‘Low pay at home was a deal breaker’

PETALING JAYA: A man who has been aiming to be an engineer since he was 15 discovered that being one in Malaysia did not turn out to be a bed of roses.

Now 28, the engineer, who only wanted to be known as Leong, said being an engineer in Malaysia was always one of his biggest dreams.

This dream of his was fulfilled when he landed his first job as a radio frequency engineer three years ago.

“The cost of living was increasing and I felt my pay didn’t amount to the hours I had put in.

“I also had to take on tasks outside of my job scope as well without being remunerated for it,” said the engineer, who was soon lured to work across the border.

“When I saw the opportunity to work in Singapore, I took up the offer, albeit reluctantly.”

Based in Singapore for the past two years now, Leong said the currency difference (S$1 is now worth RM3.5) is the main factor behind his decision to stay abroad.

“My family are all back home and I didn’t want to leave but the (local) salary was the deal breaker,” said the optical engineer, who is a product of Malaysia’s education system.

Another Malaysian engineer in Singapore, J. Bala, said he will only return home if “much better” salaries are offered.

Similarly, it was initially a difficult decision for him to leave Malaysia.

“The salary I requested couldn’t be agreed on by my employer at the time.

“(So) I decided to try my luck applying for a vacancy across the border.

“I managed to get the offer and I am better rewarded here… but it can’t beat the feeling of coming home to your family,” said the 36-year-old software engineer, who has been based there for the past two years.

While acknowledging that his pay is sufficient for now, civil engineer Mohd Salleh, 28, who is based here, feels that it does not align with the tasks he has to perform.

“We have to be at the site as early as 8am, spend half a day there, then return to the office for ad hoc and pending tasks.

“By the time I’m done, it may be about 10pm… It’s like this several times a week.

“We also can’t make overtime claims for our extra hours,” he said, while also not ruling out the possibility of furthering his career abroad.

While recognising career opportunities in the sector, for second-year mechanical engineering student Jeremy Ng, entry-level jobs locally are not as attractive.

“Overseas, there are more job opportunities in niche areas and the pay is much higher,” said Ng, who heads the Engineers Without Borders group at the University of Nottingham at the Semenyih campus in Selangor.

Biomedical engineering graduate Nurain Maisarah Abu Bakar finds that the local job market is already very competitive.

“It is difficult for me to find a job, as vacancies in biomedical engineering are quite low.

“I don’t think there is a shortage of biomedical engineers… In my circle, I know many individuals who are pursuing engineering in different fields,” she said.

Nurain Maisarah added that she is also open to the idea of moving abroad to pursue a career in the field.

Meanwhile, IEM University of Nottingham Malaysia Student Section president Kayden Yeoh said engineering degrees provide a very promising career potential, adding that good engineers will always be in demand in Malaysia.

Recently, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz proposed that foreign graduates of local institutes of higher education work temporarily in the country as a stop-gap measure to ensure adequate supply of skilled manpower, adding that investors cannot wait much longer for Malaysia to produce more skilled workers.