Was talking to some recruiters, there's a very large salary range one job title can have

I asked to look into a solutions architect position with 10+ years of experience. Dimension Data is paying RM12-15k per month, a few other companies in the middle around RM18-21k, Avanade was looking at RM22-28k

I shouldn't be surprised though, this falls exactly in the range of the current Robert Walters salary survey for KL 2018

Yes they are very selective, but the best way to get called for an interview is to get a current or former MBB consultant to vouch/recommend you. Pay attention to their events and sign up for it, BCG Malaysia had an intro to consulting call in mid October, at least you're past the general filters once you get to these types of events.

The calls for interview I had with McKinsey and BCG were both via recommendations, Bain rejected my online application despite having the correct pedigree (top 10 Ivy, top 10 b-school)

No I didn't. Failed the BCG interview at the 2nd round some time back. I'm not going ahead with McKinsey after passing their PST back in May, I'm prioritizing on other things now.

if you must know, I'm an experienced hire and MBB typically hires at the consultant level only, let's ignore the partner level hires for now. Going in at that level is a step down in terms of responsibilities and salaries for me. Yes the McKinsey pedigree is nice, but I have a decent enough resume and I didn't want to take a pay cut.

Freelancing in the financial services industry while debating my next course of action ie. continue freelancing vs permanent job in Malaysia vs moving to another country to work there.

Anyway to get back on topic of salaries, for those freelancing and getting day rates, this is the formula I use to calculate annual/monthly salary.
Assuming your daily rate is RM1,000 per day to keep calculations easy, your annual salary is

(261 work days - 18 public holidays in MY - 25 days combined annual leave + MC) x RM1,400 = RM218,000
If your contracting company doesn't pay EPF, deduct 12% from that amount = RM192,000 (roughly) or about RM16,000 per month gross before taxes.

Suddenly that interesting RM1k per day rate doesn't look as attractive anymore

No, my background is not FSI, first time doing so focusing on compliance, service development, techn governance.

Post to glassdoor anonymously if you're afraid to do so on LYN. Some multinational HR actually read it and get frantic when someone post bad reviews.

I have done both, stayed and negotiated my increment as well as jumped to get a higher salary. When I graduated, my salary right out of university was 2,200. Year 2 was 2,900, year 3 was 3,750, year 4 was 5,400, year 5 was 7,100, year 6 was 9k. Average annual increment over the years is more than 30%

This was many years ago when 9k monthly was a huge deal but the key is to deliver, and also to know when the organization is willing to support you

This post has been edited by tishaban: Jul 27 2020, 10:04 AM

For some they think it's depressing

For others who are competitive and understand what an MBB position under their belt brings, it's a shot at being among the top in the industry and work hard to get hired. Sacrifice now for the future.

In case anyone is not familiar, MBB stands for McKinsey, BCG and Bain, the top 3 strategy consulting companies.

Got a call from a contract company today for a solutions architect role focused on Azure but willing to pay RM8-10k only

Seems far too low when the likes of Avanade and IBM are paying up to RM20k for senior L3/architect type roles. I did say that to the caller so as of now it looks like they're still looking...