Accountants with 5 years Makes 75k

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Accountants are always among the top earning professionals in Singapore, with the top 8 taking home a median pay of $4.0 million in YA2007 and $3.7 million the year before.

Even our ministers and top civil servants have their remuneration benchmarked against accountants (along with 5 other groups of professionals).

According to the Robert Half International global salary survey, as reported in my paper today, an accountant with 5 years of working experience can expect to make “up to” $75,000 a year.

Internal auditors with as much experience can earn from $48,000 to $72,000. Poorer cousins?

But despite the high pay, many accountants are leaving the profession.

Quoted from my paper:

“They face long working hours, high stress due to demanding deadlines, as well as a lack of work-life balance…”

That’s why accountants do not rank at the top of my unscientific recommendation of best careers.

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8 Comments

  1. Big 4 auditors have to get married and apply HDB flat by the 3rd year of their career because the salary exceeds $4k in the 4th year.

    Problem is…no time to go pak-tor (dating).
    I was clocking from 830am to average 10pm every weekday night. There was a period where even pretty girls did not interest me at all.

    Work-life balance is important, earning more but spending foolishly does not help. With little spare time, people may try to take taxi to save time (ie they used time to earn money but end up using money to buy time…backto square one)

  2. Some years ago, the newspaper reported a story about a break in at Pidemco building at 3 am in the morning. THe criminals were caught, thanks to some auditors who were still working at that time in the same building

  3. That is funny. Part time night guard job. However, if compared with architects or other profession, it is the same, intellectually heavy jobs require long working hours, commitment, dedication and sacrifications for self satisfaction…

  4. i am a licensed/certified public accountant working in Philippines right now. I am planning to work in singapore but is thinking if my work experience is okey since i don’t think i have a good exposure in accounting. I worked only for about a year in private company in manila and around 5 yrs in a government agency, my employer at present. i wonder if i will have a good chance in singapore job market. thanks

  5. candie, you are most welcome to try. the good thing for you is that the singapore government is extremely pro-foreigners. for some aspects, even citizens lose out to foreigners in singapore! you should take advantage of that before the government changes its mind.

  6. for example, the government recently organised a community event in the western part of singapore celebrating a Myanmar festival using public funds, just to “show respect” to our Myanmar friends living in singapore. it’s called “water festival”, a foreign festival totally unheard of and never publicly celebrated previously in singapore. this shows how much respect we render to foreigners in singapore. you should take full advantage of this before things turn around.

  7. my name is serge i wish to continue my study in singapour before taking my leave my major anxiety is to know how difficult is the delivry of astudent pass by singa pore authorities and how long can the procedures take

  8. If you’re a foreigner and is keen to work in Singapore, take heed that the Singapore government will definitely scrutinize your educational credentials, work experience and criminal records before you’re even allowed to step into Singapore to work. Many foreigners tried many ways to earn a job here through unscrupulous means e.g. fake degrees but in the end their dirty acts will still be uncovered by their employers. Nowadays, Singapore government is PRO-SINGAPOREANS, not foreigners. Foreigners got to prove their worth first before even bargaining for better benefits than the locals!

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