For those that are earning a high salary, relative to their peers, I wish to give this advice:
1. Do not assume that your high paying job is steady. Some of these jobs are contract based, and will continue to pay well, if your employer is able to secure profitable contracts. If not, they will have to retrench you.
2. When you earn a high salary, keep your expenses at a level based on the average salary earned by your peers, and keep the additional salary as savings for the future.
3. If you have to find a new job, it is easy to get a job that pays the average salary, or slightly more, but not at the top salary that you earned before. If you have a modest salary expectation, you will be able to find a new job fairly easily.
4. Accumulate skills from your current job that you can use in the future. Do not just complete the job assigned to you, but learn the skills and experiences that can be re-used in the future. This is what experience is all about, i.e. useful skills. Your new employer will be able to identify someone who has learned, from someone who has not (i.e. a rolling stone gather no moss).
Tan Kin Lian
1. Do not assume that your high paying job is steady. Some of these jobs are contract based, and will continue to pay well, if your employer is able to secure profitable contracts. If not, they will have to retrench you.
2. When you earn a high salary, keep your expenses at a level based on the average salary earned by your peers, and keep the additional salary as savings for the future.
3. If you have to find a new job, it is easy to get a job that pays the average salary, or slightly more, but not at the top salary that you earned before. If you have a modest salary expectation, you will be able to find a new job fairly easily.
4. Accumulate skills from your current job that you can use in the future. Do not just complete the job assigned to you, but learn the skills and experiences that can be re-used in the future. This is what experience is all about, i.e. useful skills. Your new employer will be able to identify someone who has learned, from someone who has not (i.e. a rolling stone gather no moss).
Tan Kin Lian
Hello Mr. Tan. I totally agree with you on this one. Thanks for your constant insightful comments and ideas. Good day to u.
ReplyDeleteGood advice Mr Tan esp. on the last point.
ReplyDeleteFor those who takes the initiatives and proactive in handling a lot of matters, value add to the company, your roots would have probably grown to a level of 'too big to fall'. You become indispensable and if someone has to go, it wouldn't be you.
Who are the likely candidates to go first?
But since for those who aren't doing it now, they probably cant think this way in the first place and they wont listen.
It is no use quoting 5 years experience in job applications.
ReplyDelete5 years experience is like 1 year experience repeated 4 times. If 1 year experience will suffice, the other 4 years are excess (not worth paying).