FINANCE SALARY OVERSEAS POSTING
Singapore – Nine in 10 finance professionals in Singapore want to gain more overseas experience to boost their career but they want at least 20% pay raise before accepting the international assignment.
According to the latest Movement of Finance Professionals Survey by eFinancialCareers, 87% of Singaporean finance professionals said overseas experience was crucial to their career. Some 88% would consider taking a job abroad. “In today’s highly mobile environment, staying at home is no longer an option” George McFerran, eFinancialCareers’ head of Asia Pacific (APAC) said.
Local respondents picked Hong Kong (17%) as their top destination of choice, followed by New York (12%), London (11%) and Sydney (11%). The least desirable cities to relocate to for Singaporeans were Beijing, Sao Paulo, Mumbai and Frankfurt.
However, a third of Singapore finance professionals need a 20% to 30% pay raise to convince them to take up a posting abroad with their current firm. But half of them would require more than 30% increment if it were with a new firm.
Furthermore, 12% expect more than 50% salary increment before accepting an international assignment with their current firm. A fifth want the same amount of pay raise if the offer was from a new firm.
On the whole, eFinancialCareers reported that 81% of local finance professionals have been headhunted since the start of this year. Nearly a quarter have been approached more than five times. Some 68% felt that there are more job opportunities this year as compared to 2010.
The positive outlook is echoed in the latest Labour Market Report for the first quarter by the Ministry of Manpower. Recruitment firm Robert Half said the local banking and financial services sector will continue to “experience strong growth in line with the economy”.
It added the sector is ramping up headcount as organisations “expand their staff strength in the front, middle and back-office spaces”. New appointments were mainly for the investment business, a trend which was prominent within multinational companies with regional headquarters in Singapore.
Regionally, Singapore was identified as an ideal overseas location to be posted to because respondents perceived the city to have better career opportunities, better work-life balance and better pay. Hong Kong (14%) and London (12%) were next on their list.
More than two-thirds of 3,019 finance professionals in APAC identified the region as having the most job opportunities.
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