How to Determine Your Job's Salary Range

This month of April is when some of us might be looking for new opportunities after receiving our year end bonus for the previous fiscal year. All of us here have various reasons for leaving our current employer, be it due to the people you are working with or thinking of career advancement or even switching industries completely.

For those embarking on a job search or thinking of negotiating their current salary package with their current employer, the inevitable question on everyone's mind will be what is the salary compensation package you are looking for.

From my experience, stating that your compensation package is "negotiable" does not cut it with the recruiters. Neither does giving them your ideal figure, you will be in a disadvantageous position as you are "revealing your cards" to the recruiters even before you have a chance to showcase your talent during the interview.

The recruiter can either:-

(i) Offer you a compensation scheme that is less than their original budget if your expected salary range is lower than they expect

(ii) Drop you from the candidacy for the position if your expected salary range is higher than what they have in mind

(iii) Work on your current salary to package a slight raise

I acknowledge that you will eventually have to submit your current payslip to the Human Resources for verification. Nonetheless, try your best not to reveal your salary figures during the initial stage of the recruitment.


Read: How to Negotiate Your Salary and How to Prepare Your for a Job Interview

How to Negotiate your Salary

As much are you come prepared with answers for an interview, you will not want to be not be caught off-guard during salary negotiations. Even if you know the market range for your job, chances are the recruiter will likely counter-offer with a lower than expected amount. The key is not to accept the amount offered immediately. Rather, see this as an opportunity to negotiate.


The following scenarios will help you think through how to respond when recruiters throw the curve-ball at you so that you will not be flustered and agree to their offer right-away.

How to Avoid Getting Retrenched

As you readers may know from my profile page, I am from the financial services sector where hiring and retrenchment can happen within a short time frame. The concept of having the same job till you retire is no longer relevant. In the beginning of this year, I receive news that the firm I was with had been acquired by a US private equity firm. Recently (9 months later), we received the dreadful news that some of us had to be let go.


The axe fell fast and swift, there was no time for handover. Those impacted had to leave on the same day, or given till end of week to exit. Although I am not impacted by this round of restructuring, I am sad and shocked to reveal that my line manager was. I decided to write this article because I had witnessed for the 1st time how crude reality can be. Brief background about my manager, she has been with the firm for more than 20 years, gaining extensive experience in her industry. Granted, she is an expensive hire but no mercy was shown when the parent firm decided to retrench her and the rest.


I will share what I have learnt from this experience and how can we survive being jobless/ unemployed in Singapore.