Friday, May 30, 2008

Guides to Salary Negotiation

When you change job, you will need to negotiate your salary. Or when you just join a company, you find out that you are getting less than your peer, you need to negotiate as well. Even you stay in the same company for a long time, all of sudden you find that some new comers get a higher pay than you, then you need to negotiate also.

Below is a 10 steps procedures for you to negotiate your salary, they are based on Salary.com, an USA site for salary information. I add in some of my personal comments and adjust to the local Singapore market.

Step 1: Find your job description, know what you are doing well.

Step 2. Know what you're worth, ensure you are under paid.

Step 3. Adjust your salary for your industry, company size and location, in USA, it is big, so different location you expect a big difference in salary. However, in Singapore, this is not application, you may get some transport allowance if you are at remote area, but nothing big different. However, you need to know your industry well, if you are doing IT in an engineering firm, that can be a big different if you are doing IT in a financial firm, even you may do the same work.

Step 4. Assess all your pay factors (cash comp, benefits, work/life), take the bonus into account, some company gives very high year-end or promotional bomus.

Step 5. Tie your job performance to where you should be in relation to market .

Step 6. Determine a competitive raise.

Step 7. Be confident.

Step 8. Discuss your job description, performance and market value with your boss. Talk to your boss, if you are performing, your boss would like to keep you. As it costs the company too much just to hire a new comers, that include: advertising fee, interviewing fee, adminstration fee, etc...

Step 9. Identify key benchmarks for the next raise or promotion.

Step 10. Track your progress and tie priorities to your goals.

For more detailed info: Salary.com USA

Click here for more Salary & Increment information

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Reply to your comments

Someone leave me a comment yesterday:

Case study 1:

Sex: Male
Degree: Graduate from NUS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1st class, year 2007
First job: Manager at a foreign bank in charge of loan, yes.. fresh degree graduate as manager


Does this guy have a degree in bank profession? With An EE degree he be employed as a manger in banking sector? How it come about?

Can explain... thanks...

He has only a degree in EE. There are many kind of banks in Singapore, there are some small bank where basically is a sales office that process loan.

For this case, he needs to deal with client, approve or not approve the loan, and that is all. The bank has all the spreadsheet designed for the loan approval procedure, so he needs to key in the data, talk to client, access the risk, and he will be countersign by 3 or 4 higher management.

He gets the title of "manager" could be:
1. He needs to deal with client, so the bank will give you a nice title.

2. In bank or some other company, they have a very flat structure, and fresh graduate can get a very nice title like "asst manager" etc.... And you may see many "vice president" in some cases.

3. You read from newspaper that some SMU fresh graduate can get starting pay higher than $5k or even $8k, so anything is possible!


Click here for more salary information on Financial

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Bonus and Increment for one company

How much is your increment and bonus for this year? Below is the increment and bonus of a company in Singapore.

The company is not in the financial field.
Do you get a better or worse bonus and increment? Let me know!




Click here for more Salary & Increment information

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Top graduates from NTU, NUS business schools more than $4,000 monthly

Once again, the business school graduate from NTU and NUS earn much higher than their peer. Some of them having a starting pay of $4k, this is out of reach for many of us that have been working for 3 or 4 years....

Also look at the hot industry now, they are finance and banking, oil and energy!

Here is the summary:

NUS

The NUS survey of 250 of its 328 Bachelor of Business Administration graduates:
80 per cent were offered a job before graduation
73 per cent had two or more offers

Mainly employed in finance and banking, oil and energy, and the fast-moving consumer goods industry.

Top 11% $4,000 and $10,800 monthly
Top 20% with an Honours degree earn a average of over $5,000 a month

Mean starting salary $3,079, compared with 2006.
Those with Honours had an average starting pay of $3,346.


NTU

9 in 10 were employed within a month of graduation. About two-thirds had multiple job offers.

NTU graduates earn about $2,900 monthly
Top 20 per cent earn $3,802 monthly.
But top Nanyang Business School (NBS) graduates rake in $4,000 to $15,000 monthly.

Source: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/255989.asp


Click here for more salary information on Financial

Monday, May 26, 2008

17 months bonus for financial year 2007

Can you imagine? If you are taking 17 months of bonus!!!

Yes, someone is taking that kind of bonus in Singapore.

He is a "trader" or "investor", that invest OUR IMPORTANT money.

So no matter he is making a right decision or not, he is taking that much of bonus.....

Imagine his pay is $8k (cannot be that little, but just an estimation)

17 months = $136k just the bonus alone.. (this can be a three-room flat price)

Annual salary = 17 + 13 months = 30 months = $240k (this can be a four-room flat price)...

Click here for more salary information on Financial

Friday, May 23, 2008

Interview Questions that you must know

For engineering:

1. What are your underlining assumptions of your work in your presentations. Are they realistic assumptions? What is the impact on your results if certain of your assumptions are changed. One example is the model you used in your project. What if the model is changed. What if the model estimation are imperfect? What can you do in real system design to resolve some of the problems discussed etc.

Finance:

2. What is the oil price yesterday? Who and who is merging? How much is the interest rate now? So be sure you read the financial section everday.....

General:

3. What area of new initiatives can you bring to THIS COMPANY and which you think would benefit THIS COMPANY and why? What leadership can you bring to us? What kind of envelop you like to push?

4. How do you see yourself in 5 or 10 year time?

Feel free to contribute..... these are greatly helpful for those fresh graduate.....



Click here to join in other discussions

There are sad cases in financial institute also

Sad case 1:

Sex: Female
Job: Degree: University degree 2006, one year NIE (teacher degree)
Now: Operations Executive in a America Bank in Sg
What need to do: key in computer to process funds
Pay: $2200

This is a bad example.... but this is life..................


Click here for more salary information on Financial

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Construction Booming 2008

2007 and 2008 is the year for Construction

Due to so many en-bloc, IR (intergrated resort), new shopping centers at Orchard, new condo in the city.... the construction firms are booming...............

Being stay in downturn since 2001, construction firms see their glory days during 1996 back again after ten years....... with the housing price hit record price........

Lets take a look at this comment in my blog:

hi
poly grad in 2004 work in SME -construction firm

2004 - $1500
2005 - $1600
2006 - $1700
2007 - $1900
2008 - $2200

furthermore company sponsor my degree cost about 17k over 2.5yrs without contract terms. Just Complete my course

Am I well paid? Or am I stupid still staying at the company?

forgot to add that bonus every yr including 13th mth ranges from 1.5 to 3.5mths

Well.. I don't think you are well paid, but your company is quite nice in sponsor your degree without any bond!

I think you are stupid to stay in the same company.... in terms of money..........
but if you like the company, like your boss, and like the environment... then maybe you can try the followings:

- go for interview
- know your market rate
- resign, and sure your boss will keep you, then you can get the increment while stay in the same company
- if your boss no keep you, then change the job.. you still young, should explore more.......

Basically, the rule of thumb is that you won't get a jump in your pay unless you switch job

Maybe I can share with you a few cases for my friends:

They graduate from NTU Civil and Environmental Engineering CEE on year 2002.
Their starting pay suck..............
But since 2006, their luck are getting better.....
Now 2008,

Two of them get their own personal car sponsored by the company......

Two of them getting their pay more than $5k per month......

For those who graduate durign year 2002, these two are considered to be very success...

Click here for more salary information for Engineering

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Banking

Receive two comments related to banking....

Grad in 2005...
In Banking Front office, junior on sales & trading desk

Worked for 3 years, still considered junior. Am now drawing 60k/annum
with last bonus 8 months worth, so about 100k/annum.

Risk? I see people
get fired left right centre all the time. In my 3 years as a junior i've had 3
different bosses. and tons of different colleagues.. Crazy turnover..

Only work for 3 yrs and already annual pay of 100k!!!!

Well the turnover is fierce, but I am sure your ex-boss earning big buck in another bank right now....

investment bankers r definitely well-paid at ard $7000 to $9000 for fresh grads
but they worked insane hours
and damn hard to get in.. most prob nothing less than 1st class

that kind of pay most prob is principal engineer level ( usually >10 yrs experience)

Exactly.... imagine an engineer with 10 yrs experience (or even more) getting the same pay as fresh graduate....

Well... the working hour maybe long... but you only need to work for 5 yrs.. that will be equivalent to others work for 20 yrs............ then you can retire... why not............


Click here for more salary information on Financial

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Do you have "scholar" in your company?

In Singapore, there is this feature in our society, i.e. SCHOLAR! If you are in the government sector or government related company, I am sure you will have this experience. If not, watch the movie "Just Follow Law", Fann Wong is a scholar in that movie...

Below is a comment that I receive:

You know that there are so called "scholar" in sg gov company
those "scholar" knows nothing
fresh graduate pay higher than us
speak also louder
just know to sa ka....


I think many of us may have the similar comments as this person...

There are many times, these scholars graduate from overea WELL-KNOWN universities, they have MASTER or even PHD degree... but no working experience, not even mention inter-personal skill...

They are borned to be "FUTURE LEADER", so their career path is well planed for the management route...

Their pay is higher than many of us that have been working for so many years, and doing all the dirty jobs...

Whats your view, pls share with us.........

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Monday, May 19, 2008

Anual Pay $72k for 6 yrs IT

I receive quite a few comments in the discussion board... Thanks for your support and reply.... I will go through all of them one by one..

Lets start from this, in this particular case, I receive this post:

Graduated 2002. IT. salary for 2007 was 72K. This was my progression.

2002 - 2200 per mth. No bonus
2003 - 3000 per mth. No bonus
2004 - 3500 per mth. No bonus
2005 - 4000 per mth. No bonus
2006 - Joined this company that pays really sad monthly salary, but gives good bonus at the end of the year. Started looking at salary on an annual basis. 58K annual.
2007 - 72K annual. <-- likely to be stuck at this range for a damn long time until I hop again.

Is this a fair range for someone of my age?

I should say that.. in the first 4 yrs your pay really suck... suck in the sense that there is no bonus.... (but I wonder no bonus means 12 months or 13 months?)

Anyway, in your lastest job, annual pay of $72k.. this is quite a lot.. this is nearly like you get $5k per month, and you get 15 months (13+2 months bonus). Well I think you are quite well paid now.

Not many ppl with 6 years working experience can get such a pay.

So now we can see how is the increment for an experience IT professional. From annualy $28k to $72k over 6 years (2.5 times) is not easily get by others engineer, such as the engineer - case I that I have discussed earlier...

And now I find that this blog becomes more and more interesting... over here, we can exchange our pay and salary and make comparisons. Then we can know we are under paid or over paid. And maybe can share with us how you make such a great improvment, then others can learn also......

In this case, I can see the keyword "Hop", apparently, he/she gets such a pay by hopping....

So pls leave us more details, like your degree, results, any other tips... etc....

I will write more again sooon................

Click here for more IT salary information

Friday, May 16, 2008

Engineer - Case II - Fresh 2008 Batch

Case 1:

Sex: Male
Degree: NTU Electrical and Electronic Engineer
Grade: 2nd lower, 2008 graduate (fresh)
Job search: send out over 30 resumes, 5 interviews, 1 job offer
Job: Sales engineer at a japan company
Pay: $2400

More cases coming soon.. check this post for more update later


Click here for more salary information for Engineering

Did you get paid well?

Let me start this discussion board, so that you can leave me your experience, without reveal your id...

And also we can interact, discuss......... tell me your case............

Share your experience with others.................. Start to comment here............

Click here to join in other discussions

IT Engineer

There are several cases on IT engineer I can talk about. In fact, IT engineers are the one that being paid well in Singapore. In addition, they can easily get a job, basically any field any industry you need IT personnel. This include Financial Field!

Case I:
Sex: Male
Degree: NTU Engineering Bachelor, graduate on 2001
Job: Local SME... terrible pay, as the economic is not doing well that time.
Now (since 2007): Singapore Government Agency, asking for $3500, but offer job at $4300 (the HR says allign to peer!!!!)

Case II:
Sex: Male
Degree: NUS Engineering Bachelor, graduate on 2000
Job: Jap MNC on year 2006, $4000 plus per month


From here we see that:

1) IT can get a job easily
2) They get paid well
3) In singapore, it is good if you work for goverment! Good pay, good bonus. HR says alllign to peer somemore!!!! I never heard of such things in anywhere else........


Apparently, there is another similar job to IT engineer, and that is Accountant, they also be needed in any field... I will talk about that in later posts.


Click here for more IT salary information

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Engineer - Case I

After talking about the case tat engineer switch to financial area. Maybe I should talk about some cases where the engineers remain engineers.

In this case, I would talk about a successful case:

Sex: Female
Degree: Graduate from NTU on year 2001, Bachelor of Applied Science, 3-year degree without honours.
First job 2002: Engineer at an American MNC, starting pay around $2700.
Second job 2004: Engineer at an European MNC, with pay around $3100. (Notice how much is the pay increment over the time and job switch)
Now 2008: Stick to the same company, with pay around $4500.

I should say that this is a quite a "successful" engineer, by having her pay increase from $3000 to $4500 over 4-yr period. However if you compare to the fresh NUS graduate with starting pay $4000 that I mentioned previously, or those SMU fresh graduate, her pay is terrible!! After working for 6 years, her pay only slightly better than those fresh graduate.

I will talk about her strategies on having her pay rise over the past 4-year, apparently, this is not the norm.....

Click here for more salary information for Engineering

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Important Bookmark

Before I continue with more case studies, I would like to put some important link..

Finance carreer in Singapore:
http://financeconnectsingapore.com/index.php

Official salary satistic:
http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/communities/others/mrsd/Publications.html

Others related blog:
http://www.salary.sg/
http://www.payscale.com/research/SG/Country=Singapore/Salary

Do let me know if I miss out anything.... I will cont to add in and update this link over the time.

Click here to join in other discussions

Monday, May 12, 2008

Staring pay of SMU students

Singapore Management University (SMU) graduate again score the highest starting pay in Singapore.

Their monthly pay:

Ave starting salary: $3040
Top 20%: $5600
Top 12%: $4000 - $10000 (1 in 8 or 69 of them)


So what to say? You work for so many years, do you get that much?

For me, I am not :(

Click here for more salary information on Financial

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Engineering to Financial

In Singapore, changing from engineering field into financial field is getting more and more common, there could be several reasons: job available... less and less engineering job in Singapore, and of course, MONEY $$$$ SALARY PAY!

I am going to show a few case studies on how others change job from Engineering into Finance, and after you read you will understand why and how they change:

Case study 1:

Sex: Male
Degree: Graduate from NUS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1st class, year 2007
First job: Manager at a foreign bank in charge of loan, yes.. fresh degree graduate as manager
Pay: SGD 4k per month, 13 months + 3 months (nealy 99% secure) bonus
Normal engineering fresh graduate pay is about SGD 3k per month only



Case study 2:

Sex: Female
Degree: Graduate from NUS, Computer Science, 2nd upper, year 2005
First job: Local bank as analyst
Second job: Asst manager at an asian bank in charge of forex
Pay: SGD 4k+++ per month, 12 months + 3 months bonus (99%)


Case study 3:

Sex: Male
Degree: Graduate from NUS, Science, 1st class, year 2002
First job: Foreign bank in Singapore
Extra cert: CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
Pay: Not clear, but buying a HDB flat with SGD 500k at Tiong Bahru during
2006
Current job: Headhunted to a foreign bank at Hong Kong


Case study 4:

Sex: Male
Degree: Graduate from NTU, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 1st class, year 2002
First job: Interest rate group in a foreign bank in Singapore
Extra cert: CFA
Pay: SGD 6k per month during 2005
Current job: Also headhunted to a foreign bank at Hong Kong


Case study 5:

Sex: Male
Degree: Graduate from NTU, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 1st class, year 2001
Master Degree: In engineering from NTU year 2002
First job: Engineer at an European MNC (multi-national company) in Singapore
Extra cert: Master in Financial Engineering from NUS (2006 - 2008)
Current job: At a foreign bank in Singapore


So we know that:
  • Financial field gives a higher pay!!!!
  • Get into financial field as your first job is better than you change later on
  • Don't ever get a master in engineering, it helps you nothing even you stay in engineering field (which in the later posts I will show you some examples)
  • If you already in the engineering field, for you to change field, is easier if you get a master in finance or CFA or MBA or others related cert.
  • More or less the bank will offer 3 months bonus due to "market rate"

I write all those that I know to my best knowledge. Leave me some comments or examples if you have any experiences. In the later, I will posts more on other jobs, salary and education in Singapore... they apply to other countries as well...



Click here for more salary information on Financial

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Jobs, Salary and Education in Singapore

Apparently, jobs, salary and education are greatly related. What you will be working on is related to you what you study. Especially in the current society, everythings rely on the certificate, without the suitable cert in education, it will be very difficult for you to get a right job with the right pay or salary.

However, even you get the job you want, it depends very much on your luck and company. If you are good luck and have a boss that like you, you will realise your pay over the years can be that much higher than your ex school mate that is excellent in study.

Many times, you enter an industry and you would like to change field, so what should you do? I am sure many people have such concern, for example changing from engineering into financial, from IT into sales etc...

So getting the necessary education or certificate is important, getting into the right field for your first job is also important, getting into the right company and meet with the right boss is equally important. After all, your salary will tell you whether you have made the right move over the years.

So in this blog, I will give some case studies on the people around me, that I know, and hopefully can help you when you need to make a decision, or to find out are you under pay, if you are under paid, what strategy can you employed? If you want to change field, what should you do, what are the steps, and what is hot right now in the market of Singapore. What courses is helpful, what is not, and where to get more information, etc.............

So hopefully by all the discussions, we knwo more about each and other, and earn more money together..............

Click here to join in other discussions

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