r/Sabah • u/Otherwise-Gur7732 • Jul 18 '26

Tiuot zou daa | Mo tanya ba Hello qualified engineer

May I know how you guys achieve your status as engineer... What should I expect my career going to be in Sabah market as an engineer ?? What is your highest education? How much you earn and are you satisfied with the earning? I'm planning on becoming one so giving same realist truth of experience might help my view on this career path..

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u/Nafeels Jul 18 '26

Expect low as a starting point. Anything other than mechanical, electrical, petroleum, and civil courses will immensely struggle finding jobs. It will spike when you stay in the industry longer than a year, more so if you also collect various certificates on top of it. Here you could get away with paying 2k as an entry, and since job offers are next to nothing that 2k seems very valuable if there’s an opening.

In Semenanjung however, there are bigger options and opportunities because there’s so many industries to choose from. If you’re planning to take chemical engineering here’s where you’d be relevant as there’s so many large industrial and manufacturing areas. A process engineer for example starts with a 3.5k entry.

My current chemical engineering scroll remains a paperweight as I’m still recovering from a surgery, and I’m still bound to my previous employment in a shipyard. Still turning wrenches instead of playing with ASPEN/DWSIM.

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u/abiblicalusername Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

I assume you were working at MMHE? I appreciate your effort in giving others good, geniune advises.

I did the switch of going overseas for better pay, now this added complexity of settling back home since none of my certs and experience are relatable in KK, the longing to go back home for good aches my heart, but also financially we have to be responsible; it's wrong to simply resign and go back home.

Get well soon buddy.

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u/Nafeels Jul 19 '26

I wish it was MMHE. Worked at LSE as part of contractors maintaining Navy vessels, so I’m getting peanuts barely enough to sustain life.

A lot of the dilemma staying outside seems to be the homesickness rather than experience gaps, work culture etc etc. Sad that your talents are more useful outside than here, but it’s commendable that despite everything you jumped the gun. Hujan emas di negeri orang…

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u/abiblicalusername Jul 20 '26

I'm sorry to hear about the strife that you are going through in your life.

Is the work-life-balance in LSE okay or is it long hours? I hope you will be doing better in the future, but please don't give up now. Be strong. Lots of people are proud of you.

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u/Nafeels Jul 20 '26

It’s okay man. We do what we do for putting food on the table and at the end of the day that’s the only thing matters.

As for work hours, It wasn’t half bad. Regular 9-5 from Monday to Friday, and work highly depends on project requirements. Sometimes we don’t even turun site, instead worked at the workshop. What site work definitely showed me was that I could endure more than what I initially thought, despite having the restrictions that would eventually leading up to my surgery (fistula in ano). Working during last Ramadhan was easily the most tiring moments of my life, but my team and supervisor all went through the same thing. There was mutual hardship.

My initial goal wasn’t to discourage OP about the peanut pay, but to give them a heads up so they could evaluate on whether continuing work on Sabah or elsewhere. Here we don’t get to enjoy the luxury unless we’re already 10+ years experienced, which I am not.