Uncertainty as an engineer

[tsunamiboy10]

Dear experts,
I have been working as an engineer covering scope of wireless, presales, sales and application engineer in telecommunication industries. That title has been in 4 companies for the past 6 years in my job in Singapore. As of now, I have not been promoted due to my skill sets. My annual salary is less than 60k a year up till now. I feel lost sometimes not sure where I should go. Now I'm thinking to pursue my masters course for Master of Science in Engineering Business Management. I hope this will lead me to somewhere as part of my career progression.

 

[BoomerD]

ok

 

[NutBucket]

A degree won't necessarily help. If you want a promotion figure out what additional responsibilities there are and take those on. Basically, do the job you're trying to get promoted to.

 

[BudAshes]

On a scale of 1 to Putin, how is your stance of dominance?

 

[KillerCharlie]

Where I work, people get degrees in engineering business management because they are not very good engineers, aren't advancing, and can't get a masters in an actual engineering discipline. They somehow think that such a degree will get them ahead and it never does.

 

[tsunamiboy10]

A degree won't necessarily help. If you want a promotion figure out what additional responsibilities there are and take those on. Basically, do the job you're trying to get promoted to.

A degree won't necessarily help. If you want a promotion figure out what additional responsibilities there are and take those on. Basically, do the job you're trying to get promoted to.

Thanks Nut, i already done my electronics degree, As for my current company, im learning to screw the vendors to get things done. More of project management role,and in long term i feel i dun learn much technical anymore, more of doing opex budget, reporting to director, managing vendor. I have done sales, technical support before and now im in project management. Seems quite lost of where am I heading .The best is i take accountability of all roles where i can see myself performing

 

[tsunamiboy10]

On a scale of 1 to Putin, how is your stance of dominance?

Hi Bud, dominance in terms of?

 

[tsunamiboy10]

Where I work, people get degrees in engineering business management because they are not very good engineers, aren't advancing, and can't get a masters in an actual engineering discipline. They somehow think that such a degree will get them ahead and it never does.

Then wat is best for the engineer to excel? The only path i can myself is in management role

 

[ronbo613]

Don't worry about it. You'll be replaced by a machine in a few years anyway. How about landscape maintenance?

 

[Thunder 57]

Then wat is best for the engineer to excel? The only path i can myself is in management role

People who take classes to become managers never make good managers. A team of engineers lead by MBA's will never be as successful as a team of engineers lead by great engineers.

 

[tsunamiboy10]

People who take classes to become managers never make good managers. A team of engineers lead by MBA's will never be as successful as a team of engineers lead by great engineers.

So what shall the engineers do to be well respected and progressing well?

 

[tsunamiboy10]

Don't worry about it. You'll be replaced by a machine in a few years anyway. How about landscape maintenance?

One example I experienced from one of my vendor whereby it no longer in service. many experts have to relearn all over again

 

[drinkmorejava]

So what shall the engineers do to be well respected and progressing well?

Work hard, do well, and ask for more responsibility. Doing only what you are asked doesn't get you very far. It looks like you have changed companies a lot for the same exact job. Why is this?

I'm not certain what job you want? Do you want to be doing engineering work or project management or something else?

It sounds more like you need a plan than another degree. You should be able to get far with just an undergraduate degree. Where I have worked, project management generally doesn't lead anywhere. Engineers can be promoted to more respected engineering positions, and managers (of engineers) can be promoted to manage larger groups of engineers. However, project managers don't have anywhere to go. Larger projects are run by corporate, not by project managers associated with engineering teams.

 

[tsunamiboy10]

Hi

Work hard, do well, and ask for more responsibility. Doing only what you are asked doesn't get you very far. It looks like you have changed companies a lot for the same exact job. Why is this?

I'm not certain what job you want? Do you want to be doing engineering work or project management or something else?

It sounds more like you need a plan than another degree. You should be able to get far with just an undergraduate degree. Where I have worked, project management generally doesn't lead anywhere. Engineers can be promoted to more respected engineering positions, and managers (of engineers) can be promoted to manage larger groups of engineers. However, project managers don't have anywhere to go. Larger projects are run by corporate, not by project managers associated with engineering teams.

I could say I was unlucky, the second job was contract, for the 3rd job ,the company about to close down when the oil price drop. And currently, I cant learn much, and less exposure . Most the time managing vendor and screw them

 

[Rumpltzer]

It depends on where you work.

In my company (large conglomerate), managers and program managers have a path and have somewhere to go. If you choose to remain technical at my company, you face a hard road. You'll likely be pigeon-holed into doing something for the next 20 years of your life in obscurity with some manger (or series of managers) profiting from your work, or you'll be tasked with mindless work until you fall dead of old age. If you want to stand out as a technical at my workplace, you need to be something pretty special... and even then it's a fight. And there's no "technical path" here like there's a "management path".

With experience as a sales and applications engineer, it seems that the OP has written his own story already. It's hard to recover from that background into a technical position where people will take you seriously. Program manager sounds pretty good if coming from sales... If OP doesn't like his company or what he's doing or how his company works, OP should find new company more to his liking.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Money isn't everything and 60k is still half decent, you can live off that if you're careful with spending. If you like what you do I'd keep doing it. Or look into using your skillset to do your own gig on the side. Like design and building something you can sell on an Amazon store or something. Though it's hard to compete with China when doing that. What they sell their stuff for is what it will cost you for just one part.

I make a bit under 80k myself and like my job (especially the hours - it's shift work so I get lot of time off) and if I wanted to make more I'd have to go into management. Not really what I want to do, so I stay where I am. Sometimes you have to settle.

 

[BD231]

I met a pizza delivery guy with a wife. Ur fucked m8 stop trying give up ho's gunna be ho's no matter where you go.

 

[tsunamiboy10]

It depends on where you work.

In my company (large conglomerate), managers and program managers have a path and have somewhere to go. If you choose to remain technical at my company, you face a hard road. You'll likely be pigeon-holed into doing something for the next 20 years of your life in obscurity with some manger (or series of managers) profiting from your work, or you'll be tasked with mindless work until you fall dead of old age. If you want to stand out as a technical at my workplace, you need to be something pretty special... and even then it's a fight. And there's no "technical path" here like there's a "management path".

With experience as a sales and applications engineer, it seems that the OP has written his own story already. It's hard to recover from that background into a technical position where people will take you seriously. Program manager sounds pretty good if coming from sales... If OP doesn't like his company or what he's doing or how his company works, OP should find new company more to his liking.

Thx Rump for the insightful sharing. Sometimes ,I am quite perplexed between program and project managers. Program managers from how i see in my vendor does , he will try to tell nicely to my director and he knows nothing but trying to calm down my director when his project manager said something wrong.
Looking at the technical perspectives, they have less pressure to explain to the management team but require standby and following instructions from the management team.
Many organizations nowadays,are goin towards hiring engineers as management team and I guess because they are cheaper, productive and more obedient.

 

[tsunamiboy10]

Money isn't everything and 60k is still half decent, you can live off that if you're careful with spending. If you like what you do I'd keep doing it. Or look into using your skillset to do your own gig on the side. Like design and building something you can sell on an Amazon store or something. Though it's hard to compete with China when doing that. What they sell their stuff for is what it will cost you for just one part.

I make a bit under 80k myself and like my job (especially the hours - it's shift work so I get lot of time off) and if I wanted to make more I'd have to go into management. Not really what I want to do, so I stay where I am. Sometimes you have to settle.

That's what many mentioned about doing Amazon business .Not sure how great we can earn from this platform.How long you work in that position?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I might get some flack for this, but I think 98% of the time a masters degree is fucking stupid if you just want to seek more money.

I guarantee that 98% of the time that you can significantly increase your salary by...
1) Change position. Just because you're an "engineer" means it has to have "engineer" in the title of the position. You could also manage engineers.
2) Change industries. If an industry is dying (telecom is a great example) then you can't expect significant raises, bonus', etc...
3) Technical certification

Master's degree at the end of the day is just a piece of paper. It does nothing other than you simply hoping that it puts it you above someone else with just a bachelors when it comes to competing for a position. Experience >>>>>>(x9001) classrooms. Period.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

It depends on where you work.

In my company (large conglomerate), managers and program managers have a path and have somewhere to go. If you choose to remain technical at my company, you face a hard road. You'll likely be pigeon-holed into doing something for the next 20 years of your life in obscurity with some manger (or series of managers) profiting from your work, or you'll be tasked with mindless work until you fall dead of old age. If you want to stand out as a technical at my workplace, you need to be something pretty special... and even then it's a fight. And there's no "technical path" here like there's a "management path"..

There is a lot of truth here - and it REALLY pains me to say that.

In my world, it's not what you know it's simply whop you know and how you say it. There is a reason why something along the lines of 93% of CEOs are extroverts. They know how to talk. They know how to bullshit. That's what managers are in a nut-shell. Instead of understanding the situation you simply need to dismiss those thoughts and only get a high level overview and make the best judgement. That's one of the reasons I don't see myself making it far in the world as far as management. If I want to declare and make a decision on something, I want to understand it. You can't do that in management levels.

 

[ultimatebob]

Money isn't everything and 60k is still half decent, you can live off that if you're careful with spending.

60K in Singapore? It will probably take him another decade to save up for a car

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's what many mentioned about doing Amazon business .Not sure how great we can earn from this platform.How long you work in that position?

Oh I don't do the Amazon thing (though it's crossed my mind). I still work for "the man" at a normal job. I did get lucky to find a job that makes that much though as much tech related jobs here pay close to minimum wage. I work at a NOC so it's a fairly easy job too. It's long stretches of nothing with chaos in between.

 

[Staples]

I really have a problem with how loose the word engineer is.

An engineer is a person who builds bridges, skyscrapers, complicated machines.

This has nothing to do with this thread.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Engineer is quite broad on it's own. It can be civil engineer, or electronic or software engineer etc. Though technically you do need some kind of accreditation to call yourself one. There has been lawsuits over that.