Advice on salary

H

HydrogenRainbow

New member
Joined
Jun 18, 2026
Messages
0
Reaction score
0
Dear AFers, I am a fresh graduate and the Asian Director of an equity research firm sent me an email to arrange for an interview. In that email, I was asked to state my salary expectations. How do I answer that? Is it best to say that I am open to negotiations? Or is it ok to use the average salary of a fresh grad in the banking/financial services sector as a guideline, and say, I am expecting about 40,000 Singapore dollars, which is the average starting pay (based on the employment surveys done by all the 3 Singapore univversities) for a fresh grad in the banking/financial sector
 
wow, how did u manage to even get an interview with them? I am still waiting for my door of opportunity to open…sigh
Mind mentioning which firm it is?
anyway congrats! u r a step closer to your dream :)
 
It is not a big firm….the firm that I am interviewing with is GfK Equity Research. The team provides research on a growing number of technology sectors. The research consists of quantitative and qualitative views on demand in European and Asian markets for products including mobile handsets, GPS, MP3 players, PCs, printers, flat-screen TVs and their internal components and semiconductors.The role consists of providing research on the Flat Panel industry…I am not too sure, but I am thinking of whether if my understanding of the work in that firm is the same as that I have for that of the ER that you peeps typically ttalk about here in AF….
 
i guess you will know more during the interview itself…as a fresh grad, you have to start somewhere.
btw, how did you manage to get that position? Am in the same position as you and frm sg too but no offers despite sending out numerous resumes.
 
I found the opening through the school career services site. I did manage to secure an interview within the GIR division with GS, but I did not clear that selection round….I do hope to be able to land on a big gig soon….Am hoping that this works out, and I make a switch 1-1.5 yrs time, or I get a graduate trainee program with either one of the banks I applied to.
 
What was the position with GS’s GIR division? Straight up ER Associate, or something different?
 
negotiable is one way to approach it, alternately you might consider something like
“Ultimately the experience from working at XYZ Co. is my main concern at this point. With that in mind, I would give serious consideration to any offer which was in-line with the industry average.”
i don’t know what other people’s thoughts are, but i think that sends a message to the employer that a) you want to work for them b) you’re an eager beaver c) you’re flexible.
 
Young_Prof Wrote:
——————————————————-
> What was the position with GS’s GIR division?
> Straight up ER Associate, or something different?
Analyst. :) I just completed my undergrad studies in Dec’07
I just sent a reply to the company. I said I am open to negotiations.
 
I am wondering, which of these is better in adding value to my CV, should I decide to move into ER at one of the top tier banks…I am not too sure if ER is for me, but at least for now I know that it is something I am interested in. I am also interested in risk management.
Dividend Research and Index Analyst
Responsibilities:
Performing financial analysis on company fundamentals to provide content, news and client support for our dividend products.
Research and calculate index compositions making adjustments for relevant corporate actions or events
Perform financial analysis on company fundamentals to provide news and commentary on Asian equities and dividend forecasts.
Liaise with Asian companies to establish dividend policy and dividend payment schedules.
Experience in dealing with client queries. Understand and apply corporate action adjustments on stock and company level data
Carry out QA checks on index and dividend data
Respond to client queries and provided detailed analysis and feedback to their questions
vs this job:
Role
The role consists of providing research on the Flat Panel industry by leveraging our proprietary data. GfK data is a powerful and unique tool to track and understand consumer demand. Luckily the LCD and Plasma industries are complex and many companies interact at various supply chain levels: that makes it more challenging / rewarding to draw conclusions regarding companies’ earnings! Getting the context right is key by reading the press / reports and meeting people involved in this industry.
The goal is to build an understanding of
1) basic technologies and their impact on the end products (e.g. why is it more expensive to manufacture a 42” Full-HD TV with PDP than with LCD Panels?)
2) the demand / supply relationship (e.g. impact of the panel cost on the TV retail price)
3) current key issues for investors (e.g. is TV demand affected by a macroeconomic slow-down, or how fast is LCD gaining share over PDP)
**As mentioned, GfK quantitative and qualitative research to hedge and pension funds investing in companies of the Telecom, Consumer Electronics and Information Technologies sectors.
I do have a couple of applications with the banks….am scheduled for a phone interview with RBS this thursday (I applied for the Sales/Trading/Research/Origination graduate analyst position), and I just completed the numerical reasoning test today for the ML Finance Graduate trainee position (the CFO division within ML does stuff like market risk,credit risk, and all the typical finance stuff like management reporting, legal entity control etc etc). I too submitted an application for the Finance job with Deutsche. I know I am terrible…I like so many things, and yet very ill-informed. Sometimes I do wish this isnt a mutually-exclusive decision…but then again i could be counting my chickens too early???
 
Just keep it simple and say that as far as salary is you’re concerned, a salary that is in-line with market would be fine, as your first and foremost goal is to develop the work experience at firm X and to learn as much as you can. Of course, they may end up coming back to you with something below market average anyway, but that’s life. In reality, you have no leverage when it comes to these salary negotiations so you should be prepared to take what you get if you like the job – the question about your salary expectations is pretty much a toss-up.
 
Numi, I agree that leverage is low, especially if you have a lot of competition for the same job, but two things to consider:
1) When they make you an offer, you have more leverage on your salary at that moment than you will ever have in the future with that company (with the possible exception of when you are being hired away by another firm, but that’s another ball game with different risks).
2) Usually there’s at least another 5-10% negotiating space upwards on the first offer, and it doesn’t hurt to ask for it. Generally it’s not a good idea just to roll over and take the first offer. Most companies have invested a lot of thought into choosing you and will allow you to think it over for a day or two.
 
bchadwick, I definitely agree with what you’re saying as far as experienced hires go. However, if this guy is currently in undergrad and getting his first job (which I think he is), it’s usually not the same.
For example, at my firm, we have a standard salary at which analysts (fresh college grads) are hired and I don’t see anyone deviate from that. Maybe if there was a competing offer on the table and the candidate is a complete superstar there could be some room for movement, but I’ve never seen that happen. After a year or two, though, there are plenty of negotiations to be had.
 
Good point, YP, I skimmed and missed that part. However, I think I covered my b*tt a bit with the “leverage is low if you have [undifferentiated] competition.”
If it’s your first job out of college, just be happy that you’re hired and on your way. Small differences at step 1 don’t mean much down the line, compared to the quality of the experience and training.
 
With regards to the quality of the expierence and training, well that is an issue for me. What I feel is that in a smaller firm, it could be easier to get “spotted” because early on in the job you’d be given certain responsibilities that others may not get sometime later in a bigger firm….Just as an example, M&A analysts in the BB typically do not get to do the deals…they probably just do pitching,pitching and more pitching.
On the other hand, getting yourself into the Graduate Trainee Program is good in a sense that the program is structured, and you get exposure in terms of volume etc, and you are groomed very nicely for the job.
Now what I seriously am thinking about is, assuming that I get the dividend analyst job, and a place in one of the graduate programs i mentioned earleir, which one should i take? and would it be a good idea to quit,say 2-3 months into the job,since graduate programs typically start in jun-jul?
 
Hi guys,
Does anyone know how much a FX and short term IR junior trader (in a European IB) get as starting pay in Singapore? Graduated with IT degree, level 3 CFA candidate, passed FRM exam, no relevant trading experience, how much should I expect?
 
HydrogenRainbow Wrote:
——————————————————-
> With regards to the quality of the expierence and
> training, well that is an issue for me. What I
> feel is that in a smaller firm, it could be
> easier to get “spotted” because early on in the
> job you’d be given certain responsibilities that
> others may not get sometime later in a bigger
> firm….Just as an example, M&A analysts in the
> BB typically do not get to do the deals…they
> probably just do pitching,pitching and more
> pitching.
this is the “pitch” that smaller firms will give, but there are plenty of deal teams at the bulge brackets that can be considered leanly staffed as well, and analysts do get a lot of responsibility. it really depends on the group you’re in. and as far as your statement about BB analysts not getting to “do the deals,” your information is totally wrong. i don’t know how many analysts you know, but if the analysts aren’t working on the models or books on deals, who do you think is doing it? the whole reason why analysts at the top BB’s get the most coveted PE/HF jobs is exactly because of their deal experience.
 
From what I have gathered so far, at least from the Singapore peeps, that is pretty much it…They do not typically participate in the deal execution and they do a lot of pitching. That said, I am not particularly surprised if that is the case since the Singapore market is so small and the exposure we get here is definitely a lot less than what peeps in the US/UK can get, and there are few PE/HF firms here too. What it seems is that Singapore is the Operations hub for a large number of banks.
 
That may be the case, and given the current state of the deal environment, it’s definitely true that a lot of groups are doing more pitching and less execution right now since there aren’t that many deals happening. I’m no expert on the Asian markets, but what I’m trying to understand is that you originally stated that analysts at boutique firms arguably have more deal exposure than at BB banks in your part of the world. But if the overall deal environment is not great and the Singapore market is so small, why is it that deals would happen at the boutique level but not at the bulge bracket level? And if the Asian bankers at the BB’s are doing pitching only, then who’s doing the actual deal execution? Help me understand what you’re getting at, because at least in the US, analysts at the top BB banks almost invariably have better exit opportunities than at the top boutiques because of their deal experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top