A recent street interview conducted at Asia Pacific University (APU) for /ignitio revealed a striking consistency among students regarding their expected starting salary,
when we asked students a simple question:
What do you expect your starting monthly salary to be?
The answers were surprisingly consistent:
RM3,000 to RM5,000.
Most engineering and tech students expect a starting salary between RM3,000–RM5,000.
Those who quoted the lower range (RM2,000–RM3,500) often associated it with their lack of experience, while students aiming for RM4,000–RM5,000 described it as their bare minimum for living costs and fair compensation—not an inflated expectation.
Surprisingly, their expectations are very much aligned with industry reality.
Students Expect RM3K–RM5K — But the Industry Could Pay More
According to PIKOM’s Digital Talent Snapshot 2024, fresh graduates in digital and tech roles are already earning between RM3,500–RM5,000, depending on their skill sets, specialization, and company type.
In other words, what students perceive as a “high expectation” is actually the current market norm for digitally skilled talent.
For in-demand roles, the figures are even higher:
Fresh Graduate Salaries by Tech Role (from industry data):
- Software Engineer: RM4,000–RM5,000
- Data Analyst: RM3,800–RM5,200
- AI/ML Engineer: RM4,500–RM6,000
- Cybersecurity Analyst: RM4,000–RM6,000
- Cloud/DevOps Associate: RM4,500–RM6,500
- UI/UX Designer: RM3,500–RM5,000
Advertised salaries for new digital professionals are expected to see healthy growth last year 2024, aligning with the overall market trend. The projected year-on-year increase is 6.83%, which is a moderation from the significant 15.11% rise observed in 2023.
Looking ahead to 2025, salaries for entry-level talent are also anticipated to grow noticeably, though at a more tempered rate of 6.07% compared to the jump experienced in 2024. (Source: PIKOM’s Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook 2024)
The reality, according to both industry reports and MDEC, is that Malaysia’s tech economy is booming — and talent is in high demand. MDEC reports over 20,000 digital jobs remain unfilled, with employers actively competing for highly-skilled candidates in software, cloud, and AI. Companies are willing to pay a premium, but the specialized skill sets remain scarce.
Ultimately, the decisive factor bridging this gap is the candidate's actual skill set.
Why Some Fresh Grads Earn RM6,000 While Others Earn RM3,000
According to PIKOM’s Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook 2024, the top three paying industries are software, electrical & electronics and BPO:
The Golden Skills: Specialisation Pays the Premium
The difference between earning RM4,000 and RM10,000+ per month is almost entirely dependent on acquiring skills in one of the three "Golden Pillars" driving Malaysia’s digital transformation.
PIKOM and MDEC reports consistently identify these specialised domains as the highest-paying and most in-demand roles.
The highest earners stand out by showing real-world results, not just certificates.
- Proof of Skill (Beyond Grades):
- Strong GitHub portfolios (showing actual code)
- Live apps (e.g., on the Play Store)
- Advanced AI models (e.g., on Kaggle)
- Significant personal projects (much bigger than class assignments)
Top jobs also need basic knowledge of modern systems:
- Key Tech/Systems Knowledge:
- Basics of AWS/Azure (Cloud computing)
- Practical Linux and networking skills
- Familiarity with CI/CD (Automated software delivery)
- Solid API knowledge (How software talks to each other)
Here are the 3 skills that help fresh grads break the RM5K+ range early:
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science
Data Scientists and AI/Machine Learning Engineers are central to creating the next generation of digital products, making them arguably the most financially rewarded technical roles.
According to PIKOM’s latest outlook, mid-level professionals in this area command significant premiums:
- AI / Machine Learning Engineers (Mid-Level) can expect to earn a monthly salary between RM8,000 and RM12,000 (Source: PIKOM Report 2024).
- Highly specialised roles, such as SCM Data Scientist Team Leads, demonstrate the true earning potential, achieving monthly salaries in the range of RM15,000 to RM25,000 (Source: PIKOM Report 2024).
This demand stems from the shift in the top-paying sectors, with Information Technology (Software) leading remuneration benchmarks, followed closely by IT-enabled services/BPO (Source: PIKOM Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook 2025).
2. Cloud Engineering & DevOps
As more Malaysian companies—from established enterprises to nimble startups —adopt digital platform development and cloud infrastructure, the demand for specialists in Cloud Computing and DevOps continues to soar (Source: PIKOM Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook 2025).
These roles are responsible for efficiency, scalability, and automation —core pillars of any successful startup. Expertise in tools like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud transforms an engineer from a cost center into a strategic asset, directly impacting a startup’s ability to grow rapidly and reliably.
3. Cybersecurity Architecture
In an age of escalating digital threats, the role of the Cybersecurity specialist is no longer a back-office function, but a strategic necessity.
With the government’s continued focus on strengthening the nation’s digital defenses, roles in Cybersecurity are a significant growth area (Source: PIKOM Digital Job Market Outlook 2022).
Cyber security professionals who can manage intelligent automation and safeguard digital assets command substantial salary premiums, a trend expected to influence salary expansion in the coming years (Source: PIKOM Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook 2025).
/ignitio’s Strategic Guide: How to Command the Premium
For the engineer or entrepreneur focused on building a better world through technology, the path to a high salary and a high-impact career is paved with deliberate upskilling.
To accelerate past the average fresh graduate pay (RM4,000) and into the senior bracket (RM10,000+), your strategy must align with the market drivers identified by PIKOM and MDEC:
As MDEC continues to champion the Malaysia Digital (MD) initiative to encourage investments and attract talent, the local market for skilled digital professionals will only become more rewarding.
Your starting salary is just the beginning; your commitment to continuous learning is the true mechanism for wealth and career growth.
With the right skills, earning RM4,000–RM6,000 is absolutely realistic.
Without them, the default range is RM2,800–RM3,300.
Beyond Skill: Cultivating the Business Mindset and Strong Communication + Problem Solving
If there’s one thing founders repeatedly told /ignitio, it’s this:
Don’t chase salary. Chase skills. Salary will chase you later.
Even with great technical skills, one soft skill is vital, The Non-Technical Essential:
- Strong Communication: The ability to clearly explain complex technical ideas. This is hard to teach and leads to better team roles and faster promotion.
To really stand out from other candidates, you also need to have good business sense and key soft skills, like being able to solve problems and communicate well.
These engineers get promoted faster — and paid faster.
- Strong Communication + Problem-Solving: The Unsung Heroes of Engineering Success
- Technical prowess is the baseline; companies hire for mindset and train for tech.
- Foundational cognitive and interpersonal skills are difficult to instill, while coding languages can be taught.
- Superior technical skills are often ineffective without the ability to collaborate, question, and articulate complex ideas.
The Four Pillars of High-Impact Engineering:
- Express Ideas Clearly (Clarity of Thought):
- Internal Impact: Distill complex technical concepts (architecture, root cause, solutions) into concise, understandable language for fellow engineers, product managers, and designers.
- Goal: Minimizes misunderstanding, reduces wasted development cycles, and ensures a single source of truth.
- External Impact: Write clean, well-documented code and provide constructive, easy-to-digest feedback during code reviews.
- Internal Impact: Distill complex technical concepts (architecture, root cause, solutions) into concise, understandable language for fellow engineers, product managers, and designers.
- Ask the Right Questions (Intellectual Precision):
- Proactive Inquiry: Challenge assumptions and probe deeply into the why behind a feature or requirement.
- Value: Uncover edge cases, hidden constraints, and scalability issues before development, saving exponential time later.
- Strategic Problem Definition: Correctly define problems, asking: "Is this problem worth solving?" or "What is the simplest path to achieve the business goal?"
- Proactive Inquiry: Challenge assumptions and probe deeply into the why behind a feature or requirement.
- Collaborate Well (Team Force Multiplier):
- Interpersonal Effectiveness: Act as "force multipliers" to elevate team performance.
- Behaviors: Empathetic listening, respectful contribution during discussions, and willingness to pivot approach for the project's good.
- Conflict Resolution: Address technical disagreements professionally, focusing on the solution's merits rather than personal attachment.
- Interpersonal Effectiveness: Act as "force multipliers" to elevate team performance.
- Show Curiosity (Growth Mindset & Ownership):
- Self-Motivated Learning: Actively explore new technologies, understand work in the broader business context, and seek ways to improve systems (e.g., performance tuning, refactoring).
- Root Cause Analysis: Go beyond superficial fixes; understand the entire failure chain of an incident to implement permanent, systemic solutions.
- Self-Motivated Learning: Actively explore new technologies, understand work in the broader business context, and seek ways to improve systems (e.g., performance tuning, refactoring).
- The Reward Structure
- The marketplace consistently recognizes and rewards this blend of communication and problem-solving.
- Engineers mastering these non-technical, critical skills become indispensable leaders.
- Consequence: They get promoted faster into senior, lead, and architect roles, and are paid faster, commanding higher salaries.
- The marketplace consistently recognizes and rewards this blend of communication and problem-solving.
Transformation: They transition from simple coders to true business problem-solvers.
Students Know Their Market Value. That Is Precisely Why They be captivated by “Environment”
As the data indicates, the students' prediction of "RM3,000–RM5,000" aligned surprisingly well with current market standards.
They correctly understand their own market value and are fully aware that with the right specialized skills, they can secure even higher remuneration (RM6,000 and above).
However, what emerged from our interviews was a portrait of a highly cautious and astute generation —one that does not simply jump at the first "lucrative offer" they see.
They know the truth: while a high salary is attractive, working in an environment that stifles their lifespan as an engineer —plagued by legacy tech stacks, a lack of growth, or a toxic culture—is, in the long run, simply "not worth the price."
These students understand the market perfectly. So, when it comes to their final decision, what are the "3 Conditions" they prioritize even above the paycheck?
👉 Continue Here: The 3 Things Fresh Grad Engineers Value More Than Salary: The "Deciding Factors" Companies Often Overlook
(Coming up soon)
