Hi all, sharing my progression here as a dotnet software developer.
My background is not IT but I started my career in IT as a software developer.
I am a Mechanical Engineering degree graduate from TARUC (Setapak).

My monthly gross salary in RM (not including allowances, only base) progression:
2016 (started in Dec): 3K
2017: 3.3K (confirmation) -> 3.6K
2018: 3.8K -> 6K (promotion)
2019: 6.5K
2020: 6.7K -> 8.1K (new job)
2021: 10K (new job)
2022: 16K (new job)

Sorry for the soooo abstracted information, just in case my colleague will see my post here.
A bit more context, all these are in Malaysia, I'm not doing remote job and converting currency (some people like to convert, for example from SGD to MYR as their earning).

Sharing this for the benefits of other software developers, there are a few companies I know that they could afford RM 10K monthly for people who have less than 5 years of working experience.

The annual bonus I got from these companies is average 1.5 months.
I am grateful with what I have now at my current age (below 30 years old).

Hello there! Congrats on your graduation, I suppose Dr Seow may have added you and your coursemates to our FB Group for RME/RMT/RMH/REE/RTE graduates. I still see active job postings in that FB group, but the pay vs workload for most engineers really demotivating for many juniors, unless they are in Oil&Gas or semicon industry.

Everyone has different path, you will eventually find and pave the best one for yourself.

In my humble opinion, we sometimes shall look at the absolute value too rather than just the %, because % doesn't give big number when the principal value is low..
In my case, I see it as a RM 2.2K gained for the promotion, instead of the % I gained.


Frankly speaking, I really do have very solid reasons for every switch after my first company.
I told the hiring manager & HR the honest answer and it's not really about the dollar (I usually don't mention $ in the interview), and they accepted my reason for making the switch I guess, no creative or fancy answers at all..

The thing is, the tech industry has a really high demand for great talents (tech kuli ) and the market is somehow flooded with mediocre Software Developer/Engineer wanna-be, I apologise if I offended anyone with this statement, but it is a fact throughout my half a decade work experience in different teams and companies. Hence, some companies do understand that it is a very competitive market.

Hi there, yes, you are right, it’s a senior role but not a team lead yet.

IMHO, dotnet and Java are still considered highly sought (the amount of job ads on LinkedIn and JobStreet, search by keyword) especially in enterprise-grade app development. These two are usually easier to get higher pay bracket (median) compared to others (Python & JavaScript are in great demand too).

After all, they are just different tools for different purposes. It shouldn’t take much time for a developer to work on and get comfortable with other modern languages as most of their programming knowledge are probably still applicable, except some may take more time to be proficient like Rust, F#, ProLog etc. depending on his/her background. But yea, I think you get my point. Haha.

It’s actually less than a year in my previous job.
After all, it’s about the right opportunity and the right talent at the right timing.

I do understand some may find it difficult to believe if they haven’t seen one before. My peers (mostly in E&E and mechanical engineering in semi-con) were quite surprise when they found out I change job again and with a decent package. They are having exactly same years of working experience like me (roughly 5.5 years), and making RM50-80K annually on average.

For me, I mostly look at the career opportunities (progress/advancement) in long run at the company when I make my decision, not the monetary part.

You sound exactly like one of my friends in the industry..
And another common struggle they face is, other than some soft skills and electronic knowledge, most of their skillsets are deeply tied to their production line, like the machines etc. It's not something really transferable if they were to change company, hence looking out could be challenging.

One (5Y working experience) of my friends took a pay cut early this year to be a web developer, from a PCB engineer (in a well known Japanese brand). Original pay is still lesser than RM4K per month, the web developer role is RM3.2K or RM3.3K monthly (sorry can't remember). I guess he rather be considered as a fresh grad in developer role than continue his current career.

And yea, you are right, it is really sad. In Malaysia, probably because of many companies are not giving our engineers R&D work..? From what I read in the JD (my graduates FB group), seems to be mostly maintenance & sales work.

Hello all, would like to update again this year as I’ve gotten a new opportunity last month.

My monthly gross salary in RM (not including allowances, only base) progression:
2016 (started in Dec): 3K
2017: 3.3K (confirmation) -> 3.6K
2018: 3.8K -> 6K (promotion)
2019: 6.5K
2020: 6.7K -> 8.1K (new job)
2021: 10K (new job)
2022: 16K (new job)
2023: 18K -> 24K (new job)

Recently join an MNC at KLCC area, they are one of the top 10 players in their industry. The role is mostly in management with little to no technical implementation. Not sure I’ll like it but no harm trying.

Let’s see how. Will update again if any changes in the near future.

Hi, my role is different now, the previous role is more technical.
My current role is in different industry and at end-user side now. Mostly dealing with business users and clients.

Hi, at this point of time, 2 IT teams and an IT manager.