Professionals are Leaving for Singapore

Yesterday, I had a chat with another engineer who has resigned after working in our office for over four years. When pressed on, he revealed that he and his architect GF (with Innotech) are planning to work in Singapore.

I could sense that all young professionals are not happy with the pay situation in Sabah. Sad to say, pays for professionals are generally lower compared to that offered in West Malaysia and Singapore. I could not fully explain why this is the case in Sabah. Some say it's because of the smaller market and the quantum of professional services from local projects are predictably not sufficient to be sustainable in the long haul. Or are bosses not prepared to allocate bigger portion of their income for staff remuneration but only for themselves?

This is critical issue to think about and to act on for the long term viability of professional practices by the local practitioners. In fact, quite a number of engineers after having worked a couple of years here and then decided to move to work in Singapore. The beneficiary is of course Singapore and the loser - Sabah.

We are forever left with the task of training fresh engineers! Fortunately or unfortunately, I am on my way out of full time professional practice!