Best offer a 7+ years experience software professional can get in KL?

The best offer in my company for the same position is 18k RM / month (house and car provided by the company) (Bonus at the year end, and depends on the performance. Last year he has around 3 months bonus). He got 8+ years in software consulting.

agree with noisy steps that 18-20k + accomodation + car is a really good offer. i would suggest that u also ask the company to pay for school fees. this will b useful when u kid needs to go to school. schooling is expensive here.

By the way, the question will not be "how good are you?" but it will be "How much that Malaysia needs you?"... So even you are working in a reputed company in India, but if Malaysia does not need you, you still can be jobless here and hang around Bukit Bintang every day and night...

I wouldn't say 18-20k a good offer but a fair one. Too many Malaysian companies are being cheapskates and paying too little.

You suffer later as pay peanuts get monkies. Seen that in London where projects failed as it staff not as good when cheap so in a free market that eventually declined. but in Malaysia a failed project means LOADS more money as new contract issued and more cuts to take. So double good reason to pay little.

thank you noisysteps, carlyle1979 and Nemodot for your views and suggestions. really appreciate it.

noisysteps wrote:

By the way, the question will not be "how good are you?" but it will be "How much that Malaysia needs you?"... So even you are working in a reputed company in India, but if Malaysia does not need you, you still can be jobless here and hang around Bukit Bintang every day and night...

yep, true

Reality check.

18-20k monthly + allowances for house&car for a software engineer in Malaysia? Dream on.

There's a reason why companies outsource their software development to Malaysia, and it's not because they wanna pay 18-20k for a SE. Unless you you have very unique domain knowledge and the company is desperate, salary is not gonna be anywhere near 18-20k.

Local with 8y experience in J2EE would be glad to find 10K monthly. It's not 1999 anymore, there's no lack of SE in 2013.

Saying that 18-20k monthly would only be "fair" is just flat out ridiculous, if you can find that kind of offer as a SE in Malaysia, consider yourself EXTREMELY lucky.

Of course I'm not referring to an expat that is sent to Malaysia by his current company, in those cases I assume that the company at least maintains the current salary + allowances.

So right now your salary is around RM7.2K, I think making RM7.2K in India is better than making RM12K in Malaysia, and I don't think there will be any offers even above 10K in Malaysia.

Hi Farm, I believe you are talking about Software Engineer and we are talking about Software Consultant, which is quite different in the pay rate. In my company, the junior (having 3-4 years) got around 9-11k + house + car. The senior getting around 15k, and the lead got 18k RM. There are some certain software that you can't find an experience consultant, not like SAP or Oracle, you can find them easily like going to Presto and get some vegies...

Noisysteps, in the context of the TS given background with 7.5y in J2EE do you think it is realistic to expect a salary in the range 18-20k + allowances? Is it even realistic to expect 10K and no allowance? No. Unless you get sent to Malaysia by your current company and your salary is already higher than that, which is hardly the case here considering TS first post.

TS current income is comparable to around RM7.2K monthly (but with Indian living expenses), I would say that the opportunity to get anything better in Malaysia is very slim. 7.5y J2EE experience without any more specific domain expertise is not gonna give him any offer even near to what you are talking about. Just being honest toward TS and not giving him any false impressions that 18-20K is just "fair offer" in Malaysia.

The malaysia my second home programme (MM2H) requires applicants to have monthly income of rm10K. That is considered very sufficient for a retired couple to live comfortably in Malaysia. With rm10K a month, you will not need to compete with the local labour market.
Locals think MM2H'ers are rich. But if you have kids, the story will be entirely different. One child in australian international school e.g. probably cost you rm6K a month. This may help you to judge what high salaries means here.

Hello

Do good firms pay car allowances for mid -senior roles? Is it a norm?

Is it more like petrol/gas allowance or in general travel allowance?

If I am not going to be using a car,being an expat as of now...will it make sense to get a moderate cab allowance?

Is there a norm?

thx

Actually, I just want to confirm that 18-20k RM per month is normal for a good IT consultant. There are plenty of people getting this payroll and we consider this is not a very high paid. If not, we will not move to Malaysia to work...

I'm not saying it's impossible but i'll believe it when i "see it". Since you say it's normal why don't you share 1 company name that would be willing to pay 18-20K/month for an IT consultant with 7.5y J2EE experience. It shouldn't be that hard since it's "normal" right?