I don’t know about you, but these days I feel on top of the world.
Why, you might ask?
Because even as a lowly IT (Java), programmer and a foreigner ie. non-Malaysian, I feel like a pretty hot piece of property!
For the past seven months, I have been working with a local software company developing customised CRM applications for the hospitality sector. And somehow right now, things are starting to look really good for me in Malaysia.
A short background: my forte is in Java programming, which is really a key requirement in the current Web 2.0-enabled applications world where every da*n thing is somewhat Java-related.
When I arrived in Malaysia three years ago on a job internship, I was earning less than 30 grand a year cleaning up program bugs for a company developing mobile platform software.
After my first year contract ended, I got a proper work permit and moved on to another Malaysian company outsourced to develop IP messaging applications for local telcos.
My annual salary was negotiated to 45 grand. I did OK for six months and then my big break came when my manager – a senior programmer, was poached by a competitor. My company had already committed to a big project led under this manager, so the role fell on to the next most senior guy to fit his big shoes.
Of course I didn’t feel quite confident then so I decided to ask for a huge pay raise as the deciding factor. But surprise, surprise…my desperate bosses agreed in a blink!
My salary was bumped up to 72 grand a year until the project is completed, with the promise of another 25-percent pay raise if no major issues or bugs were found at my final delivery of the project. At this point, I am just at the end of my second year in Malaysia as a ‘lowly’ Java programmer but commanding an annual salary close to 100 grand – something I could have never dreamt for back home.
My current company, which specialises in developing CRM applications, poached me at the end of my last project where I started work seven months ago at 130 grand a year to lead a small team of programmers.
But guess what?
I am feeling like hot property because over the last month, I have received not one, two but three job offers; one offering me close to 200 grand a year (including benefits) to transfer some of my modular Java codes to develop their in-house product.
Again, I don’t know about you and the skilled labour shortage in Malaysia but from where I come from – Bangalore, India – it looks like you folks are facing a real serious problem.
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IT BYTES BACK! says: For the past decade, there has been so much talk about ramping up our local supply of white-collar, knowledge workers. Yet it seems like we have not progressed much. Maybe Malaysia should start exporting maids and contractors to foreign lands to balance the influx of foreign knowledge workers into the country?
