Singapore Expats

Hi,

I am not sure if this is the right place as I am not an expat.. But please share your views on my situation.

I am a diploma holder from a local poly working for past 5 years, currently working as a Senior Associate engineer earning 2000/month. I am doing a partime degree in IT and communication from UNISIM and will be graduating 2012 June with a nonHonours degree.

My current employer told me that they will offer 2.6k/month after my graduation if I intend to stay with them, but have to sign the offer now. Is it a good deal? Or should I wait till I graduate and look for other opportunity. By the way I work in software testing field.

sounds good enough.

That salary is on the lower side. FTs make 4.5-5k minimum with 5 years exp. FTs have degrees though.

With 5 years related experience? I'd say it's on the low side. Probably you should look for 3.2~3.5K. Fresh Degree holders are getting 3~3.5K now, depending on which industry your degree is in. Allowing for the low end, your 5 years experience in the industry should more than make up any shortfall. They know you are valuable so they are going to try to lock you in.

However, at the end of the day, it's still a gamble, so only you can make that decision. You might want to grab it as long as it doesn't have a locked in clause that will prevent you from leaving without too heavy a penalty later.

sms

Thanks for the reply. The new contract comes with a locked clause , that i need to pay 1 month salary if i resign within 1 year. Is it worth taking? Also i read in news paper that the salry of graduates going to increase next year(dono if it is relaiable). I asked them time till i graduate, but they said max they can give is till December.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:With 5 years related experience? I'd say it's on the low side. Probably you should look for 3.2~3.5K. Fresh Degree holders are getting 3~3.5K now, depending on which industry your degree is in. Allowing for the low end, your 5 years experience in the industry should more than make up any shortfall. They know you are valuable so they are going to try to lock you in.

However, at the end of the day, it's still a gamble, so only you can make that decision. You might want to grab it as long as it doesn't have a locked in clause that will prevent you from leaving without too heavy a penalty later.

sms

roshin,

There are not any minimum wage laws here in Singapore (with the exception of qualifying salaries for the various EP levels). So local grads starting salaries are whatever the market will bear. They can go up or like in 1998, go down (during the asian financial meltdown). The have gone up, on average, I'd hazard a guess of $700/mo over the last 10 or 12 years. Again, there are lows & highs depending on the degree (not whether honours or not, but discipline e.g., IT, electronic, civil, administration, mechanical, etc.)

The locked clause you are talking about is typical with the exception of the duration of one year. They are just making your probation last a year. As a foreigner, you would have to have a one month's notice anyway as your employer needs to file your tax clearance one month before you leave and obviously they need you to give notice one month so they will know. One year? With only a month's penalty? Not that bad. But, as I said, do you want to lock in now, or gamble on getting something better later? This may well have a side effect as well. If you don't take their offer, you are telling them that you intend on looking elsewhere after you graduate so they, in the event of a downturn, may just let you go before you graduate. It's happened before. As I said, you have to weigh your chances I guess.....

Hi SMS,

I talked to my manager and HR and told them i dont want to sign it with 2.6k...after talks they agreed to offer me 2.8k as basic and a performance review after 6 months. Finally I decided to take the offer

Forgot to mention that the locked clause was actually 1 month notice period + 1 month pay back or 2 month notice period. They also changed it to standard 1 month notice period.


Thanks for your valuable advices.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:roshin,

There are not any minimum wage laws here in Singapore (with the exception of qualifying salaries for the various EP levels). So local grads starting salaries are whatever the market will bear. They can go up or like in 1998, go down (during the asian financial meltdown). The have gone up, on average, I'd hazard a guess of $700/mo over the last 10 or 12 years. Again, there are lows & highs depending on the degree (not whether honours or not, but discipline e.g., IT, electronic, civil, administration, mechanical, etc.)

The locked clause you are talking about is typical with the exception of the duration of one year. They are just making your probation last a year. As a foreigner, you would have to have a one month's notice anyway as your employer needs to file your tax clearance one month before you leave and obviously they need you to give notice one month so they will know. One year? With only a month's penalty? Not that bad. But, as I said, do you want to lock in now, or gamble on getting something better later? This may well have a side effect as well. If you don't take their offer, you are telling them that you intend on looking elsewhere after you graduate so they, in the event of a downturn, may just let you go before you graduate. It's happened before. As I said, you have to weigh your chances I guess.....

Congratulations. Now all you have to do is graduate! That ought to be worth a beer!

sundaymorningstaple wrote:That ought to be worth a beer!

Oh look. Oktober's right around the corner.

nakatago wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:That ought to be worth a beer!

Oh look. Oktober's right around the corner.

Ohhh yeah! Should we? Is it too soon?

Hi SMS,

I'm new here. I've read Roshin's message thanking you about your help... I hope you could also help me..

You see, I'm in the Philippines right now but I've been dreaming about working in Singapore... To earn a living of course.. you know for that epic reason that I have to support my family...

What are things that I should need to know to actually land a good job there and survive at Singapore?

Please do help me.

Thanks!

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Congratulations. Now all you have to do is graduate! That ought to be worth a beer!

aneth,

See my post on the other thread ......

sms

congrats roshin!

i have been working in my current company for 10 yrs, recently need to look for a change and also looking for better pay, then i got an offer from a job that offers me 15% increase from my current pay, the downside is the job is temp (convertable to perm position), no AWS (current have), got performance bunus (same as current), 14d leave (current 21d). should i accept or stick to my current job?

hh wrote:i have been working in my current company for 10 yrs, recently need to look for a change and also looking for better pay, then i got an offer from a job that offers me 15% increase from my current pay, the downside is the job is temp (convertable to perm position), no AWS (current have), got performance bunus (same as current), 14d leave (current 21d). should i accept or stick to my current job?

questions like this .. my 2 cents says - only you can decide.

some take a calculated risk and win, some don't ..

FYI - I did and ended up jobless when the contracts came for renewal .. and now am sticking around in my lower paying job ..