Dan Magallanes, CEO of Headhunter Manila, says your salary should be four times your age. Meaning if you are 30 years old, you should be getting P120,000 monthly – at least.
Bink, blink, blink.
I make a mental roll call of my acquaintances and close friend and find that I can pull out only 10 percent of the names in my roster that meet this rough rule of thumb. CEOs, senior management in a multinational firm or entrepreneurs who have already made it big in their chosen businesses are what their calling cards say.
What does that mean? If we are not getting this kind of pay scale, we should get a career consultant to fix our sagging careers, Magallanes says. I admit that the previous sentence is laced with a bit of jaded flippancy, but the headhunter makes an impassioned case on why paying a career consultant a hefty fee is worth it, even when our salaries are languishing.
I have observed that most of our executives and professionals at any point in their career would rather buy a high-end mobile phone or an expensive designer bag than pay a career consultant for their stagnant or sagging career. They tend to forget that they have to live on a parallel lifestyle based on their position in the company and of course their take-home pay. If you are bent on having a good career, you have to focus on how you will attain it at a certain paradigm. It is not wanting but not doing anything.
He cites several cases to drive home the point. Here’s one: a 38-year-old who graduated from a “not-so-known college in the southern part of the country” gets half-a-million per month on top of dizzying perks, besting nine other candidates from top universities. He even got a sign-on bonus of $50,000. He had no MBA and does not intend to get one.
Raising your eyebrows yet? Here’s another one:
Magallanes says he plucked this 28-year-old communications officer who graduated from an up-town college in the south from an international NGO and placed him in a blue-chip company for three times his salary in the NGO. This blue-chip company was bought by another giant, so Magallanes advices him to get a job somewhere else. Three months of searching ends up a dud and guy gets nervous. Magallanes tells him to be an entrepreneur. On his first month, he earned his salary for the first quarter of the following year.
I would love to meet this guy and get him to coach MoneySmarts readers next year. In a country where UP, La Salle, Ateneo and UA&P lords it over all the others, a guy who says he does not look for MBAs from top universities has something important to say to Filipinos. But here’s the most controversial part in his article:
“The best career is in the Philippines nowadays. Blue-chip companies are coming our way. This is the place to become successful. The most comfortable life is here. You leave the country because you feel you cannot make it here. If you cannot make it here, you cannot make it anywhere.”
True or false?
Read the entire article here.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Sorry dee, Salve’s correct on every point made. This blog has done well and its success and longevity speaks for itself. As for “experts” there are actually some PHD or CFA guys out there without even a bit of savings or mutual fund investment! Finance and money is a practical art, my good man, books aren’t good enough without pragmatic application. For Salve to pull “bookies” and “toughies” together to agree or disagree on so many topics is an accomplishment indeed.
Back to Dan M. I remember him presenting different positions for me even without me explicitly asking. I was 20+ then around 2000 and he thinks the P 50k/mo offers were really good daw. Hoy Dan, using your rule dapat nasa P 90k na pala ang offer ko! Tsk tsk. Dan ha, you don’t even follow your own rules!
October 17th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I got curious and actually emailed Dan Magallanes and wanted to ask for headhunting services.
I received a “automated” email response after 8 hours saying that he charges 25,000 pesos an hour for consultancy but since its his birthday this month will give a promo price of 2,500 an hour.
From the first look of it, this seems pretty shady. Would you actually go to a consultant that has promotion because its his birthday?
Can anyone who underwent this consultancy session fill me in before anyone of us even try this out.
Cheers!
October 17th, 2007 at 11:23 am
The best advice you can get are from practitioners who actually do what they say. Experts usually make a living teaching, writing or consulting rather than actually doing their subject matter.
This blog will be most useful if you can get practitioners to share their knowledge.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:52 am
To Dee:
Money Smarts is a BLOG. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more PERSONAL ONLINE DIARIES.”
You do not need to be a financial expert to host a personal finance blog. In fact, popular personal finance blogs are written by ordinary individuals (non-experts). Besides, Money Smarts is not meant to provide professional financial advice.
Money Smarts has inspired many people, including myself, to put their finances in order. Through the comments, readers are able to interact, exchange views nd share opinions even if some individuals do not agree on certain things.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Hi Dee-
Money Smarts is my eye-opener.
Ever since I started reading Salve’s blog last May 2007, me and my wife have managed to pay-off 5 credit card debts, with 2 more by Feb 2008.
We managed to jump start our condo unit construction this month. We plan to start our emergency fund by Mar 2008.
And all of these, just to name a few, I have Money Smarts to thank for. Seriously, A-L-L of these.