I’ve spent years placing engineers in Singapore — mostly in manufacturing and precision engineering, the kind of work you’d see on a production line, at a motor plant, or in an aerospace outfit like ST Engineering. Construction and civil isn’t our world, so I won’t pretend to speak on it.
Let me be straight, because this is my honest opinion after enough of these: when an employer can’t hire a good engineer, it’s almost never because good engineers don’t exist. They do. The problem is the pay — and specifically, how we decide what to pay.
The “last drawn” trap
Same story, over and over. We find someone with the right technical skills and hands-on experience — exactly the profile the employer asked for. They’re on $4,500 now. They’re asking $5,500. And the employer balks: a thousand-dollar jump? Too much.
Here’s my view — that person is already worth $5,500. They’ve just been underpaid where they are, out of loyalty, or because they stayed a few years and the raises never caught up. Yes, a normal switch is a 10–15% bump. But if someone’s been sitting underpaid, of course they’ll ask for more, and they’re right to. Judging the offer by their last drawn instead of what they can actually do is the mistake. You’re not paying for their old payslip — you’re paying for the engineer in front of you.
Engineering is underpaid. I’ll say it flat out.
Some of these hands-on technical people — the ones who actually understand the equipment and can fix it when it fails at 2am — are worth more than the managers sitting above them. I mean that. Budgets don’t always allow it, and I know the constraint is real. But anchor the number to what the role is worth, not to what the last company happened to pay. The engineering salary ranges are there for exactly that.
And I’ll be blunt: if you’re only willing to pay last-drawn plus a token bump, you’re not really in the market for a strong engineer. That’s fine — but be honest with yourself about it. Because lowballing doesn’t even work.
Why lowballing doesn’t work
When a good engineer is offered $300 or $400 to move, they won’t. And they’re right not to. Think about what they’d give up: they’re senior where they are, they know the system, they’ve got flexibility, maybe arrangements that suit their life. Moving means starting cold — new processes, new colleagues, a new boss to read. That’s a lot of uncertainty for a few hundred dollars. So a lowball doesn’t save you money. It just means you don’t hire, and you’re back at it in three months.
What actually works
Price to the person’s real caliber, not their last drawn. Test what you can test — technical skill and knowledge, you can check that properly. What you can’t test in one, two, even three rounds is character. That only shows once someone’s in the seat.
Which is why we back our permanent placements with a guarantee period — anywhere from one month up to six, depending on the role and how senior it is. If they come in and don’t work out, you’re covered. Though — and I say this with a smile — please don’t ask me for a six-month guarantee on a $3k or $4k role. Let’s be reasonable. The point is you can make a fair offer to a strong candidate without carrying all the risk (and cost) yourself.
The honest conversation
The salary side of engineering isn’t transparent yet, and that’s genuinely where a good recruiter earns their place — not by pushing you to overpay, but by telling you the truth. The candidate wants $5,500. Does he meet your technical spec? If yes, what’s really stopping you — the budget, or just that last-drawn number making the jump look bigger than it is? I won’t always be right; no recruiter is. But I’ll always give you the straight version.
There are good engineers out there. Great ones. The employers who land them aren’t the ones who pay the most — they’re the ones who price the offer to the person’s real worth and move on it. Everyone else is just training candidates for their next interview.
This is what we do at JTE — engineering recruitment across Singapore’s manufacturing and precision-engineering space. If you’re hiring and want a straight read on what a role should really pay, talk to me.