My career and salary trajectory so far
I’ve been working for 12 years. In that time I’ve had 7 jobs (including current one), taken a pay cut I shouldn’t have, chased careers that sounded cooler than they were, and slowly — not smoothly — worked my way from $3,200 to $10,000 a month.
This isn’t a success story. It’s just my story. And I’m writing it down because I think the messy, non-linear version of a career is more useful to read than the highlight reel.
The dream I didn’t chase
Before any of this, there was a version of me that wanted to study sports science/sports medicine because i was so into football my life only revolved around sports. I genuinely wanted that. But I talked myself out of it — no market in Singapore, too uncertain, what would I even do with it — and took the safe path instead.
Engineering. Mechanical. Because I thought it was about cars and fixing things.
Turns out, it wasn’t really about cars and fixing things.
I don’t spend a lot of time regretting that decision. But I mention it because it set the tone for a lot of what followed — a career built more on what seemed sensible than on what I actually wanted.
Job 1 — Manufacturing, 2014–2018
Starting salary: $3,200 · Exit salary: $4,320 · Duration: 4 years
First job out of uni. A big manufacturing industrial plant — about as far from sports science as you can get. I tried to negotiate the offer and got nowhere. In hindsight I should have pushed harder; $3,200 in 2014 felt low even then, and I think $4,000 would have been fair. But I didn’t have the confidence or the leverage, so I took it.
The first year brought a bump to $3,600. A promotion in year three got me to $4,600. Then the company cut allowances and I ended my time there at $4,320 — actually lower than my peak. Four years of varied work across engineering, supply chain and operations, in the far west side on SG.
What I did get was exposure to a lot of different functions early on, which turned out to be useful later. But at the time I just knew I wanted more — more pay, more growth, more of something I couldn’t quite name.
Job 2 — Finance/investments, 2018–2020
Starting salary: $3,550 · Exit salary: $3,850 · Duration: ~2 years
I decided finance was where the money was. So I made the leap.
And I took a pay cut to do it. From $4,320 down to $3,550. In hindsight, that was a mistake I should never have made — you should never accept less than your current pay when switching jobs, full stop. But I was trying to change careers and didn’t know how to value myself in a new field, so I accepted it.
The role was in trading and investments. It sounded exciting. It wasn’t. Two years of feeling like I was never going to learn what I needed to learn, never going to move up, going nowhere. There was a time when I asked my manager what I needed to do to double my income. He couldn’t answer. That’s when I got fed up and left. And I really should have left much earlier.
The lesson: a job title that sounds impressive doesn’t mean the role will actually teach you anything.
Job 3 — Consulting, 2020–2021
Starting salary: $4,800 · Exit salary: $5,200 · Duration: ~1 year
Consultants sounded knowledgeable and cool. So I became one.
The pay bump was real — $4,800, then $5,200. But the job was not what I imagined. It was slides. Endless slides. Remake this slide. Reformat that one. I wasn’t learning anything I cared about, and I realised pretty quickly that looking like you know things and actually knowing things are very different skill sets.
I stayed about a year. Long enough to know it wasn’t right, short enough that I don’t regret leaving.
Job 4 — Investments, 2021–2022
Starting salary: $6,000 · Exit salary: $6,000 · Duration: ~8 months
This was the one I thought I’d been building toward. Investment analysis at a family office. After years of engineering, operations, finance, consulting — finally, the thing I actually wanted to do.
It wasn’t what I expected.
The portfolio manager I worked under wasn’t someone I could learn from. His excel spreadsheets were a terrible mess. The person with the money made decisions based on podcasts and gut feel. There was no proper system, no real process, no framework for anything. I had imagined rigorous investment analysis. What I got was organised chaos in a small office.
Eight months. Good salary bump to $6,000. But you can’t stay somewhere just for the money if you’re not growing.
Job 5 — Investments/M&A, 2022–2023
Starting salary: $7,000 · Exit salary: $7,350 · Duration: ~18 months
A regional power developer. They were looking at the ASEAN region for expansion into renewable energy. The pay jumped to $7,000, which felt meaningful. And for the first time, I felt like I was in a sector worth building expertise in — power, renewables, investments. Something real and growing.
However, my boss was young, inexperienced, didn’t work hard and next in line to inherit the company. This wasn’t someone I could genuinely learn from. In my experience, you only truly care about something you’ve had to work hard to build. Inheriting it doesn’t give you that. This felt too entitled. It was quietly limiting and I could see the ceiling very clearly.
I even started a data science course during this period, thinking I could reinvent myself again, add another string to the bow. Thankfully I lost interest before I went too far down that rabbit hole. Not every pivot is necessary.
But the sector felt right. That was something.
Job 6 — Big 4, 2023–2025
Starting salary: $8,250 · Exit salary: $8,650 · Duration: ~2 years
Big 4. Energy advisory. Brand name, structure, proper processes — or so I thought.
The reality was messier. Leadership without clear direction. Meetings that made people feel productive without producing much. A lot of talking, not enough doing from the top. At some point I realised I couldn’t follow the leaders because our values were simply different — and that’s not something you can work around indefinitely. Also I cannot imagine when I move up my career ladder to be like them in a toxic environment full of politics.
But I did learn things. The brand name opened doors. The exposure to energy projects at scale was genuinely useful. I left with more than I came in with, which is the minimum you should be able to say about any job.
Salary ended at $8,650 when I left.
Now — Investments/M&A, 2026
Current salary: ~$10,000 · Sector: Energy
Current role, current salary. Still in energy — which by now feels less like a deliberate choice and more like where I’ve ended up, and where I’ve built the most relevant experience. Whether that’s the right place to double down or a comfortable rut, I’m still working out.
The trajectory upward from here isn’t clear to me. I don’t have a mapped-out plan that takes me to $15,000 or $20,000. What I have is a sector I know, skills I’ve built across a winding path, and a clearer sense than I’ve ever had of what I actually want — which is to not be dependent on any single salary forever.
That last part is why this site exists.
The arc, in one chart
Year-end salary progression from 2014 to 2026
| Year | Role | Year-end salary | Change | Note |
|---|
What I would have told myself in 2014
Never take a pay cut to switch careers. If the role isn’t worth at least your current salary, it isn’t worth it. You can always negotiate. The worst they can say is no.
The job title matters less than who you’re learning from. I took roles that sounded impressive and ended up working under people I couldn’t learn from. The most valuable thing in any job is a manager or environment that actually develops you. Chase that, not the title.
Sector matters more than function. I spent years changing functions — engineering, finance, consulting, analysis — when the more useful move was finding a sector I could build deep expertise in. Energy found me eventually. I wish I had been more deliberate about it sooner. That early few years would have built serious capabilities.
The dream you didn’t chase doesn’t go away, it adjusts with time. I still think about the sports science path sometimes. Not with regret exactly — more with curiosity about who that version of me would have become. It’s worth remembering that the safe path has costs too, even when you can’t see them clearly at the time.
- $3,200 to $10,000 over 12 years — a 3x increase, but not a straight line
- Took a pay cut once. Should never have done it. Don’t do it.
- Chased job titles and industry prestige more than actual learning opportunities
- Found the right sector late — but finding it at all matters
- The ceiling from here isn’t clear. That uncertainty forces me to write down my thoughts here.
Next: What will success actually look like for me? — now that I know where I’ve been, I’m trying to work out where I’m going.