Job Title: Financial Analysis Advisor
Job Desciption: TCSS
Years spent in company: Less than 3 months
Company: MNC
Industry: IT/Computing
Tenure: Permanent
Experience before joining: 4.5 years in Big 4, 1 year in small audit firm
Salary: RM5k+

TCSS = Technical Consultant for Simplification of Standards.

Jobstreet salary scale is skewed. Not accurate at all. Too low.

And take this thread with a pinch of salt. Not all things posted on the Internet is true.

Since you mentioned MIA, your definition of Accountant is Chartered Accountant (Malaysia) where to be one, you'd have to have accounting qualifications recognised by MIA which can either be professional qualifications or university degrees recognised under the Accountants Act, and 3 years relevant working experience.

The term "accountant" has been cheapened in the Malaysian context where you can see a lot of advertisements put up by small, "Chinaman" companies seeking "accountant with 2 years' experience". These are not "accountants", these are "account assistants".

Even if working as an accountant in Singapore you get paid the same as in Malaysia, you'd be better off there. I'm comparing like for like here. Assuming you can earn RM5k here and SGD5k there, the lower cost of living and better security and transportation in Singapore compared to Malaysia, enable you to save a lot there compared to Malaysia. Of course, this is in the short term, say 5 years. if you're thinking of staying long term in Singapore, there are a lot of other factors to take into consideration, for example, career growth and ability to grow your level of income to buy property there, etc.

Perhaps your friend is working like a dog there because of the different financial reporting standards being used there. I do think that if you're smart and capable and are conversant with technical aspects, the workload would not be such a burden.

You definitely need at least professional qualification to grow in the accounting/finance line, even if you don't want to be a Chartered Accountant. Without professional qualification, the most you can be in an MNC is in a junior supervisory role. Anything higher than that I would assume you'd need some form of professional qualification to advance. At least that's how I see it. Correct me if I'm wrong. Please note that I am talking about those companies with global presence and not those smaller local companies which might have different circumstances. Normally an MNC with a global presence require some kind of quality control on their accounting/finance staff and tend to hire professionals with proper qualification and working experience. Having only either one won't cut it.

I have no professional qualification too, just a lousy local uni degree and because of this, combined with my observations, I feel that it's better to have professional qualification. Sometimes, people look down on me having just a lousy degree compared to them who have such nice sounding titles as ACCA, MICPA, CIMA, CPA, etc etc. Have had to prove myself time and again through my work that YES, DAMMIT, I can work as well as those with nice sounding professional qualifications and even exceed them in terms of quality of work and speed of delivery. I still feel that those with professional qualifications have it easier at work - by default, people perceive them as more capable and more professional than those without these qualifications.

Just my 2 cents.

^ There are MNCs who sponsor employees to pursue MBA courses. No harm taking these kind of offers up if you enjoy working for the company.

^ That is why I am planning to take a professional certificate. But I'm looking at not only ACCA, CIMA, MICPA, CPA etc which seem too ubiquitous nowadays. I'm probably planning to take up CFP or MBA. Change of pace from "accounting".