6 steps to set for a pay rasie

Happen to read this article from salary.com on how to set yourself up for a pay raise. I think is very nice, and share with you here.........

Most employees don't know how to negotiate. Many feel they are underpaid for the work they do, yet they wait until their yearly performance review to begin salary negotiations. Where and when do you begin? Now is the time to convince your boss.

1. Define Your Current Job

The first step in setting yourself up for a raise is to establish a baseline or benchmark by finding and updating your job description. Review your updated job description and divide up your job into its component parts. In each area set standards and goals.

2. Track Your Progress

After you have finalized your job description and set future goals, take the time to document your progress. These information may also indicate to your employer that your job is evolving -- and that it is time for an increase in responsibility, salary, and title.

3. Discuss Your Upcoming Review

As review time draws near, take the initiative and set up a meeting with your boss.

4. Do Your Research

Although salary negotiations may still take place behind closed doors, the internet has made it easy to learn where your compensation package stands in comparison to other workers in your field.

5. Frame Your Pitch

When you sit down for your performance review, you can use all the information you have gathered and records you have kept to illustrate both your past work and future potential. Make it clear that you want to grow in the job -- and that you want your salary to grow with you. During negotiations, be sure to mention the other areas of your compensation package. It may be easier for your employer to expand your work/life benefits than to raise your salary, and frequently the resulting change is equally beneficial to you.

6. Start Again

During your review, be sure to speak to your employer about his or her goals for your future at the company.

The full article at http://www.salary.com/personal/layoutscripts/psnl_articles.asp?tab=psn&cat=cat011&ser=ser031&part=par924

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Salary Chart for IT Graduate

In previous post, we have mentioned that IT engineers on general earn a higher pay than other engineers. And they are needed in many different field, so is a hot courses for many youngsters.

This is the salary chart of IT graduates from JobStreet http://sg.jobstreet.com/announcement/2008/i/info40mkmm.htm

Unfortunately, there is a mistake for the maximum pay for senior manager. And I believe this chart under estimate the exact pay of IT personnel.


Click here for more IT salary information

The fourth public university in Singapore

The fourth university in Singapore will take in up to 2,500 students a year and offer three main disciplines: engineering, design and business.For a start, its undergraduates can look forward to an integrated approach to education in design and architecture, engineering and applied sciences, and business and information technology. Engineering undergraduates, for instance, will be taught design, so they can come up with products with user-friendly features. The combination will allow the varsity to develop collaboration and learning in areas such as sustainable design and development and clean technology — envisioned to be areas of strength for Singapore.

The university - to be housed in northern, eastern or north-eastern Singapore - will also focus its research on meeting the needs of the economy and helping companies solve problems. And the intake will be 50% from JC and 50% from poly.

National University of Singapore (NUS) is expected to be complemented in 2011 by a “two-track engineering programme” to train its top engineering brains — 100 students initially — to be “specialist-engineers and engineer-leaders”. The twin programme will cover “advanced multi-disciplinary scientific knowledge” as well as a curriculum emphasising “design, management and systems, and an appreciation of major technological issues facing the world”.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will establish a four-year “Premiere Engineering Programme”, distinct from its mainstream courses and leading to a direct Master degree in engineering. The university is proposing to launch the programme next year with an initial intake of 75 to 100 students, and eventually 125 students a year.

Singapore Management University (SMU) is expanding moderately from its current undergraduate intake of 1,600 students to about 2,100 undergraduates in 2015. SMU is proposing new educational tracks, for example in International Relations/Studies, Risk Analysis and Management and Maritime Business Economics.

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Complimentary workshop “The 7 Essential Money Skills” by Adam Khoo

Key Benefits of Attending
• How to invest for high returns with minimal risk
• Develop a solid road map to your financial goals
• How to build Multiple Streams of Income from the ideas in your head
• The cash flow management strategies of the rich
• 63 secrets to massively increase your income
• The mindset & habits of self-made millionaires

Who Should Attend
• Professionals who are seeking to build and grow passive income
• Business owners who strive to command the highest income in their industry
• Anyone who wants to start a profitable business with little or no capital



"7 Essential Money Skills" Citibank cardmember's Workshop
Date: 27th June 2008 ( Friday)
Time: 7pm - 10pm (Registration starts at 6.30pm)
Location: 10 Hoe Chiang Road #01-02, Keppel Towers Singapore 089315
(nearest MRT : Tanjong Pagar)

Register for this workshop in 3 easy ways
1. Online Register at https://www.akltg.com/citiviprsvp
2. Email seminars@akltg.com
3. Call 6881 – 8881 (9am to 6pm, Mon to Fri)
*Limited to 4 seats per card member

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MBA courses available in Singapore

Three posible ways for a non-financial personal change field into financial is through the taking of CFA, MBA, or Master in Financial Engineering. So lets see what are the available MBA courses in Singapore.

MBA
1) NUS MBA http://www.mba.nus.edu.sg/
2) Nanyang MBA http://www.nanyangmba.ntu.edu.sg/
3) Insead MBA http://www.insead.edu/mba/index.cfm
4) Chicago GSB (Graduate Business School) MBA http://www.chicagogsb.edu/visit/singapore/index.aspx

Full time: 12- 17 months Part time: 24-72 months
Fee: SGD $30k++ (for NUS and NTU)

Another is EMBA (Executive MBA) for those with many years of working experience, but the fee can easily go up to SGD $70k++ for local univeresity.

EMBA
1) Nanyang Executive MBA http://www.nbs.ntu.edu.sg/portal/oee/ExecutiveEducation/ExecutiveMBA/tabid/559/Default.aspx 2) UCLA-NUS EMBA http://www.ucla.nus.edu.sg/
3) Instead EMBA http://www.insead.edu/emba/
4) Chicago EMBA http://www.chicagogsb.edu/execmba/
5) Rutgers EMBA http://www.rutgers.sg/ (a famous university at New Jersey USA)

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If your increment is less than 5% then you get pay cut actually... pls vote the poll

Today Straits Times report that:

WAGES here (in Singapore) have risen by close to 11 per cent, the highest
in almost a decade. But the impact of soaring food and fuel prices meant that
for employees in manufacturing, transport and administrative jobs, their real wages - pay minus the effect of inflation - actually fell.

According to the poll on my site of increment, so far I only get 9 votes, only 2 out of these 9 votes have more than 5% increment. That means 7 persons actually get a pay cut! But one lucky thing is so far no one has less than 3% increment.

So do place a vote on the top right hand side.... lets see how many of us get a pay cut actually :(

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This website can help you check your US counterpart salary

For those work in USA with the H1B visa, you are able to traced their salary with this website:
http://www.flcdatacenter.com/CaseH1B.aspx

Basically you just need to key in their company name, the year that they apply for H1B visa, and that is all. All you need is to do next is to guess which one is your friend in the list of salary and job description.....

So if you are an IT engineer, would like to know how much you can get from Google for example, can try your luck by key in Google at California. Then see how much they are paying for a H1B applicant. Of course those work in US without the need of visa, their infomation will not be shown.

Click here for more Salary & Increment information

Two seminars for University of Bradford - One MBA one Degree in Business etc

There are more and more people would like to switch from Engineering into Management or Financial. I think this is greatly related to the Singapore economy development as a whole.

One way is to take a MBA degree. As it can be a part time course. And it will be useful even you continue to stay on your engineering job.

For those no degree, there are plenty of distant learning course also.

There are two seminars about MBA and degree from University of Bradford organized by MDIS.


MBA Preview:
Date : 3 July 2008 (Thursday)
Time : 7.15 pm
Venue : MDIS Dhoby Ghaut

Degree Preview:
Date : 18 June 2008 (Wednesday)
Time : 7.15 pm
Venue : MDIS Dhoby Ghaut

For more info pls refer to http://sg.jobstreet.com/announcement/2008/m/mdis8edge.htm


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Do you aware of Jobstreet Salary Report

Last night I just found out that Jobstreet also have a salary report at: Jobstreet Salary Report

I take a quick look, my personal feeling is that the salary listed there is somehow much lower than those cases that I knew. This could be the reason that people will share with you the information only when they are doing well.

From the site, you can see some of them with degree and with more than 10 years working experience, the pay is about $4k. And in one case (case 2) as shown in the screen shot below, the accountant as senior manager, age 33 with 8 years of experience, the pay is about $3600.

But of course there are some very nice case also, e.g. case 23, a 29 yearold manager with 8 years working experience, he/she is getting $4500.

Anyway, I think this site contain a lot of information, worth a reference.

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10 things not to do & 10 things like to do in office

On this blog:

http://www.piakpiak.com/2008/06/10-things-not-to-do-in-your-office_8297.html

He shows two videos.. very funny.. so I repeat it here:

Ten things not to do in office:

Ten things you like to do in the office:

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Starting salary for Singapore public servant

This table is the monthly starting salaries for Singapore public servant. This rate will be highly competitve to private sector. In many cases, if you are having a good honours degree, you will get a higher starting salary in a public sector.

Source: http://app.psd.gov.sg/data/Press%20Release%2021%20May%2007%20-%20Higher%20pay%20for%20fresh%20graduates.pdf

Basically, there are two salary grades for each scheme. With a good honours degree, you can expect at least $2800 per month. Economist and Foreign services are two that pay the highest, with at least $3300, and they only take in good honours degree. With a pass degree, you can also expect at least $2300.

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Singapore Public Servant Bonus from Year 2005 - Now

Here is a record of bonus for Singapore Public Servant since year 2005 with the GDP forcast.

July 2005: 0.4 month + $200
Nov 2005: 1.75 months (GDP forcast 5%)

July 2006: 0.5 month + $220 (economy grow by 10.6% in Q1 2006, GDP forcast 5-7%)
Nov 2006: 2.2 months (GDP forcast 7.5-8%)

July 2007: 0.5 month + $220 (economy grow by 6.1% in Q1 2007, GDP forcast 5-7%)
Nov 2007: 2.0 months + 0.5 - 0.8 month performance bonus (GDP forcast 7.5-8%)

(Among a survey of 276 companies in September, this year's bonus will range from two to 3.5 months. The median is 2.8 month.)

July 2008: 0.5 month + $100 - $300 (economy grow by 6.7% in Q1 2008, GDP forcast 4-6%)

More info @ http://www.psd.gov.sg/News/PressRelease/


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As an employee..... these words are very true... and you may not know

I nearly want to highligh all of them, as they all soooooooooooo accurate!

* the biggest motivation is salary
* the unluckiest thing is promotion without salary adjustment
* the most "shiok" thing is you don't work anyhow also get pay increment
* the greatest mistake is to argue with your boss
* the most demoralising thing is to receive salary late
* the most pitiful thing is you did not get your salary and your boss ran away
* the happiest thing is you become your boss' boss .. wahahahaha!!!
* the cleverest thing is you are late but boss doesn't know
* the stupidest thing is you publicly say that you are lazy
* the most common thing is - the boss says something but means another
* the proudest thing is you sack your boss
* the most "rugi" thing is you work hard but your colleague takes the credit
* the most dangerous thing is to become a "two-headed" snake
* the biggest satisfaction - sending e-mail like this during office hours!! heheheheheheheh....

Get this from a forwarded email, thanks to the author that provide such a clear "summary".

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Diploma in IT - triple the pay within 2 years

He starts from $1.2k during 2005.
One year later, he is getting double @ $2.6k by swithing to another company.
Since 2007, he is drawing triple salary @ $4k per month.

-Graduate from NgeeAnn poly 2002

start work 2005 as IT role 1.2k
4 months later - 1.7k
2006 sept jump ship- 2.6k
3 months later - 3.2k
2007 sept Till now- 4k

I only just completed my part time deg, jump ship once :)

This is very impressive. I should say that you have a big cap to those degree holders for your starting pay. But after two years (remember: you need two - three years in order to get a degree), you are nearly drawing the same pay (or even more) than those degree holders.

Maybe you can tell us more on your job duties, or you have any special skill?

Click here for more IT salary information

Accountant and Financial Controller

Accountant in a SGX-listed company
Age: 33+ (a few cases)
Qualification: ACCA
Experience: Been accountants for KLSE-listed company in Malaysia
Pay: $5000 + 13 months (bonus depends on the company, range from 2-4 months)

Another is accountant cum financial controller
Age: 35+
Job: account, financial control, and knowledge of SAP
Pay: $5500

Click here for more salary information on Financial

Chemical Engineering as Process Engineer in MNC

This guy getting chemical engineering (2nd upper), and now work as process engineer in a MNC.

chem eng. (2nd upper hons) 2005 grad.

2006- $2500+ot = $3000 +/-
2007- $2800+ot = $3400 +/-
2008- $3100+ot = $3900 +/-

process eng. firm (mnc)

No offense ok? I am rather sad to see that compared to the previous post of Diploma in IT, whom also graduate on 2005, the previous case is also drawing $4k now.

I think this got several reasons:

1. IT is hotter now, i.e. in demand in Singapore.


2. You didn't jump boat? That is no switch company.


3. I assume you work in semiconductor firm, which is not so hot in Singapore or in the world at this moment. In a few years back, semicon is HOT. But look at the Charterd Semiconductor share price, then you know what I mean.

Share price of CSM since 2004, no growing. Imagine you the one who get CSM during $20 (yes $20) on 2000. Now <$1.

But this apply to many degree holders that working in the engineering field. In fact, your pay is considered GOOD already. You can refer to my previous post in engineering like this one.

http://sg-jobs-salary-education.blogspot.com/search/label/Engineer

Click here for more salary information for Engineering

IT Engineer pay jump from $3400 to $4200 during 2008

Another interesting comment....

hi,

find your blog and discussion quite interesting, cos it's quite applicable to me now.

i'm thinking of switching career to finance/banking. but at the moment doing IT.

here's summary of my track record.
- graduated 2nd class upper (hons) BEng in Computer Engineering in NUS.
- Didn't like Engineering job, started 1st job in IT company.

2005 - $2500
2006 - $2900
2007 - $3400
decided to hop to another IT company
2008 - $4200

I feel that i'm doing quite well, but think can do better if i switch to finance/banking. any advice?

note: All the IT companies are big MNC.

First of all, thanks for your comments, and I really hope all the information in this blog can help people, as I see many cases of underpay, the HR can simply push down your salary and you suffer for a few years before you find out the market rate. So we must work together, exchange information, and bring back better money home.

Anyway, I see that you have a big jump when you switch company, from $3400 to $4200! This is about 24% increment! Impressive, again this happens in IT field.


My advise is: Do whatever you like. Do the job that you enjoy.
(Of course this is under the condition that you can afford to do so, if you got someone sick at home need the money urgently, then of course money comes first, then you should do watever that give you money, even you don't like it.)

So if you don't like Engineering job, then switch the job while you still young, and of course before your pay still not that high (though is already quite high to me already). Imagine 2 years later, your pay is closed to $6k, and that time you may suffer a pay cut when you want to switch field.

Another alternative could be: you do the IT job in Financial company. But still is IT job, however will be closer to the Financial field, you may consider this route also. Hope my advise help.

Click here for more IT salary information

This guy got 30% increment!

Receive two Anonymous comments on their increment:

Case 1 (sad case):

no bonus(only AWS 1 month) no increment due to company not doing well.in
semicon.

Case 2 (happy case):

Working as an engineer for almost a 1 year. Shocked to receive my salary
increment for last yr. Almost 30% increment just to make me stay on that high demanding job. Unbelievable !

From Case 1, we know that semiconductor field is not doing that good in Singapore.

For Case 2, can you please tell me what is your high demanding job?? And your boss need to recruit? I would love to join! 30% increment! You won't get that even you jump to another boat! So tell us, what is your job........

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Reply to Comments (Ngee Ann Diploma in IT but work in inancial field)

Just back from Bangkok, read my blog for more info. Receive many comments in this site. There is one case as follows:

Financial industry
Job includes Daily trade processing, settlement, admin duties, recep duties, adhoc jobs

Ngee Ann Diploma in IT
First job(started may 2007)
pay: 1.5k
bonus: 7.5 mths

Is my pay very low?

Frankly speaking, I do not know your case is low or high, as I don't have any data of others with similar qualification and job as you at the moment.

Basically what I did is I share with you all the information that I know, and hope that more and more people can share about their info like you. The more people sharing, the more information we have. Then you will be able to see people with similar case to you, and you will know you are underpay or overpay.

However, your 7.5 months bonus is very impressive....

So anyone also diploma in IT, can share with us your experience?

Click here for more salary information on Financial