Hi
I would like to get some career advice from the forum. I am from ChemEng background, and had worked in a small EPC company as Process Engineer. Recently offered by larger oil and gas company to join their planning department, which I took the offer. I will try to put my questions as constructive as possible:
Money
I will be straight to the point here, my location is in Malaysia, and the starting salary offered is in the region of RM3300-RM3500/M for graduate position. The contracted staff are highly paid, the following are the information I gathered:
Person A
Age: 31
Salary: RM14000/M as planning engineer
Skill/EXP: 8 years experience mostly in providing Primavera P6 training for different company
Attended multiple courses for Primavera
Holds a degree in civil eng
Person B
Age: 37
Salary: RM21000 as Sr. Planning engineer
Skill/EXP: 12 years experience in oil and gas as planner
Holds a MBA
Are these figures reasonable? I am very doubtful that I could earn even half of their salary given if I have gain the same amount of experience as permanent staff. Does this mean I have to be a contract staff to really get something out from this line? How about the market in singapore and australia? I figure it will be harder to get into australia with this career line as australia is very strict with the quality of engineer.
Security
If I do have to be a contract staff to earn, does that mean I am risking my job security? are the market for this line is more or less unstable? Caught in a constant race of hunting for project, after a project, and is required to move from one place to one place dependent on project?
Value of position
How important is the role as planning engineer in a company? Just how much does a company need a planning engineer?
What kind of damage can a company suffer from hiring a underperform planning engineer?
Job nature
The position offered is a desk job.
how about the other industry for the same position? Is planning engineer that works under the sun earns marginally more?
Can you achieve work-life balance the higher you climb?
Professional growth
How does the career ladder looks like? What is the career path that a successful Planner would take? What kind of opportunity this career will lead to?
For what I have in mind, planning engineer doesn’t really have a proper and widely recognised institute to certify the profession. At least not as much as the ICHEME, IEEE etc. And most probably taking PMP certification, Primavera course, and MBA are the only ways to climb the ladder
Hi Garen
To be a planner is a challenging job where you have the chance to learn something new all your life. There is no way to get a better inside to projects. Payment as far as I know is equivalent to an engineer with a similar level of experience.
Planning does mean an estimation for the future without being a fortune teller. So, a strong personality is required.
If you are wrong with your estimations, there will be a crowd who knew it better - not before, but afterwards.
If someone causes a desaster, e.g. the project manager, the planner in general will be blamed because she/he reports the bad news.
...
I like this job and my son started as a planner as well.
Good luck!
Dieter