pay for contract jobs

[flameberg]

Hi everyone, I was shortlisted as the final candidate for a contract job (6 months) at a bank dealing in credit analyst. If all goes well the job will be offered to me. However as this is my first contract job I am rather unoblivious to many things. The salary agreed upon is slightly less than 3000. Is this figure low for contract job at a bank? I heard many fresh grads get above 3k in banks. If I could successfully convert to permanent would my pay increase? Or will it still be around this range? What other important things should i know? Thank you

Originally Posted by flameberg

Hi everyone, I was shortlisted as the final candidate for a contract job (6 months) at a bank dealing in credit analyst. If all goes well the job will be offered to me. However as this is my first contract job I am rather unoblivious to many things. The salary agreed upon is slightly less than 3000. Is this figure low for contract job at a bank? I heard many fresh grads get above 3k in banks. If I could successfully convert to permanent would my pay increase? Or will it still be around this range? What other important things should i know? Thank you

This is a typical BO ops job paying 2.5-2.8k for fresh grads. If it's a contract it will be on the higher end due to lack of benefits and normal bonus. If you are a private uni grad, this is the standard type of contract you will get. Very unlikely you will convert to perm in just 6 mths, usually need to rollover at least 2-3 years first.

If you are the 3 local uni grad, then don't bother with such a lousy offer unless no choice.

Any reason why you want a contract role? There is no guarantee that it will be converted. One of the mistakes I have made in the past is to take on a 1 year contract role. Benefits aside, the salary alone already cant be compared to a perm role. As you said, you start with slightly below 3K. That is fine provided it's a perm role. You must take into account your bonus. You should focus more on getting a proper role.

[flameberg]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is a typical BO ops job paying 2.5-2.8k for fresh grads. If it's a contract it will be on the higher end due to lack of benefits and normal bonus. If you are a private uni grad, this is the standard type of contract you will get. Very unlikely you will convert to perm in just 6 mths, usually need to rollover at least 2-3 years first.

If you are the 3 local uni grad, then don't bother with such a lousy offer unless no choice.

Hi thank you so much for your advice. I am from a top 40 university with a masters degree taken overseas. I thought this contract might be good as the private bank is a top tier one. The market is also bad right now and it seems that only contract jobs are active and I plan to work for maybe a year for the experience and name of the bank. I am only worried because I will become an employee of the recruitment agency working for the bank. As I am new to this I am worried ableremboubout potential dangers. Will they abuse the contract to their benefit? Would I be able to renegotiate my salary if I decide to extend my contract? Thank you

[flameberg]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Any reason why you want a contract role? There is no guarantee that it will be converted. One of the mistakes I have made in the past is to take on a 1 year contract role. Benefits aside, the salary alone already cant be compared to a perm role. As you said, you start with slightly below 3K. That is fine provided it's a perm role. You must take into account your bonus. You should focus more on getting a proper role.

Hello thank you so much for your infomation. I thought that a contract with a top tier firm may increase my chances of finding better positions in other companies or at least another position in the same firm. I heard that though contract pay is low, I can renegotiate my salary wheb the contract ends. Am I making the right decision? Would the rep of the bank be worth this contract?

Originally Posted by flameberg

Hi thank you so much for your advice. I am from a top 40 university with a masters degree taken overseas. I thought this contract might be good as the private bank is a top tier one. The market is also bad right now and it seems that only contract jobs are active and I plan to work for maybe a year for the experience and name of the bank. I am only worried because I will become an employee of the recruitment agency working for the bank. As I am new to this I am worried ableremboubout potential dangers. Will they abuse the contract to their benefit? Would I be able to renegotiate my salary if I decide to extend my contract? Thank you

You will need to be more specific what you mean by top masters degree overseas. Unless it's those widely recognized ivy-league universities, your overseas masters will still rank behind a normal bachelor's degree from a local university by most employers.

As for so called 'top tier' bank name (Julius Baer? BOS? JPM? UBS?), they are generally not worth much in your case because it's just a contractor job with backroom operations. You will not get any significant uplift in your CV between taking up a contract with say Julius Baer compared with a local bank like UOB.

Since your contract is directly with the agency, you are technically not part of the bank. You can write in your CV you support the bank's operations as a contractor, but you cannot say you are an employee of the bank, so all your pay and benefits will follow the agency policy, not the bank policy.

Also as a helpful tip, do not LIE in your CV that you are employed by the bank especially if you intend to continue in the banking industry. Banking recruitment compliance is very strict in the sense they will ask you to furnish your employment contract, payslip and referees. I have a friend who tried to smoke by implying during interview he was with SCB and when he couldn't submit any documents proving that, the offer was retracted and he end up black listed by the bank.

Originally Posted by flameberg

Hello thank you so much for your infomation. I thought that a contract with a top tier firm may increase my chances of finding better positions in other companies or at least another position in the same firm. I heard that though contract pay is low, I can renegotiate my salary wheb the contract ends. Am I making the right decision? Would the rep of the bank be worth this contract?

I understand that the market may not be good now, you just need to bite the bullet and find the roles. Good roles don't come easy. I have a masters as well, and getting a contract role for yourself is not justifiable.
Well, agencies will always sell the roles by saying its top tier bank etc..But end of the day you are still a contractor. Especially in the banking industry, roles are in contracts for a reason. Don't think about conversion, renegotiating salary at the end of it, because it's not certain. Your contract may be renewed or else you have to join another company. Rep of the bank is important but not everythng. I rather you have a perm role in a lower tier bank with good learning curve. Another view is that it does helps in your next employment if you work with a top rep bank, but that is provided you stay long enough to gain the experience. If you say you can move to a better position just because you had 6 months experience in a top rep bank, this is not well perceived by employers.

I think TS first need to be more transparent and tell us exactly what is his masters and from where. Also what bank is he talking about and what is the offer in terms of salary, bonus and benefit. It is very hard to advise if he keep beating around the bush.

[flameberg]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You will need to be more specific what you mean by top masters degree overseas. Unless it's those widely recognized ivy-league universities, your overseas masters will still rank behind a normal bachelor's degree from a local university by most employers.

As for so called 'top tier' bank name (Julius Baer? BOS? JPM? UBS?), they are generally not worth much in your case because it's just a contractor job with backroom operations. You will not get any significant uplift in your CV between taking up a contract with say Julius Baer compared with a local bank like UOB.

Since your contract is directly with the agency, you are technically not part of the bank. You can write in your CV you support the bank's operations as a contractor, but you cannot say you are an employee of the bank, so all your pay and benefits will follow the agency policy, not the bank policy.

Also as a helpful tip, do not LIE in your CV that you are employed by the bank especially if you intend to continue in the banking industry. Banking recruitment compliance is very strict in the sense they will ask you to furnish your employment contract, payslip and referees. I have a friend who tried to smoke by implying during interview he was with SCB and when he couldn't submit any documents proving that, the offer was retracted and he end up black listed by the bank.

Thank you for all your input. Base on most of the comments here it seems like it isn't that good to accept the job then. I thought it might be a good learning chance in this bad market. Now I am at a loss of what to do as the market is really slow except for contract jobs.

[flameberg]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I understand that the market may not be good now, you just need to bite the bullet and find the roles. Good roles don't come easy. I have a masters as well, and getting a contract role for yourself is not justifiable.
Well, agencies will always sell the roles by saying its top tier bank etc..But end of the day you are still a contractor. Especially in the banking industry, roles are in contracts for a reason. Don't think about conversion, renegotiating salary at the end of it, because it's not certain. Your contract may be renewed or else you have to join another company. Rep of the bank is important but not everythng. I rather you have a perm role in a lower tier bank with good learning curve. Another view is that it does helps in your next employment if you work with a top rep bank, but that is provided you stay long enough to gain the experience. If you say you can move to a better position just because you had 6 months experience in a top rep bank, this is not well perceived by employers.

Ah ok thank you. Guess I shld just carry on looking for a perm job at oth3r banks.