Government determined to increase population to 7 mil in 2030.

[pianist]

he said "he pledges.."?
I wonder how committing & impacting is a pledge.
to ease strain on infrastructure, sg should consider buying some island or mountain. saw today news some UK lord selling his big mountains

[dreamybear]

I always find it interesting that our local universities have so many vacancies for engineers, yet from personal experience, many of my engineering peers do not graduate to become an engineer.

However, i dont have a single friend who's trained as a doctor and is not working as a doctor now. oh and all of them have good incomes. ...

In schools, students who are in the best classes are geared towards engineering. Best classes basically are students who are primarily good in Maths and Science.

While some of these students go on to be lawyers (usually those good in English and Literature and Humanities) or doctors (Biology, Science), vast majority of these students go on to study Engineering in university because of the prestige given to top classes in school.

Every modern society needs a lot of engineers and technicians to be modern, simply because this group of people have the technical expertise to make technology progress possible. However, there are simply too many engineers and the economic pie has to be shared. So, each engineer gets only a small piece of a pie.....

My sharing is more for the benefit of fellow Singaporeans with lesser working experience / new graduates (if Singaporeans don't help one another - life will be even harder)  :

Given the push by our govt towards the digital era as well as the industrial revolution or AI age, it does seem all the buzz revolve around IT Security, data science/analytics / Engineering nowadays. Even so, I am suprised to hear that triple science course of study is still quite popular among our secondary students, and pure physics is still more popular than pure biology. (parents who have secondary school kids ps help verify). Unless students choose physics over biology purely on interest, I am not sure whether the parents / students are making a well informed decision. It is very sad for students to study so hard only to realise, at the end of the day, reality does not meet expections(like yours truly).

In my own journey & knowledge/experience, it is true that it is relatively easy for engineering and IT fresh graduates to get jobs before graduation(though I heard of some unsuccessful cases from my cousin). However, the relatively flexible foreign talent policy makes the pay less decent, though one may only feel the full brunt of it after working for several years when one starts to save for a house and kids(childcare/ medical / tuition expenses are no joke; or being a full time parent). Furthermore, some employers also require SGeans to train the more price-competitive workers to get them up to speed, while SGeans pay from their own pocket for upgrading courses(to increase mkt value). 

Another major  problem comes when one reaches middle-mgmt. Most Singaporeans wld want to move to a mgmt job(which is comparatively rare btw) after working for some time. Those remaining at the analyst / engineer level will have a hard time achieving work-life balance or getting a decent pay. 

However, even in a mgmt job, e.g. a director role overseeing a call center / IT operations, such jobs are more likely to be found in lower cost countries like India. It is thus not easy(i.e. possible but rare) for a Singaporean to gain experience and land such a job role(e.g. below) because
- SG doesn't house that many call centers / IT operation centers
- SGeans unlikely want to relocate to a less advanced country

So yes, if dreamybear gets to re-live a SGean life again, bearbear will overcome the fear of dissection and study medicine or if not, law(if cannot make it to local universities then go overseas and work as legal counsel). Nobody guided dreamybear last time.  

Else, for younger struggling grads, consider moving to banking(where else do u find colleagues staying in One Tree Hill)  or if not, maybe follow dreamybear who is learning investing to supplement low income.

Forum: Set proportion of skilled foreigners a company can hire

-------------- Investment Banking Job Pay Example --------------------------------------------

J P Morgan Director Ramesh Erramalli earns $66,000 monthly including an allowance of $13,000 which is confirmed by Shin Min Daily.....

https://www.facebook.com/190806675782/po...025825783/

https://mothership.sg/2019/10/wrong-wham...sh-doxxed/

Here's what Goldman, J.P. Morgan, BAML and Morgan Stanley pay in the U.S.

[eddysee]

With CECA treaty we have importing so many professionals from India, pay will be suppressed for many PMET. The problem being Singaporean is, if the FT cannot sustain themselves, they an always move back to their homeland with lower cost of living. So, the fact is they might just accept lower salaries, tahan a few years and make enough money to retire comfortably. This is the competitive advantage that many FT have that Singaporeans do not have. I am not against FT, in fact I think if you bring in good FT, SIngaporeans can benefit by learning from them. But, there are many cases I heard from my friends in banking that some of these FT do not even know how to exeute their duties and roles yet put in high position and expect the Junior SG who are capable to over duties for them. So, basically coming in for a free ride.

Also, Singaporeans should not treat work as life time job. They should open up their mind to learn from FT who are really good and hopefully take up bigger role or master the raft so as to be their own boss 1 fine day.

Of course, the next best way will be to learn as much as possible about investing and just regular savings plan via ETF through the reits index or S&P, compound over 10-20 years should generate a safe streams of income for retirement.