Is 5K expected salary low, high or reasonable?
 

Hi guys,

I would like to hear your opinion. I've recently got a job offer for a teaching job (diploma level), at a quite established private school. I was asked about my expected salary and I quote 5K.

A little background of myself. I have slightly more than 1 year of teaching experience. But have 6 years of relevant industry experience. I also have a bachelor degree and couple of years of overseas working experience. I am in the media industry, btw.

I've heard that tertiary school values industry experience, so I am wondering if my expected pay is considered high/low or reasonable? Furthermore, taken into consideration that the school is not some ikan bilis school, I think should adjust my salary expectation accordingly.

Please let me know what you think? I would especially like to hear from others who are currently teaching and with my same years of experience, whether this amount is reasonable.

Thank you!

eh you know, ITE pays more....

Based on my current experience? Anyway, I have accepted the offer of 4.5k with medical benefits, and bonuses. Still thinking if I should have asked for more. :(

6 yrs exp and with overseas exp, to teach at this salary, 4.5k
Thats very low. I had considered teaching before, thinking it would be damn relax job. But seeing the pay. I don't think its worth it

Sorry, no offence
Don't you think you can earn more in a media company, one of the top ad co?

Hi, to be specific, I worked in the animation industry. It is hard to earn above 3k in this industry unless you work for MNC or hold a supervisory position in a local company. Even if you do, chances are you have to slog quite hard and with very limited benefits, no bonus and little pay increment. So 4.5k is actually considered a lot more than what I used to earn when I was working in the industry. :)

But as for market rate wise, I really have no idea. I heard of friends who started teaching in poly also earn slightly above 4k with work experience. But that was years ago. Has things change? I have no idea. Given that many people's salary has stayed stagnant over the years, I will not be surprised that it is still the same.

Lol, what a coincidence. I am discussing about the same thing in another thread below yours. Is career progression in the local animation industry really difficult? I've just returned from overseas, and I'm really quite dismayed at the undervaluing of animators and artists in general here.

If it is possible, could you share the name of school that you just accepted the offer at? I am considering switching to teaching sometime in the future too. I understand that you may want to keep it confidential, so don't worry about it if you can't.

Much appreciated!

Hi Erose,

Just sharing my point of view based on my past experience. The industry is very competitive. And it really also depends on what kind of companies you work for. If you were to work in companies doing animated TV series, they are mostly doing outsourced projects. The budget for these projects are usually quite low and they require large teams of artists to work on it. With so many artists, you can do the maths and know each artist will not get paid much. These companies are good to work for if you are fresh and want to build up your demo reel and experience. But when you have enough experience, and is good enough, you should try for the bigger foreign companies.

It also depends on how hard you want to work and how "passionate" and talented you are. But there will always be a cap on how much an artist can earn here. In order to earn more, you need to move on to lead or supervisory roles.

Another alternative is to go into teaching when you have some years of experience. But to do that, you should aim to work for bigger companies and well known projects. Then, try to teach part-time when you can, to get some teaching experience. At the same time, you can find out if teaching is really for you, since not every good artist can be a good teacher. With a good demo reel, good working and teaching experience, it will be easier for you to move on to full time teaching eventually. Try to get more working experience before you go into teaching. Only then you can command a higher pay.

Oh, if you really want to teach, you should also do a master's degree if you can, it'll probably make you more marketable as a lecturer and give you more bargaining power in terms of salary.

Sorry, I'm afraid I can't share the name of the school. :)

Thanks for your very detailed response! I think your advice will greatly benefit other creatives/potential creatives. Thanks again!