""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""

but you can be PhD doing non-techie jobs.