be exposed to all sorts of health hazards. The starting average pay for engineering graduates may be slightly higher than other disciplines but in the long run, it makes no difference.
Just look at the accident statistics – when was the last time you heard of a work accident in a bank or media agency? Every now and then the news will announce fire or other accidents at so-and-so factory premise, with so many dead and so many injured. Rarely will an accident happen in a trading floor.
Even if engineering pays, the dirty and hazardous work environment associated with engineering puts off students from taking up this interesting discipline. Such is the situation globally, as people are getting discerning and wise. Parents and friends are knowledgeable and most would advise them not to pursue a course of study in engineering. Maybe Financial Engineering or Software Engineering but not traditional engineering.
If you are already in engineering, please do not get discouraged. Just follow the safety procedures and protect yourselves – if there’s none, bring up to your management. The government through the WSH Act is coming down hard on errant supervisors or owners of the premises. I rest my case.
Careerwork, I m not working in the construction industry. But common sense tells me that you do not get one PE to endorse a multi million project like Nicol Highway etc. I think all the talk about PE getting paid peanuts for the responsibilities they have to undertake is overplayed. In every line, the higher you climb, the more responsibilities you ll need to shoulder. Eventually, you’ve got to understand that in any well established organization (pls take note that I am talking about well established MNCs. Not shoddy SME firms), systems shd be in place to manage work and responsibility. The way you talk about how things work in the engineering industry is overly simplistic. If the likelihood of getting fired or jailed because of industrial accidents is really that high, I m sure there won’t be so many people who are still willing to risk their freedoms to work as engineers or managers. I m not sure if you are aware of how the energy in your house comes about. Or the petrol that you use to run your vehicles. Or the fuel that you use to cook your food. No offence to people working in the banking industry. But there are also many brilliant people working in the oil and gas industry to ensure that all the above daily needs I’ve mentioned are being met. Are these people not smart enough to realise it if an engineering career is really that bad? Well. True it may be that money is an important factor to consider in one’s career choice. But I would like you to pause a while and think outside the monetary factor. Can the world or Singapore survive if there are no engineers? Just because a profession pays the most, does it mean that everyone has to flock to that profession? Other than the supply and demand theory, I think that by pursuing a career that one is passionate or good at is not only a display of honesty to what you want, but also a contribution to what our society needs. Other than the money you bring home at the end of the month, I guess the other question you should be asking yourself is what have you contributed to this society or the growth of the economy. 😀
Cheers.
In a nutshell, I mean PE does not deserve the remuneration as compare with their heavy responsiblity. Could be due to the local system or the demand and supply curve. You are right. The society cannot go without engineers. Engineers are valuable and should demand a better status as compared to doctors and lawyers. I am afraid over here still not. You pay an engineer well and the engineer will put their heart and soul into the work. Just like in a construction contract, if the tender sum is low due to undercut and competition, the works will be substandard. Will a cardologist conduct an operation with 50 % chances and paid only few thousand dollars ? I am afraid not. Artist and singer also have the passion but if the pay is low, sooner or later the passion will die as they need to earn a living.
Frens,
This post is really impressive and informative. Actually i used to work as system administrator in my country and now in singapore as IT help desk personnel. If somehow i managed to get myself system administrator post looking after servers like ASP,Apache, Windows 2003, IIS,FTP, Astesrisk, LAN/WAN troubleshooting. How much will i be paid for these kind of job ? Currently in my post i m getting paid very less but still i have to satisfy myself…. I hope you guys will help me to correct direction….
In Singapore, if you are a graduate and can speak good english, regardless of nationality, forget about working if your employer pays you less than S$2.4K a month. To me, that is the very minimum. But if you ask me what is the average nowadays, it’s probably in the range of 2.8K to 3.6K. I think if foreign immigrants start to demand higher pay from employers instead of agreeing to any ridiculous pay offered by the employers, they will be more welcomed by the locals. 😀
I have been working for 4 years as a software engineer, earning 55k p.a., confirmed considered low band of earners.
IMO, It is true that engineers are underpaid and not highly regarded in singapore compared to US.
We also had to put in the long hours, suffer stress etc. It is only those top few engineers that are highly paid.
Now I am considering 2 OPTIONS:
1. bear with it for another few years to head into project management
(now that i’m a team leader)
2.take up financial engineering to head into finance industry.
I am sure I am not the only one in this situation. Would greatly appreciate if anyone can offer advice/comments?
For option 2: If I cannot afford a financial engineering degree, what other options to be in the quant area?
Hi engineer,
For option 1, I am not sure if PM pays well in Sg. I am sure it is overseas, at least in Australia.
For option 2, if you only have an bachelor’s degree you will need at least a MFE, or you can go do a PhD in a numerate discipline. It means you will have to spend $$. One thing though: Given the current problems that are caused by hard-to-account for losses in exotic derivatives, I am not sure if quant or FE will be as hot as it is in the future. A significant amount of hedge funds have collapsed, and hedge funds is one area where a lot of quants go to. Also, quant is most employable in US and UK, however, they are the suffering lot right now. e.g. Lehman just lost 2.8 billion, so I don’t think they are gonna hire anytime soon although they are one of the few banks that likes quants.
But if you are really interested in FE then go for it.
Hope that helps.
engineer, here’s a 3rd option: strive to improve yourself as much as you can in your field (what is it–.NET? Java?). Educate yourself on financial matters. Find out more about derivatives, equities, fixed income, commodities, etc. Then apply for IT position in investment banks.
There are many in Singapore, take your pick. Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch–it’s all good. Position yourself to get closer and closer to the front office. If you have the ability and drive to get there, 70, 90, or even 100k is not that far ahead, especially with the bonus (although this year the bonus won’t be as good…).
The “technical to PM” route is soooooo local companies, and I think it’s rather retarded. The brains and thought patterns of a good software engineer is different from those of a good PM. Why do they keep making decision to lose a good software engineer and replace him with a lousy newbie PM?
Thanks AI C & HowCome for the comments.
Howcome, can I ask if the prospects of PM in sg is poor?
From IT position in banks to front office , is it possible ? What kind of possible front-office positions?
From my limited knowledge, IT is a supporting role in banks. For IT, they have the technical team (many FT experts), the business analyst (bridge between users & technical team). Of course the infrastructure IT areas as well.
Many thanks for the commments.
hi engineer,
1st of all, PM in Singapore is just like another general manager. Pay sucks and you work long hours. If you do a check on Aussie job search engines, PM (esp those in Civil Engineering) can expect about AUD 200k. After tax it comes down to about AUD130k which is still not bad. You may still work long hours but at least you are rewarded.
This is also for Howcome: you can move from IT to front office, however, just like ants attracted to honey, there are so many ants while with only a few pots of honey. That is, it is EXTREMELY difficult to get to front office unless you are really talented, especially in the banks. Honestly, a back to middle office quant’s salary aint too bad liao. If you really want more info on what FE or Quant Analytics is about, try http://www.markjoshi.com and read his advice. Mind you it is not for the faint hearted. Most of the quants are PhDs in pure maths and physics and the questions they ask you at interviews will entertain the brightest of minds. Also read E Derman’s blog at http://www.ederman.com. You better know who he is, cos if don’t you ain’t in the game.
🙂
Engineer, that said, I think its best if you join a boutique hedge fund. Like Citadel or DE Shaw, then again people in there are Maths Olympiad champs….
Engineer: Sorry for my spurtsof thoughts, but actually I think you will be more suited for a Quant DEVELOPER rather than analyst. They are different. Read it in Mark Joshi’s advice. A developer doesn’t require so much math but will need the software technical know how. The industry is really go berserk whereby like a millisecond of trading time counts a millions….
Al C appreciate your comments. For a newb like me, I appreciate any kind of sharing.
It’s kindof crossroad for me right now cos I’m deciding on the next career move, I’m pretty sure there are engineers out there in the same predicament.
something that I can share is that I heard from people in the finance industry is that the lifecycle is pretty short. E.g. front office people, get replaced by new and young blood.
More volatile as there are higher chances of retrenchment during bad economy (LIFO – last in first out).
IMO, I think if the $$ is really good, the risk is justifiable.
Al C Thanks again for sharing your experience.
Cheers
There aren’t many Maths Olympiad champs. In fact Singapore has never produced a gold medal winner, yet. So take heart. If you’ve got gold distinctions in 3 S papers including double maths and breezed through college math, you’d be fine.
Sorry, I meant “distinctions”, not “gold distinctions”.
engineer: I mean IT in front office. Again even in front office there are many kinds. There are people who literally sit shoulder to shoulder with traders. There are people who work on trading applications that are used by traders and the bank’s clients. I’m presenting that 3rd option to you because at 5.5k/month, I feel that you have a lot of room to go up.
Al C: sure, I’m just presenting an option to him/her. Just because somebody is a developer doesn’t mean s/he’s math-inclined. At the front office IT you don’t need to be so math-savvy–but you’d better be able to fix things yesterday with traders screaming at you. Then again there’s that quant developer, like you said.
Oh, engineer, to answer your question–depends. PM in IBs is definitely not a poor prospect. Just ask any IT dude from Barclays Capital GSDC (I’m not there BTW). Good PMs there are Unit Manager candidate–your road to Directorship liao.
But don’t hope too much on local Singapore SMEs lah…
just do your best, whether you are pm, engineer, consultant, IT sales.
some sectors pay more than the other…however, if you are really good at your trade. it is possible to get a 6 digit annual income by 30….
need to work in a co that really appreciates your work…
i agree with MakeTheBest. I may not be in some of the seemingly lucrative industry like investment banking. But I’m 27 this year and I m not far away from the 6 figure annual income. So it’s most important to do our best in whatever that we are doing. Cheers.
Well, engineers start off higher but ends up MUCH lower down the road :). I used to be happy when my friends in non engine field started out our careers.
10yrs down the road & I don’t even bother to ask about their pay checks already. After 10yrs, I finally understand being smart in school is stupid. Thanks to the lecturer that told me to switch back to science cos my results were good for science.
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Very interesting discussion. I have worked for 10 years as an engineer and have been top of band performer, but yet to cross 6 figure yearly. And I am one of the higher paid ones. It is not as easy to earn money as an engineer, but that is not the main point. Most people who are still engineers after 10 years are really contented people. Else they would not have stayed on.
The main problem engineers face in Singapore is a catch-22 situation. Because we do not value engineers, there are few really good engineers, so there are few high value jobs done here. Look at what big companies do in Singapore. Then you understand you can’t get many good engineers trained. With only low value jobs, we can use cheap overseas engineer with less experience and are cheap. Using an experienced engineer is a waste of money only some sectors can afford.
The govt attempts to keep some engineering activities in Singapore despite the outflow of manufacturing activities. It provides a livelihood (not a fortune generator) for engineers so again you are clear that we can’t really be in it for money.
The main problem is livelihood for engineers is not assured despite the lower pay. Singapore abandons industry every 10-20 years. Some past examples are computer and peripherals, HiFi, pcb, home appliances. General electronics is on the way out. Semicon is non-competitive but simply subsidied by the govt to provide jobs. The bleed is low so it should last at least 5 years more. Health science is new so it will probably be out in 10-20 years. Without perseverance, you cannot excel. So Singapore will NEVER excel in engineering and the govt recognize this. Yet they need to maintain it as a major slice of GDP.
Engineers that stay too long in any industry will face irrelvance. Engineers cannot switch fields that easily. No manager will hire a 20-year experience power/ectronics/semicon engineer to be in working in genes.
It is easier for people working in finance/banking, doctors, lawyers, services, management (project or otherwise). But the important thing for someone who wants to stay as an engineer is to remain relevant and you need to make a major field jump every some years to make sure you have a livehood.
Hi all, just like to find out what is the reasonable starting pay for a fresh Masters graduate from Mechanical Engineering.
Thanks
Dear Singaporeans,
All of us should realise that Singapore owns a very strong financial sector.Singapore also act as a financial hub for regional countries.It took two years for me to believe that this true fact really affect us.
I started working as an associate engineer in electronics industry after getting my rigorous engineering diploma.What i get in return is a retrenchment exercise by the former electronics company and i thought it was just my misfortune and continue my journey taking the same job in a giant electronics company.
What i get in return is another retrenchment exercise as this the telecmmunication giant iam working now is ceasing business here.
Worse still engineering companies nowadays either hire foreign Chinese engineers and pay them big bucks(dun know why)or pack up and move all their operations to China.
I apply for business programme at uniSIM and thank god im accepted and lookig forward to a career change(anyway im 26 still got hope).
At least I know i dont have to compete with foreign Chinese when i jump into financial sector as speaking English is their main weakness.(unless singapore decide to turn itself as a mini CHina which nowadays i think its gonna happen soon)
My experience is that engineering is no doubt having less stress as compared to investment banker lets say. Also, it might be true that after 15- 20 yrs an engineer will start to enjoy the high salary. compartively, if you work for the financial world, more stress more money, but if you invest those money early wisely, there is a gd chance you will be sipping lime juice at Hawaii. Thus, even when u get retrenched (in banking) say after 3-5 yrs of good pay, you are well ahead in your bank account, i say why not. Another consideration, engineering jobs are everywhere, so no worries when u decide to quit from financial world.
I graduated with a First Class honors in engineering and worked as an engineer in manufacturing for the past 5 years. My annual package inclusive all bonuses is not even 50k. My sister is a banker with similar number of years of experience; make 2 to 3 times more than what I make.
An engineer average starting salary is about $2.7 and gets about 3 to 5% increment each year if lucky. Promotion from engineer to senior engineer on average takes about 4 to 5 years and the pay jump is about 5 to 10%. I have witnessed several rounds of retrenchment and production moved out of Singapore in my last two companies and not to mention the frequent pay and bonus freeze. Does this job sound attractive to you?
I have seen very few good engineers in both my current and previous companies. Most of them just follow what those guys in HQ say and over time, we just became followers. We don’t really use much of our brains anymore. I’ve seen friends with good engineering degree that don’t end up being engineer because they associated the job to low pay and poor career advancement.
Engineers certainly play a very important role in our day to day life. But somehow in Singapore, engineers are often unappreciated and not well compensated.
My friend graduated with second upper honours in engineering whereas i just achieved an honours degree, in engineering as well. I had always been asking my friends if engineering is what they want to really stick to in life, and was kinda shocked by their blank stares. Nobody really gave a thought to that – engineering was just ‘tan chiat’ and nothing else. It was a guaranteed way to earn a decent salary and my friend was one of them – upgrading himself always and when we both started out, he was earning around 3K while my pay was 2.5K. In those days, 500 was enough to give you a huge ego boost.
However, I knew engineering was a dead end, so I immersed myself into sales, and let’s not even talk about financial industry, just the sales aspect of any sector. Fast forward 3 years, my friend is getting a proud 4K senior engineer pay, and as for me, due to the rarity of sales-focused engineers, is lucky to get a 300K annual package with stock options.
Bottom line is, engineers are plenty, but just like the bankers, companies reward mostly the ones who bring in the cash, so it might not be too late to change your inclination. My 2 cents advice from my personal experience. thanks
Chanced upon this link and find some very interesting comments here. My personal experience as an engineer is, manufacturing engineers salary is pretty standard. No such thing as front office or back office whereby people from certain department getting paid many times more than those from another department. Engineers starting pay typically range from $2,500 to $3,000. After around 5 years, if you are lucky can get between 4 to 4.5k but this will usually mean that you will have to job hop at least once or twice because yearly increment is typically 0% to 5%. Chances of getting bonus that exceeds 3 months is definitely much much lower than getting bonus that is less than a month. To get a 6 figure annual compensation you must be one of the super lucky few and get yourself a director title after maybe 15 years.
Your first home will probably be a 4 or 5 room flat and your first car which you can finally afford after a few years will probably be a Toyota Vios, Nissan Sunny or Mitsubishi lancer. After 10 years or so, you might probably be able to afford a Toyota camry and live in a Heartland Condominiums.
During the first few years, you will see many of your ex-classmates or colleagues who work as engineer starting to move into other industries. Those who stayed on are those that either cannot move out to other industries, those who lives in their own world or those that really have interests in their job. Many of your techie friends or colleagues will whine and whine about their so called low pay. But after awhile, this will automatically stops because they learnt to accept the fact that they are engineers and not lawyers, bankers or doctors. You can also forget about having team mates that graduated from top universities like Cambridge, MIT or Stanford because I have not met a single one after so many years.
Come to think of it, it is not too bad. Don’t worry, be happy.
Annual compensation inclusive of all bonuses for a rookie investment banker with a top tier bank in singapore could possibly be six figure. An engineer can never be paid so much unless you start your own company.
It is pointless to compare the average with those from the cream of the crop simply because most of us are just not in that league. Have you heard of any engineers that get paid more than a million dollar a year? More likely you have heard of top lawyers, bankers, surgeons or politician getting that kind of compensation.
Grad engineer(mining/Oil/gas) in Oz is getting 70K plus.. doing nothing but surfing web in the office..
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Ex-Engineer,
Advise on how you proceed with a change in career?
If you want to have a stab at the financial industry, you need to arm yourself with some financial credentials to make yourself look credible. For me, I had a strong interest in finance, did an MBA and now doing a CFA. Had a choice between finance or management roles in MNCs, chose finance and turned out to be a much better decision. But everybody’s path is different and you got to choose one that suits you.. However, I did only have 2 years of engineering experience before I changed my career. I would imagine it gets harder and harder to switch your career if you have more years of irrelevant experience. I believe in constant upgrading and hate to be in a comfort zone, coz once you’re in a comfort zone .. your career life pretty much ends there and then.. Good luck!
a point of view from a fresh grad. fresh graduated engineers are actually paid rather well in sg compared to most other jobs. if u graduated from nus/ntu u’ll probably start between 2.5k to 3.5k a month. its nothing compared to front office positions in banks, but remember that these positions dun all go to business grads. if u are not a dean’s lister or a first class, u’ll can forget about being hired and u’ll probably start at around 3k at some other position as well.
glamourous banking jobs are a lure to all fresh grads. even top students from engineering go into banking. but don’t expect these jobs to be comfy. they are often high stress with long hours. remuneration is nearly always comensurate with (1) the quality of the degree u have; (2) the hours put in on the job and (3) the experience u have.
other countries may pay their engineers better. but if ur thinking of going overseas then ur not going to go far armed with just a local degree. again, the better paying jobs go to grads from harvard, yale, stanford, cambridge and oxford.
You doing sales for financial products?
singapore engr is low cost, low tech…
dont think the grads from harvard, yale, stanford, cambridge and oxford go into the better paying jobs in engineering sectors in their countries.
Well engineer is definitely a low paying job. This is because the amount of effort and time, you chip in will never be tally. Nevertheless, the task can be tedious and nerve wrecking. That is why most of the engineer is bald! Not just that, engineer always face a lot of time and pressure to deliver a product to the client. Things will certainly get worse when there is a budget and time constraint to fulfill. Solving problem is also another task, which will be encountered from day to day. Problem can be complex and sometime can get very stressful if you dont have the skill to solve the problem. Last you also must be good in application for science and technology able to learn new things quick and fast under time pressure. I would say overall, Engineer is underpaid. ENGINEER = Professional Labour.
7K a month
alot or less?
>
7K is alot but how many years of experience after graduation from university you got??
What type of engineer are you, what industry?
Is 7K your basic pay? or does that included your allowance + OT?
I can tell you that my old bird engineer in my company (in aerospace industry with 16 years exp, a university graduate), now only earn about 6.1K only…
Is this good or bad??
to JImmy,
6.1k ? After 16 years experience? Is a normal pay mate. Work to eat, eat to die. I will call it a slavery pay.
Singapore Engineer = Low cost + low tech + dedicated slavery worker
Hi, is enginnering really that bad in Singapore?
im in NS now and im considering to take up meachanical engineering in NTU. Do you think its a good idea as i studied meachnical engineering in poly and managed to get diploma with merit.
Hi atropois,
Depends on what you mean by bad. If you think 5k salary is good enough for you, then I don’t think its bad. But if you want the 5 fig. salary per month then I think it will be hard to do it in Singapore as an engineer (unless you become a manager of a > medium size tech firm).
That said, this is Singapore, its a city and not really a country. Thus the chances for technical development are really limited as the city has kinda reached its saturation limit. Do engineering as a first degree if you are keen on it and will be good for going into banks and management. If you want to be practical you don;t need a degree just do a sales and marketing job. There’s pros and cons.
It;s hard to have a conviction in Singapore …..
to atropois,
First Engineer is about getting recognition about the work you have done and take pride on your design or the technology that you have invented. But remember is not a good pay job, when you consider the hours that you have devoted to solve the problem is more like slavery. In fact, you might ended up working more than a blue collar worker. Also remember most of the time engineer is not paid for over time. Is more on your passion for the job. If you love money more than your job that say good bye to engineering for now.
I graduated from engineering NUS. From a cost-benefit analysis standpoint, graduating with an engineering degree is not worth it. Just look at the number of hours required to get that degree compared with a business graduate or law graduate, and yet when we go out to work, finance and law related employees get a better salary. When i first started work with a manufacturing company, i was shocked that technicians with diplomas are earnimg more than me cos of Overtime, but we as executives have to stay back with no OT pay. From a per hour salary engineers a really underpaid. So frankly, unless you love fixing things or love to troubleshoot problems,use some common sense and decide what is best for you. For those midway in their course of studying engineering, pls get that 1st class honors to get into banks. For those with 2nd upper (like me) and below, pls think of a business idea and start a business with that logical mind of ours or maybe polish up your sales and human relations.
to ex engineer.
I totally agree with you. I have been working as an engineer for 3 years. Now i am thinking of calling a quit.
Wow…very intresting discussion…
I’m basically a fresher who has got an opportunity to work as a s/w engg in singapore..
The pay they are offering is abt 2.8k S$ which i thought was decent. If you compare that with salaries they give for a fresher her in india, the singapore offer wins hands down. Although i realise the cost of living in singapore is significantly higher when compared to other countries it still is an “INTERNATIONAL” experience which not many freshers here get.
An international offer is seriously a very “BIG” deal here(I’m guessing in other places too)..
Maybe thats one of the reasons singapore still has engineers who accept offers for a lot less pay.
If you intend on saving some money it accounts for a lot of local currency when you take it back home .
Also if the guy wants to do an MBA or something later,the experience should help right?