Contract job

[mi8nami]

Dear all

I have left my previous job before finding a new one(yes bad move to most ppl)
But anyway I am being offered a 1yr contract job in a oil and gas co for a marketing position. I have about 5yrs of marketing experience.

I know oil cos typically pay about 15mths package to permanent staff. but as my offer is a contract one I am getting only 1mth bonus. I have asked for higher starting pay. I feel I should be getting more than 5k per mth. Am negotiating for about 200bucks more but not sure if I will be getting it.

What's your advice on this?is it wise to take on a contract job? and i am not sure how's the pay like for marketing positions in oil cos. can somebody share?

thanks!

Dear mi8nami,

Im not sure what marketing people are getting in the oil & gas industry ( upstream ).

Try doing the following comparison with technical staff ( only contract workers ) in Sing$ :

1) Technicians - ave abt 9k/mth, offshore - ave abt 15k/mth
2) Sen. Technicians - ave abt 12k/mth, offshore - ave abt 20k/mth
3) Supervisors - ave abt 16k/mth, offshore - ave abt 30k/mth
4) Engineers(mostly caucasian expats) - ave abt 30k/mth, offshore ave abt 50k/mth
5) Managers (mostly caucassian expats) - ave abt 50k/mth, offshore abt 70k/mth

Contracts can be anything from typically 6 months to 2 years.

The salary is quite standard and most of the time does not depend on experience.

In my opinion, worst case scenario, you should be at least getting a salary similar to a technician. Salary for permanent staff are much lower compared to contractual staff. Most company dont give bonuses for contract staff but some do maybe abt 1-2 mths bonus.

[mi8nami]

wow technicians get paid so much more than marketing jobs!

to be honest with you the salary range u indicated is way off what they are offering me. i am only being offered in the range of 5k and the low side

i guess marketing jobs do not get paid so high...
And I agree with you contractual staff usually get higher pay than permanment staff because we miss out on some of the perks and also bonus. i am offered 1mth fixed bonus and I know other perm staff in the co get 3mths fixed bonus.
hence I asked the job agency to negotiate for slightly higher pay even though she feedbacked that the hiring manager/hr said the amount they gave me was the maximum. and she also mentioned they had to peg it with the pay of the other staff in the team. but my counter argument is that i am a contract staff with lesser bonus and no job security at the end of the 12mths. and i can start work immediately and i have a certain language ability that they are looking for

wow after looking at your post, it seems i am very underpaid if i take up their offer

Dear mi8nami,

Are u a singaporean? Is it an upstream oil and gas company that mostly doing projects for the construction of drilling rigs & fpso?

Those agencies in the oil and gas industry makes a lot of money. Sometimes they offer you much lower than what the client is paying them. Those "cut throat" agencies sometimes make more than 100% of your salary ( every month ). This is not the typical mainstream job agencies. Money goes to their pocket every month as long as you are still hired by their client.

Try negotiating with them. Ask them why the offer is low compared to what i had disclosed. Tell them u know the figures and mentioned it to them. Tell them even store men are getting a day rate of 350/day(close to 10k if they dont work on sundays).They want to make as much as they can from people like u who are first timers in the industry. Usually, thats the case, but after your first job normally there wont be much difference from u and someone is more experience than you. Remember, the longer you work, the lower you get, the more money they make.

Dont think of this as a job. Treat it as your own "business" and the best part u dont need any capital. I reckon, you will never want to be working in any other industry if you know the how to play the "game".

[mi8nami]

Hi

Just an update I took on the contract job at a salary that's only slightly more than half of what a technician is getting according to one of the posts above.

And one month into the job I figure out contract job is really not for me at least not in this company. I have a degree with more than 5yrs marketing experience but as a contract staff i am thrown all the work perm staff don't want to do.
It includes administrative work like arranging for couriers, running up to
recept to receive goods etc. I never had to do all these work in my previous jobs because there's always a team admin staff to do it. I even have to support the admin gal now to do payment process!!! And the perm staff I am supporting can be taking leave and missing from office for almost 2.5wks for the 1 mth I am there.I feel I won't be getting anywhere in this job as it seems there's no headcount in my team at all. The previous contract gals in my team keep getting renewed as contractor and yet we are the ones who do all the work people don't want to do.

I guess oil and gas mncs are good companies for engineers and technical positions but not for marketing people and especially not so for contract staff. At least they should have been honest upfront during the interview that part of the job scope is doing admin work. Then I won't have accepted the job because that will get me nowhere in future.

wow never knew workin in the oil industry could fetch that much money!

what kinda degree is needed to get into such positions?

[poor]

if you are decent to go for offshore, make sure you can get at least 1k/day oversea, and at least USD500/day in Singapore. (for ASEAN region regardless your nationality but with sufficient experience)

this is the standard rate unless you work with a company which make profit from its quoted engineer rate, then give allowance (may be $200/day) to its in house engineer.

Originally Posted by trastus

wow never knew workin in the oil industry could fetch that much money!

what kinda degree is needed to get into such positions?

I don't hold an formal qualification but still make 120k (excluding bonus) annually in the oil and gas industry.

I am offered a job with one of the MNC in the oil and gas industry. Instead of permanent position, they offered me a 12 months contract and they asked me to select an agency to act as my representative. The agency has come back with an offer but is 20% lower than my expectation. In fact it is even slightly lower than my current annual package, as according to the agent, there will be no AWS nor bonus and I know the perm staffs are getting AWS + bonus.
In the first place, I don't understand why the company is getting an agency to be involved to act as my representative, as I applied directly to the company itself. Is this normal practice, anyone had similar experience? Is it possible that the agency is offering me much lower than what the company is actually paying them? Anything I can do?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am offered a job with one of the MNC in the oil and gas industry. Instead of permanent position, they offered me a 12 months contract and they asked me to select an agency to act as my representative. The agency has come back with an offer but is 20% lower than my expectation. In fact it is even slightly lower than my current annual package, as according to the agent, there will be no AWS nor bonus and I know the perm staffs are getting AWS + bonus.
In the first place, I don't understand why the company is getting an agency to be involved to act as my representative, as I applied directly to the company itself. Is this normal practice, anyone had similar experience? Is it possible that the agency is offering me much lower than what the company is actually paying them? Anything I can do?

Basically they don't want you as their headcount which allows them to terminate you with short notice anytime they want based on their own contract with the agency as a service level agreement.

Agencies will take a cut of what the company pay them and technically speaking you cannot put yourself as a staff of the mnc as you are an employee of the agency. Your payslip, contract, records and everything else will be based on the agency. The mnc HR will also not verify you for future reference as technically they don't consider you as part of their company.

Generally speaking I don't recommend anyone with a perm job switch to become an ad-hoc contractor unless you like to work on a project basis and the pay offered is at least 40% higher. Occasionally semi-retired experienced engineers sometimes take up such contracting assignments as a way to make quick bucks and pass time.