‘Career path is a long marathon’: Tenured tech workers advise burnt out young engineer dissatisfied with his pay

SINGAPORE: A young engineer’s post about feeling burnt out and dissatisfaction with his pay drew advice from tenured tech workers, who reminded him that building a career is a “long marathon”.

On r/singaporejobs, he shared that he “no longer feels joy in life” and feels “sucked out”. He also said he noticed that he had lost a lot of weight.

Explaining his situation to others, he wrote: “I recently had a conversation with my group of friends, and they all agreed that I was paid too little (S$3,800, including CPF). I laughed it off and told them I was still learning, despite me starting the earliest compared to them. All of them are earning at least S$4,200, ranging from marketing, consulting, to process engineer roles. Some of which don’t require rigorous working hours/ are more flexible (wfh) yet carry much more benefits.”

Wondering if this was the norm for fresh graduates after one year of work, he asked: “What is the yearly increment like these days in the market?”

According to him, he had been “desperately” taking coding and artificial intelligence (AI) courses for the past few months but still felt “horribly lost and underskilled”.

“I really feel some regret towards my degree and I wish I had studied harder and chosen a more general and competitive course like Business/Accounting/Computer science, etc.,” he added.

Several experienced tech workers responded in the comments by sharing how their careers and salaries evolved over the years—encouraging him to treat his career as a “long marathon” not a sprint.

One commenter, who started his tech career more than 20 years ago with a vendor company, recalled earning only S$2,600 as a fresh graduate, compared to his classmate who joined a Swiss bank and was earning S$4,000 while “just developing a small program using Visual Basic (a programming language).” Five years later, his classmate was able to buy a condo while he was still earning less than S$4,000. Now, that classmate is driving Grab while he is still an appointment holder in a company.

“My point is, career path is a long marathon. If you always compare, then you will always feel unsatisfied,” he added.

Another commenter, who described himself as a “slow learner”, said he started as a software engineer more than 16 years ago earning just S$2,000 and received a S$200 increment after his first year. After progressing “slowly and steadily”, he shared that he now earns S$7,700.

A third added, encouraging the post author to “trust the process”. “You are still young and have plenty of time to learn and grow in your career. Treat it like a long marathon when talking about a career path. You are in the right position as you have already realised what you are lacking now, keep it up and always trust the process”, he said.

Meanwhile, another commenter at a similar stage in his career shared that he earned around S$3,200 to S$3,400 after his first year of work. His salary only increased to S$4,500 after he job-hopped after his second year.

He said he also used to compare himself with his peers, but now places greater value on having a better work-life balance.

“These days, I have a much better work-life balance, so I don’t feel as frustrated anymore. Back then, I had to put in a lot of overtime for relatively low pay, so I don’t complain much about my current situation. At the end of the day, I think it’s more about whether the workload is reasonable and if the pay justifies it,” he added.

According to the latest Randstad Employer Brand Research report released in June 2026, despite ongoing economic uncertainty, “good work-life balance” remained the most important factor for Singapore workers when choosing an employer, edging out “attractive salary and benefits”. /TISG

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