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Salary negotiation

Discuss about getting a well paid job or career advancement. Ask about salaries, expat packages, CPF & taxes for expatriate.
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oceandeep
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Salary negotiation

Post by oceandeep » Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:59 am

Hi all,

Job A) Currently paid
Basic: 12mths + 2mths fixed bonus
Variable bonus: No

Job B) Job offer
Basic: 12mths + 1mth fixed bonus
Variable bonus: Yes but unknown amt

i) when negotiating, is it alrite to state my base salary as 14mths (Job A: 12+2)? Or will employer ignore the 2mths fixed bonus component?

ii) for Job B, as it has variable bonus, will employers normally undercut us in our basic salary?
for candidates, do you factor in the variable bonus as part of your total package and thus willing to accept a lower basic? Do you think it's fair for us to omit variable bonus as it is not guaranteed and it could even be 0 variable bonus.

iii) for my case, what do u think is a fair package? and how should i go abt negotiating for it?

iv) i have abt 4-5yrs of experience in ops. what is the mkt salary now?

Thanks for all yr help!

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sun, 24 Dec 2006 2:56 pm

First of all I would have to ask "Why are you changing jobs?" Is it for the money? :-| Advancement or career path? :) Change of environment? :(

You see, to me if you are worried about the immediate package and the position's opening monetary offer but offers no career path then you should stay were you are currently at until a opening appears that will give you a path upwards. Unfortunately, In my 14 of Human Resources, 80% of the locals make mostly lateral moves and for all the wrong reasons. Don't know if you are local or not but if you can offer a net gain to the company then you shouldn't worry about variable bonuses, they will be there. However, if you are just a salaryman only skating till a better offer comes along, then you probably won't be adding to then net worth of the company and therefore probably won't see a variable bonus either.
Disclaimer: This is only my point of view.

At the end of the day, as an employer I'm going to ask "What can YOU bring to the table" I'll reward you if you are an asset that increases my net worth in the long run.

Call a spade a spade, if you have 12 +2 then tell the prospective employer that. Do you think you will be able to confuse him by telling him 14 months? He's smarter than you are - He owns the business!

Why would anybody undercut a salary? The employer is only concerned with his bottom line, undercutting salary is silly if he would want to keep employees. If something is variable then it could be Zero due to a recession. What you should be more worried about is a portion of your salary being variable as mooted by the government.

A fair package is dependent on the individual, same as market rates. We have too little information regarding the industry and individual. The individual doesn't seem to know too much about his job as he is inquiring about market rates. How long have you been in Ops? Don't you every talk to you counterparts in your competitors industries? How many Jobs have you had in order to gain 4 or 5 years experience. You aren't even sure about how long you have been working? :?
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

oceandeep
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Post by oceandeep » Sun, 24 Dec 2006 3:00 pm

tks for yr reply.

friends and counterparts may not be upfront abt how much they are earning, it's difficult to get a gd assessment. hence i am making an online enquiry abt mkt rates.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sun, 24 Dec 2006 3:20 pm

oceandeep wrote:tks for yr reply.

friends and counterparts may not be upfront abt how much they are earning, it's difficult to get a gd assessment. hence i am making an online enquiry abt mkt rates.
As I said, without knowing your industry and job description it would be difficult. I have guys/gals doing operations in my company working for 1.6K/mo (5 years experience). Tell me more. Mine are underpaid by my reasoning but for the industry I am in it is normal. Different strokes for different folks.

sms
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

oceandeep
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Post by oceandeep » Sun, 24 Dec 2006 3:41 pm

i am in the finance industry. interested to know ops areas like treasury, derivatives, custody, equities, corporate actions and if possible, the prospects.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sun, 24 Dec 2006 5:54 pm

Okayl, here's where I have to stop. I won't feed you any crap. The banking & Finance sector is outside my expertise when it comes to recruitment and market rates.

Anyway, have a good holiday season.

sms
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Makan24-7
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Post by Makan24-7 » Mon, 25 Dec 2006 1:51 pm

I can only speak from my limited scope for MBAs from the US business schools who get recruited on-campus to move to SG or HK for banking or other high finance positions. Those are for associate level positions at a minimum.

If the offer is with the Tier 1 banks like Goldman, Merrill, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, you get an annual base salary probably about US$85-95k which is then spread across 13 payments (12 months + 1 month) though most would negotiate just 12 payments so that they get more a month.

Bonuses are purely based on your MD and your unit's performance. I'd be very wary if there were no variable bonuses especially if you were in the high finance industry.

Again, this is based on a very limited scope of people...

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