Q: Big4 - Yearly salary increment

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Nope not at all. Audit forever hiring

SG audit demands are mainly from government linked companies as well as local investment holding/financial vehicles. Not affected by cyclical economy.

Any updates on bonus and new payscale? Heard KPMG is now the lowest amongst all 4, is that true? I can only vouch for Blue S1 being 4.8k and 1 month

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Any updates on bonus and new payscale? Heard KPMG is now the lowest amongst all 4, is that true? I can only vouch for Blue S1 being 4.8k and 1 month

i think for audit no 4k leh. only IT audit 4.2k i think

Any sharing on bonus and new revised pay scale? Thanks

I recently went to a Focus Group Discussion on the Accountancy Workforce. This is a collaboration between Singapore Accountancy Commission (SAC), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountant (ISCA). We were informed that there had been a decline in students joining Accountancy Degree and that the supply would not be able to meet the growing demand in accountants.

Things that were discussed include:
1. Skills and coverage of our local tertiary institutions for high-growth accounting jobs
2. What are your perceptions on SCAQ?
3. Where do you envisage yourself to be in the next 3 to 5 years?
4. Would you be interested to pursue emerging job roles with some relevance to accountancy (e.g. IT audit, sustainability reporting), or would you prefer to deepen your expertise and stay in roles that relies heavily on accounting skills?
5. What do you think can be done to make the Accountancy profession more attractive?

The first 4 points were rather mute and normal. The interesting part only came in when we discussed point 5 and the negative side of accounting as a profession. My group (which consisted of all auditors) mentioned the low starting pay and working hours which we believe were common points that everyone in accounting industry say. However, the facilitator from SAC started to say that the pay would grow in the future and that recently there had been an increase in starting pay. She even joked that when she discussed it with the Employers one of them said "no choice need to increase since one of the firmed bumped up the price". This gave the impression that the employers themselves reluctantly increased the starting pay as they started to feel the sting from people leaving the profession and no one wants to join.

Then the part that made me sick was when we discussed the long working hours and no work life balance. The SAC facilitator said that it is normal everywhere to have long working hours and even she worked long hours. Another person from MOF even chimed in saying that even when his wife was giving birth, he still had to work in the hospital on 2am when his boss assigned him something then submitted it at 5am. He even bragged and laughed about it as if this is an achievement. The glorification of overwork and OT is disgusting.

Coming back to issues with accounting as a profession, we had stated the obvious answers and they just want to gaslight us saying it's normal and everywhere is also the same. Really gave a sense of hopelessness and it seems like they do not want to change anything. Keeping the status quo.
"What do you think can be done to make the Accountancy profession more attractive?" they said, the answer is right in front and yet they want to be oblivious to it. All this are for show.

What do you guys think?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I recently went to a Focus Group Discussion on the Accountancy Workforce. This is a collaboration between Singapore Accountancy Commission (SAC), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountant (ISCA). We were informed that there had been a decline in students joining Accountancy Degree and that the supply would not be able to meet the growing demand in accountants.

Things that were discussed include:
1. Skills and coverage of our local tertiary institutions for high-growth accounting jobs
2. What are your perceptions on SCAQ?
3. Where do you envisage yourself to be in the next 3 to 5 years?
4. Would you be interested to pursue emerging job roles with some relevance to accountancy (e.g. IT audit, sustainability reporting), or would you prefer to deepen your expertise and stay in roles that relies heavily on accounting skills?
5. What do you think can be done to make the Accountancy profession more attractive?

The first 4 points were rather mute and normal. The interesting part only came in when we discussed point 5 and the negative side of accounting as a profession. My group (which consisted of all auditors) mentioned the low starting pay and working hours which we believe were common points that everyone in accounting industry say. However, the facilitator from SAC started to say that the pay would grow in the future and that recently there had been an increase in starting pay. She even joked that when she discussed it with the Employers one of them said "no choice need to increase since one of the firmed bumped up the price". This gave the impression that the employers themselves reluctantly increased the starting pay as they started to feel the sting from people leaving the profession and no one wants to join.

Then the part that made me sick was when we discussed the long working hours and no work life balance. The SAC facilitator said that it is normal everywhere to have long working hours and even she worked long hours. Another person from MOF even chimed in saying that even when his wife was giving birth, he still had to work in the hospital on 2am when his boss assigned him something then submitted it at 5am. He even bragged and laughed about it as if this is an achievement. The glorification of overwork and OT is disgusting.

Coming back to issues with accounting as a profession, we had stated the obvious answers and they just want to gaslight us saying it's normal and everywhere is also the same. Really gave a sense of hopelessness and it seems like they do not want to change anything. Keeping the status quo.
"What do you think can be done to make the Accountancy profession more attractive?" they said, the answer is right in front and yet they want to be oblivious to it. All this are for show.

What do you guys think?

Hi i think its a joke and they should know the answer and i have say it str8 to their face.

1. In 2016 local u grads still can convert to ca sg just by working 3 years. 2017 is the last bath. They kill the profession themself because they want to be like other country milking the acct profession.

The rest of the qns. What makes u think ca sg is better than other acct body out there, with more members and bigger network.

Lastly, do employer really need ca sg? Take a good look at the employment in acct industry, who is working there.

They cant reply..

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I recently went to a Focus Group Discussion on the Accountancy Workforce. This is a collaboration between Singapore Accountancy Commission (SAC), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountant (ISCA). We were informed that there had been a decline in students joining Accountancy Degree and that the supply would not be able to meet the growing demand in accountants.

Things that were discussed include:
1. Skills and coverage of our local tertiary institutions for high-growth accounting jobs
2. What are your perceptions on SCAQ?
3. Where do you envisage yourself to be in the next 3 to 5 years?
4. Would you be interested to pursue emerging job roles with some relevance to accountancy (e.g. IT audit, sustainability reporting), or would you prefer to deepen your expertise and stay in roles that relies heavily on accounting skills?
5. What do you think can be done to make the Accountancy profession more attractive?

The first 4 points were rather mute and normal. The interesting part only came in when we discussed point 5 and the negative side of accounting as a profession. My group (which consisted of all auditors) mentioned the low starting pay and working hours which we believe were common points that everyone in accounting industry say. However, the facilitator from SAC started to say that the pay would grow in the future and that recently there had been an increase in starting pay. She even joked that when she discussed it with the Employers one of them said "no choice need to increase since one of the firmed bumped up the price". This gave the impression that the employers themselves reluctantly increased the starting pay as they started to feel the sting from people leaving the profession and no one wants to join.

Then the part that made me sick was when we discussed the long working hours and no work life balance. The SAC facilitator said that it is normal everywhere to have long working hours and even she worked long hours. Another person from MOF even chimed in saying that even when his wife was giving birth, he still had to work in the hospital on 2am when his boss assigned him something then submitted it at 5am. He even bragged and laughed about it as if this is an achievement. The glorification of overwork and OT is disgusting.

Coming back to issues with accounting as a profession, we had stated the obvious answers and they just want to gaslight us saying it's normal and everywhere is also the same. Really gave a sense of hopelessness and it seems like they do not want to change anything. Keeping the status quo.
"What do you think can be done to make the Accountancy profession more attractive?" they said, the answer is right in front and yet they want to be oblivious to it. All this are for show.

What do you guys think?

wow. thanks for taking the time to draft and post on this forum. There are only 2 things that the employers can do to retain their employees: 1. bump up the starting pay to 4k (which is happening for IT auditors) 2. hire more associates/ interns to share the senior associate/ manager's workload.
So all of these cost $$$$ and they're unwilling to spend so audit is going downhill, or rather the industry is unable to grow according to their expectation.

Accountancy profession in terms of how to boost the attractiveness of accountant/ auditor? Very hard. Not all accounting fresh grads are going to be accountant/ auditor due to low pay and long work, and also some may not like to deal with numbers/ audit/ assurance process type of work. Furthermore, it's troublesome that there is a need to study for SCAQ to get a professional cert as well. The paper is also so expensive, $1.4k for a paper, I just thinking where does all the excess/ profit go to? Can't be they pay $1k to the marker for each paper they marked right? So with all these reasons, who would want to have a career in accountancy for the long term?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

wow. thanks for taking the time to draft and post on this forum. There are only 2 things that the employers can do to retain their employees: 1. bump up the starting pay to 4k (which is happening for IT auditors) 2. hire more associates/ interns to share the senior associate/ manager's workload.
So all of these cost $$$$ and they're unwilling to spend so audit is going downhill, or rather the industry is unable to grow according to their expectation.

Accountancy profession in terms of how to boost the attractiveness of accountant/ auditor? Very hard. Not all accounting fresh grads are going to be accountant/ auditor due to low pay and long work, and also some may not like to deal with numbers/ audit/ assurance process type of work. Furthermore, it's troublesome that there is a need to study for SCAQ to get a professional cert as well. The paper is also so expensive, $1.4k for a paper, I just thinking where does all the excess/ profit go to? Can't be they pay $1k to the marker for each paper they marked right? So with all these reasons, who would want to have a career in accountancy for the long term?

My schoolmates also mentioned that SCAQ is overrated. Basically, it is a repeat of what we learnt in the University. Quite a number of them did not wish to pursue SCAQ in the future despite staying in the accounting industry. The demand to pursue SCAQ has dropped and therefore they are providing some exemptions now. However, the exemptions are still not attractive because it is like 1 to 2 exemptions only.

Personally, i feel that if u know how to do it on the job, why is there a need for SCAQ? Clearly, it is a way for ISCA to monetize the industry.

SCAQ really limits one into accounting industry. Similarly for other certs like CIA, CMA, ACCA, depending on where your interest in.

I think i will pursue MBA instead of SCAQ tho. I think to maintain CA SG need to pay monthly fees? It may add up to huge one in the long term.

I know it is important to upgrade skills. CA SG required certain hours of training clocked.
But pls stop it. Stop glorifying skills learning. We can learn it on the job. After working for long hours, still having to go for training is disgusting.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Personally, i feel that if u know how to do it on the job, why is there a need for SCAQ? Clearly, it is a way for ISCA to monetize the industry.

SCAQ really limits one into accounting industry. Similarly for other certs like CIA, CMA, ACCA, depending on where your interest in.

I think i will pursue MBA instead of SCAQ tho. I think to maintain CA SG need to pay monthly fees? It may add up to huge one in the long term.

I know it is important to upgrade skills. CA SG required certain hours of training clocked.
But pls stop it. Stop glorifying skills learning. We can learn it on the job. After working for long hours, still having to go for training is disgusting.

Ikr. I think scaq set too much criteria. Accountancy fresh grads supply not enough already still want to put so much tapes to get over-glorified 'CA cert'