Depends on who you compare with. Of course banks pay higher than SME, GLC or less profitable industries like manufacturing and services. If you compare against top MNCs like Nestle, P&G, Exxon, Shell, Microsoft, Pfizer, Novartis etc., then yes banking HR pay & benefits is generally lower.

The main thing I dislike about doing HR in banks is not the pay, but the fact you have little decision making power unless yours is a local bank and you sit in Group. Otherwise it's all about cascading whatever is fed to you from upstairs, follow instructions, ensure compliance and file the necessary reports and approvals. I was heading Singapore HR and couldn't even make a tweak to the our insurance coverage without seeking approval from 3-4 guys on top.

Internship only use is to get to know people in the HR field and hopefully get a good reference in the process. There’s not much value in the actual work per se when you are looking for a full time job. There is a limit to how much you can bull about your MS Office experience or your problem solving skills… Like I said earlier, you might get a slight advantage over freshies but it is unlikely to be a game changer.

I’m in the Infotech industry now. You best concentrate on securing a job first, all that talk about managing your career can come few years later when you have some broad experience in HR. Try to broaden your scope to just banking, unless you are going for FO jobs, I do not see any point in getting hung up about being in a bank especially in a support function.

I find it funny also, can understand wanting to be frontline in banks, but why must be HR in banks?

okie thanks for the input.
As per say i was just asking, its not a must.... if can get shiok.
If cant get go else where? the main thing is need to get a job

AVP for HR in a well known insurance company, been in HR since graduation in 2005.

Earning $9300 now, hopefully with the increment coming in April will finally reach 5 figure...

is this still your 1st job??

Sort of, I only had a 4 month stint before that in a role that was not suitable.

like that , mean in just 7 years you manage to hit almost 10k salary, some more in the same company!!!

assume you starting pay is $3000 in 2005 and $10000 in 2012..., mean your annual increment is alot??!?!
promotion increment is 50%???

can stated your yearly salary, if got promotion please state too.

2005>>Starting pay?
2006>>??
2007>>??
2008>>??
2009>>??
2010>>??
2011>>??
2012>>expected to hit $10K

Hr, us mnc
 

Saw an ad for Senior HR Specialist (Safety) at UPS, Singapore, to be in charge of safety. Anyone knows more about the progression there? Any chance to switch to other HR fields?

Thanks for your advice.

$9300 is your Basic salary or u factored in your bonuses averaged over 12 mths?

Cant remember the exact progression clearly. Only remember some important milestones.

2005 = 3400
2007 = 5200 (promoted to AM)
2008 = 6k+ (promoted to M)
2010 = 8400 (Promoted to AVP)
2011 = 9300

Just basic salary, but bonus is not high for support staff, average about 3-3.5 months

Is HR a suitable career for men? My friend is in HR field and he says he finds it difficult to get jobs

You 1st class honors ?

HR still can get 3.4k starting is alot even for female in 2005!!!

it seem that your
-annual increment every year is abt ~10%
-each promotion increment abt ~20-30%
which is alot!!!!



my engineering coy: even for promotion increment for 'A' grader is max 8%, annual increment for 'A' grader is max 5-6% only!!!! How pathetic!!!

for someone "C to B" grader like me only getting
-promotion = +4%
-annual increment = ~+3.5%

I can't even hit 3.9k after 5 years with my company with 1 promotion loh, I start at 2.9k....

This misconception occur because most companies lump admin as HR. Admin about 90% dominated by women while real HR roles are more balanced about 2/3 ladies 1/3 men.

I dun think men are at disadvantage for real HR roles, esp Rewards & Performance management are dominated by men.

But many men I met in HR are a little sissy. :D

sort of agree!!!:D
i saw one b4

Your progression is quite fast. I graduated in 2007 and now in my 2nd job as HR Development Specialist drawing 5950.

Agree, but TBH I don't quite like the guys from Rewards, too yaya papaya behave like lawyers & bankers.

U took 1 yr to promote from AM to M, and then 2 yrs to promote from M to AVP..that's amazing..and u're not even doing sales.

Are u actually on management associate prog or u're actually a HR management consultant?
Or any special external circumstances? Or u get performance grade A every single year..?

Pls share your success story! thanks!

Saw an ad for Senior HR Specialist (Safety) at UPS, Singapore, to be in charge of safety. Anyone knows more about the progression there? Any chance to switch to other HR fields?

Thanks for your advice.

No honors, BBA Pass with Merit for me. I don't think the concept of paying for honors or NS for guys exist in my company.

They usually pay ~6 to 7% (except 2009 financial crisis) increment for average performer, it scales up to ~10% above average, ~15% for good performers. Policy is to manage out people who fall below average rating for 2 consecutive years, so attrition is quite high.

Don't have any special story, it's quite a standard path for most HR people anyway. Reading through the past threads seems there are a lot of HR people who are slightly slower or faster than me, but not by a lot.

You are not doing too bad yourself, should be able to exceed 8000 in a few years time.

She's not "quite fast". She's very fast. U took 5 yrs to hit 6k. She took 6 yrs to hit 9k basic!

Can HR professionals here kindly educate me on the difficulties n perils u face on a daily basis? I seriously need some enlightenment..

I mean..i can understand why some professions make big bucks.. property/insurance sales agents who sacrifice their evenings, wkends, hols to meet clients..investment bankers working 100hrs/wk closing multi million dollar deals..consumer bankers who make 10/20k a mth facing the stress of meeting sales targets daily..consistent poor performers would be asked to pack n go..traders/dealers who hv to be fast n accurate all the time, with no margin for mistakes..

but HR? Making close to 10k a mth at AVP level? not even a VP or Head of dept yet..i bet even some of the junior fund managers/research analysts at insurance firms are making lesser than HR.

Someone pls educate the ignorant me the challenges of HR functions..

She is definitely on the fast side, but not as amazingly fast as you describe. Some of the guys from Total Rewards in my co. can definitely match if not exceed her.

It's hard to describe HR as a whole because layman mostly see us as a universal "HR", but most of us in HR dont really share this same identity. HR has a few key areas & they are all very different from each other.

Most of the HR people layman know is from the admin side, which also happens to be the lowest paid & least career progression.

I think talent development and HR management consulting (especially for remuneration and restructuring) are the best areas to be in. HR ops is the worst.

I wonder why will a company willing to pay a fresh grad HR in 2005 at $3400. Furthermore, you are not guy whom serve NS which the company might need to fork out more for fresh grad.

Also, how can a HR personnel contribute in each year to justify such kind of huge increment and fast promotion you have recieved? You must be someone that can help your company either save Millions or make millions of dollars.

There you go. As you mentioned "Some guys from Total Rwards...." However, she is from Insurance company. From what I understand, HR there is not something to shout about. Some Insurance company don't even have their own HR department as they can live without them. Just engage some 3rd party to do that role.

Like I said, you probably have a limited understanding of HR roles. The outsourcing roles you are referring to are from admin side.

For eg in my area of talent development, some companies may engage 3rd party consultants for help in formulating strategies or framework, but nobody will outsource the entire process. What you are referring to is PPO / RPO which is a small subset of HR. Most employees in my company will not know me since I do not handle their day to day operations.

I do not know about insurance industry, but my guess is since it is a finance based company, their Total Reward team is likely more developed and comprehensive.

I advise you not take up this job.

Safety is under EHS and the role sounds like those that nobody want so anyhow park under HR. It has nothing to do with BP/COE. Once you get stuck in the HR ops area, the pay & promotion is very slow.

Many years ago when I wanted to get into HR, I also naively took up a internal comms role that is not part of HR but parked there for convenience thinking that I cross over to the culture and change management roles I like in the future.

It was a waste of time because the work nothing to do with HR and my daily interaction is limited to HR ops/admin. The BPs & COEs never considered me as part of their team. In the end I had to get take a pay cut to get into a HR management consulting firm before jumping back now to do an organizational change role I like.

In the real world, why would pay progression need to justify with NS or making millions for the company? :)

did some aspects of HR during my stint overseas and became interested in HR.
About to graduate from local uni soon but with a good honours degree from social sciences [non-business field]. Have a diploma in business administration.

After looking the various posts in this thread, I'm really impressed that so many of you are earning 5-figure sum monthly and have such impressive career progression. Am really confused as to where and how to start.

Any recommendations for good HR companies that i can apply for? What kind of positions and hr functions should i start so that i can progress gradually into a more specialized function of HR? I like to be as successful as some of you here.

It really depends on which area of HR you are interested in.

The best paid area is in HR Rewards & Organization consulting, but the hours are very long and you really need strong financial skills. Many go in & whack 5 years then switch back to corporate HR, pay progression very fast and comparable to some finance FO roles.

Another high paying area is headhunting (real one, not those agency hor). The problem is it’s sales oriented and not many people can take the stress to meet target and long hours. Once you have built up required network, can start your agency or join in-house recruitment.

The more traditional generalist way is business partnering role where you slowly work your way up to senior HR partnering roles, this tends to be slower in pay rise but more work life balance compare to above.

Never go into OPS HR, Admin HR, Shared Service, Training, Payroll etc. Once you are in there, very hard to progress as you will be branded as administrator / low level recruiter - prospects are very limited and you don’t get to learn much because colleagues around you is generally mediocre.

My experience is in HR projects specializing in HRIS, designation is Projects Senior Manager in an engineering solutions company.

Pay wise is not bad monthly 14k+ but no AWS, bonus fluctuate depending on co. profit. I notice there is very little competent HRIS specialist in the market no matter how much we offer, it’s really hard to hire…

Are you from Singapore or from HR department? you will know that there is a different in starting pay when hiring a male with NS vs one without

Paying a man with NS more goes against logic and will only happen in civil service/stat board because of political reasons. In fact, someone who joins a company after NS should be paid LESS. This is because he had a gap of 2 years doing a brain dead job and thus would be less useful than someone who joins the company immediately after graduation.

Totally agree. These men should stay in the military and not get into corporate world at all.

what kind skills are you looking at? maybe can pm me. Thanks.

Hi, I have been prospecting for possible switch from L&D (close to 7 yrs exp) to HRIS roles, but the main problem is I lack experience in PeopleSoft & Oracle and only have experience in other less popular systems.

I've gone for a few interviews for HRIS Specialist and feedback I get is that companies can match or exceed my current salary of 7.7k but prefer candidates who have extensive experience in PS or Oracle.

Is there anyway for me to position my experience for HRIS roles?

TIA

Thanks for the advice. Actually, will it be extremely difficult for me to get a job in say C&B or Rewards & Organization consulting or other more specialized functions of HR with my degree? I have no contacts with people of HR and most of the job adverts that i see online/newspaper usually require HR experience/degree such specialized areas. As you mentioned, i wouldn't want to get into those admin kind of HR as well. Do i start with HR executive (but this too sounds a bit admin-ish isn't it)?