Have I made a mistake?

[ramacpr]

Hi All,
I am a software developer with 9 years of experience in C#, .Net, C++, WPF, etc
I have accepted a job here in SG for S$6600 per month (before taxes). When I asked a few of the people they said that it is a good number but as I see many other developers with similar years of experience getting paid almost double that me...
I am wondering if I have agreed too soon and made a huge mistake by doing so as this would be my base salary against which my salary in the next company (if I ever decide to switch) is negotiated.
Please help me.

Thanks!

[Lisafuller]

Does seem a little low, which country are you coming from?

[ramacpr]

Does seem a little low, which country are you coming from?

I am from India.
Is there any comeback for me to negotiate now that I have signed the dotted line?
The fact that it is not easy to get a job nowadays in Singapore and that I had been away from my husband (who is in Singapore and I am in India) for more than 2 years due to lockdowns, I think I just got too desperate and agreed on to the first thing!
Do you think this will have a huge impact on my career or can I still salvage this... I am so confused and worried.

[Lisafuller]

Don’t worry… it’s pointless to freak out. Best thing you can do is discuss a raise at your performance review - but make sure your performance is solid enough to justify a raise. Once you’ve signed the contract there really isn’t much room to renegotiate pay, hence it’s a contract.

[smoulder]

Does seem a little low, which country are you coming from?

I am from India.
Is there any comeback for me to negotiate now that I have signed the dotted line?
The fact that it is not easy to get a job nowadays in Singapore and that I had been away from my husband (who is in Singapore and I am in India) for more than 2 years due to lockdowns, I think I just got too desperate and agreed on to the first thing!
Do you think this will have a huge impact on my career or can I still salvage this... I am so confused and worried.

No turning back for this one. If your skills (technical, communication and EQ) are good, you can job hop once or more every 1 to 2 years till you are where you think you need to be in terms of salary.

[ramacpr]

Don’t worry… it’s pointless to freak out. Best thing you can do is discuss a raise at your performance review - but make sure your performance is solid enough to justify a raise. Once you’ve signed the contract there really isn’t much room to renegotiate pay, hence it’s a contract.

Thank you for the response... What is the average salary hike given in Singapore?

[ramacpr]

Does seem a little low, which country are you coming from?

I am from India.
Is there any comeback for me to negotiate now that I have signed the dotted line?
The fact that it is not easy to get a job nowadays in Singapore and that I had been away from my husband (who is in Singapore and I am in India) for more than 2 years due to lockdowns, I think I just got too desperate and agreed on to the first thing!
Do you think this will have a huge impact on my career or can I still salvage this... I am so confused and worried.

No turning back for this one. If your skills (technical, communication and EQ) are good, you can job hop once or more every 1 to 2 years till you are where you think you need to be in terms of salary.

Thank you for your response... I heard from a few folks that job-hopping is considered to be a "black mark" on the profile and MOM will keep note of it... and can also blacklist me. Is it true?

[mystic_river]

I am from India.
Is there any comeback for me to negotiate now that I have signed the dotted line?
The fact that it is not easy to get a job nowadays in Singapore and that I had been away from my husband (who is in Singapore and I am in India) for more than 2 years due to lockdowns, I think I just got too desperate and agreed on to the first thing!
Do you think this will have a huge impact on my career or can I still salvage this... I am so confused and worried.

No turning back for this one. If your skills (technical, communication and EQ) are good, you can job hop once or more every 1 to 2 years till you are where you think you need to be in terms of salary.

Thank you for your response... I heard from a few folks that job-hopping is considered to be a "black mark" on the profile and MOM will keep note of it... and can also blacklist me. Is it true?

It depends. If you job hop but get huge increments in pay (above 25%) there's no harm in it. Just don't job hop every few months. Staying for a year plus to get substantial increments in pay is completely fine.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Mom won't care one way or another, however.......

As long as you are in Singapore you must remember it is a closed circuit here. In given industries everybody knows somebody in the competitors workplace. If you job hop within the industry, your name will maybe not be black-listed, but eventually when positions become redundant they will know who to let go first as your CV will have your work history and duration of each position. You may get hired only to fill a temporary gap. Or not. I was an HR & Finance Mgr with my last local company SME. I stay there for 14 years until I retired at the age of 71.5. The first thing I always looked at was how often a person changed jobs and how often they made a lateral move for very little money and usually the same level of job. If I needed the body count they 'might' get hired but otherwise, I wouldn't waste the resources to train/indoctrinate somebody who will give me nothing but an empty desk in 24 months or less. Think about it. But a 25% increment and/or upgrade up the ladder, it's a different story. I was also one of the odd men out here as I used to have a habit of calling at least their last supervisor (or HR if I knew the person).

[smoulder]

Don’t worry… it’s pointless to freak out. Best thing you can do is discuss a raise at your performance review - but make sure your performance is solid enough to justify a raise. Once you’ve signed the contract there really isn’t much room to renegotiate pay, hence it’s a contract.

Thank you for the response... What is the average salary hike given in Singapore?

You need to do your own research for this one. No one here knows what your skill set or experience level is. Neither would we be experts on every single type of job out there. Ranges vary largely depending on the communication skills and EQ of the job applicant - 6.6k, while not very high, it's not unheard of either. Let's just say that companies are happy to have people on salaries in exactly that range. If it's not you, they will find someone else.

[smoulder]

Mom won't care one way or another, however.......

As long as you are in Singapore you must remember it is a closed circuit here. In given industries everybody knows somebody in the competitors workplace. If you job hop within the industry, your name will maybe not be black-listed, but eventually when positions become redundant they will know who to let go first as your CV will have your work history and duration of each position. You may get hired only to fill a temporary gap. Or not. I was an HR & Finance Mgr with my last local company SME. I stay there for 14 years until I retired at the age of 71.5. The first thing I always looked at was how often a person changed jobs and how often they made a lateral move for very little money and usually the same level of job. If I needed the body count they 'might' get hired but otherwise, I wouldn't waste the resources to train/indoctrinate somebody who will give me nothing but an empty desk in 24 months or less. Think about it. But a 25% increment and/or upgrade up the ladder, it's a different story. I was also one of the odd men out here as I used to have a habit of calling at least their last supervisor (or HR if I knew the person).

I believe it depends on the industry. It's fairly common to see people job hop and move upwards, salary wise and position wise in the technology industry. Recruiters are sometimes more interested in filling up the roles than looking for people who will stay on for many years. And the best part is that I've noticed that recruiters jump more often than candidates

[sundaymorningstaple]

I had 25 years in HR, 11 as a headhunter and 14 as an HR Mgr of a 250 man Technical SME. But I am not local. The locals that join recruitment firms are between jobs and cannot find a job so tend to hire on as recruiters for small & medium sized body shops (or end up going out on their own). When I left the recruitment industry in 2004 there were 1400 licensed recruitment companies in Singapore. It's not an easy job with so many players out there and the vast majority don't have a clue as to what they are doing, hence the bad name for recruiters. And yes, it is common to see job hoppers. Moreso in Singapore. The preponderance of them jump for $50 or 5 minutes closer to Orchard Road, as the case may be. This also helps to explain the preponderance of agencies. It's lie a giant circle jerk. Jumping to move upwards actually isn't that common if you were able to see the actual stats. Maybe within segmented circles of certain industries, but taken as a whole most move "for a change" or for a "new work environment". I'd like to have $1 SGD for every CV that's came across my desk as a recruiter that had that written at least once as a reason for changing jobs. Often those will have it two or three times if they are close to 30. And it's not the recruiter that is responsible for assessing whether or not an potential employee will stay. That is the job of the HR department after the recruiter sends them for interview.

[smoulder]

From what I've seen, the recruiters as a whole (not just the recruitment agencies, but also the ones sitting in the company's HR department) as well as hiring managers are quite used to seeing frequent job hoppers and are surprisingly OK with it. By frequent job hopping, I'm referring to people who stay between 1 and 2, maybe 3 years.

Maybe it's because they are desperate to fill the position because there just isn't enough talent available.

Of course, my viewpoint is probably quite a narrow one from a small section of the technology industry, which I suspect the OP belongs to. Whereas your view is obviously much wider, SMS.

[nelyanne]

Hi All,
I am a software developer with 9 years of experience in C#, .Net, C++, WPF, etc
I have accepted a job here in SG for S$6600 per month (before taxes). When I asked a few of the people they said that it is a good number but as I see many other developers with similar years of experience getting paid almost double that me...
I am wondering if I have agreed too soon and made a huge mistake by doing so as this would be my base salary against which my salary in the next company (if I ever decide to switch) is negotiated.
Please help me.

Thanks!

6.6k is low for this level of experience. But well, it also depends on the skillset, market fit...
Be careful, as new potential companies might try to lowball you based on your last salary (it's quite common to be asked to share the latest payslip).
If you want to know more about what salary you should expect, you can check:
- offers posted on MyCareersFuture portal
- salary reports prepared by recruitment agencies (like Hays Asia Salary Guide), or this one: https://blog.seedly.sg/salary-guide-singapore/
- speak to headhunters directly

[Lisafuller]

Does seem a little low, which country are you coming from?

I am from India.
Is there any comeback for me to negotiate now that I have signed the dotted line?
The fact that it is not easy to get a job nowadays in Singapore and that I had been away from my husband (who is in Singapore and I am in India) for more than 2 years due to lockdowns, I think I just got too desperate and agreed on to the first thing!
Do you think this will have a huge impact on my career or can I still salvage this... I am so confused and worried.

No turning back for this one. If your skills (technical, communication and EQ) are good, you can job hop once or more every 1 to 2 years till you are where you think you need to be in terms of salary.

A mistake that many people make is staying in the same position at the same company for years on end hoping that their hard work will translate into some sort of promotion. This actually does very little in terms of career advancement because the company has no real incentive to keep you there. The difference when you job hop is that you incentivize the company bringing you on to offer you something more than you’re already earning, and when you do that over and over you end up multiplying your salary by leaps and bounds.