- Joined
- Jul 24, 2008
- Messages
- 33,627
- Points
- 0
Five months ago: $60,000/year NTU engineer, now: $1600/month technician contract job!
Thomas came in to see me all perspiring after visiting Caliberlink at Brash Basah Road two hours earlier. He also has to return to work at 2.15pm for the second shift of his 3-month-old technician job with a MNC. The second shift ends at 11pm but Thomas is not complaining.
It was something that he desperately took up as he didn’t want to go jobless for too long after he was retrenched from a lucrative $60,000/year IT engineering position earlier this year.
He has worked there for six years and was fortunate to come out with a reasonable severance package.
However, his wife is a home maker and it would be disastrous for two adult family members to go unemployed at the same time.
He has two primary school-going boys and it was a challenge to make ends meet if there is no income for a prolonged period - to him the technician position was a God-sent.
“It was also something that kept me going even though the pay is 1/3 of what I earned,” he told me when I offered him a drink and tissue to wipe off his perspiration.
Looking younger than his mid-40s age, Thomas earned his engineering degree from NTU and life was rosy then as the lucrative semi-con industry has just took off and work was plentiful.
Nevertheless, all good things have to come to an end and he was soon retrenched from his engineering job early this year.
Unless the government drastically reduces foreign talents soon, we will see more Thomas running around – jobless and desperate.
We will also see more undergraduates opting to study the arts and social sciences in universities as this is the best way to gain entry to the secured civil service sector.
Singapore will in future face the unpleasant situation of not having enough local experienced engineers as currently most of the engineering positions are occupied by foreigners.
The profession may also be cheapened by foreign hirings who may one day take their experience with them to other developed countries who will treasure their skills more.
*The above article was first published on Transitioning.org here (http://www.transitioning.org/2012/05/22/...ract-job/)
Thomas came in to see me all perspiring after visiting Caliberlink at Brash Basah Road two hours earlier. He also has to return to work at 2.15pm for the second shift of his 3-month-old technician job with a MNC. The second shift ends at 11pm but Thomas is not complaining.
It was something that he desperately took up as he didn’t want to go jobless for too long after he was retrenched from a lucrative $60,000/year IT engineering position earlier this year.
He has worked there for six years and was fortunate to come out with a reasonable severance package.
However, his wife is a home maker and it would be disastrous for two adult family members to go unemployed at the same time.
He has two primary school-going boys and it was a challenge to make ends meet if there is no income for a prolonged period - to him the technician position was a God-sent.
“It was also something that kept me going even though the pay is 1/3 of what I earned,” he told me when I offered him a drink and tissue to wipe off his perspiration.
Looking younger than his mid-40s age, Thomas earned his engineering degree from NTU and life was rosy then as the lucrative semi-con industry has just took off and work was plentiful.
Nevertheless, all good things have to come to an end and he was soon retrenched from his engineering job early this year.
Unless the government drastically reduces foreign talents soon, we will see more Thomas running around – jobless and desperate.
We will also see more undergraduates opting to study the arts and social sciences in universities as this is the best way to gain entry to the secured civil service sector.
Singapore will in future face the unpleasant situation of not having enough local experienced engineers as currently most of the engineering positions are occupied by foreigners.
The profession may also be cheapened by foreign hirings who may one day take their experience with them to other developed countries who will treasure their skills more.
*The above article was first published on Transitioning.org here (http://www.transitioning.org/2012/05/22/...ract-job/)
