Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
(Post 37290)
im a uol accounting and finance student, just finished exams. so like im looking for jobs online and i've gotten reply asking me my expected salary range. so how much do y'all suggest should i write?
troubled girl. :(
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I'm your senior from UOL. I have advice for you but do open up to the advice of others as well as I am only providing one of many perspectives.
Do some research on the market pay for that type of job right now and see if you have relevant degree. If you are going for Accounting, your degree is relevant. Starting pay for Accounting graduates will be median of around $2,700 for 3 years course. For SMU, it is $2,800 for 4 years course.
The general practice is that graduates from private schools tend to earn lesser than local graduates. Don't ask me why. That seems to be the practice. Nevertheless, I will advise that you ask lower than local university graduates for practical reasons. Firstly, the syllabus of local universities is localised. For example, UOL will not teach you that GST registered companies will not incur GST for most input materials but will for output goods (goods sold). Hence, for accounting of expenditures, most of them are without GST. Your local lecturers may teach you that but it is not in UOL syllabus. From this perspective, you may have already lose out from knowledge as compared to local uni graduates. Secondly, LSE may be behind our syllabus but legally speaking, we are only UOL graduates, not LSE graduates. From prestige perspective, NUS and NTU will definitely stand out. They have the upper hand. Employers may think graduates from good schools = good employees (though that is not always true!). If you graduate from LSE itself at London, you may be able to command even higher pay. Nevertheless, UOLIP is considered one of the best private university education in Singapore (and perhaps the world for distance learning) already. The pay isn't that bad. There are UOLIP graduates that climbed quite high.
In wage negotiation, if you believe that the tendency of employer is to give lower pay than local university graduates, avoid giving a round number like $2,700 because that will increase your range of negotiation (perhaps $2,300 to $3,000) and you may be forced to the lower end instead of higher end. If you wish to prevent being forced to the lower end, say $2,650. It will minimise the range. This is a form of psychological error (you will learn about this if you took Elements of Social and Applied Psychology). It really does work. If you don't believe, try it on your friends. Give a random number and ask them the range they think of immediately after you say that number. You will notice that the more precise you are, the smaller the range. But please don't give weird numbers like $2,659.99. People will think you are weird!
In summary, please don't ask above local uni graduates unless you got very good honours or work experience to justify it. Cause if you ask too high, you will price yourself out and not be even considered or offered the job. Neither ask too low that employers may think you have something wrong that is why you ask for so low and may push down the wage further. Apply for jobs from various channels to increase your chances. All the best!
