Signing bonus for experienced hires - Dubai post-MBA role

Question

Hi,

I am an experienced hire, no MBA (just Master's degree). I got an offer from a Tier 2 consulting company in Dubai (post-MBA role).

In general, I really like the company and I am satisfied with the offer, but I am a little bit disappointed with the amount of money offered based on the data points from my MBA friends in the US.

I have 3 questions:

1) When it comes to the signing bonus, what is the current market standard for MBA graduates in Dubai?

and according to the information its ~25k$ (90k aed) at Kearney.

However I also know for a fact that some companies do not offer signing bonuses for non-MBA candidates.

2) Do experienced hires usually receive the same bonuses as MBAs for the post-MBA roles?

3) Should I try to negotiate or should I be happy with the offer?

I am slowly running out of time, as deadline of my offer is coming up.

I am also in recruitment process in two other companies in Dubai (one MBB), but I will not be able to finish last round before my current offer expires.

Answer 1

Hi there,

1) When it comes to the signing bonus, what is the current market standard for MBA graduates in Dubai?

Considering that ME Consultancy have a huge shortfall of staff in the region it will be probably around 25-30K USD for an MBA grads.

2) Do experienced hires usually receive the same bonuses as MBAs for the post-MBA roles?

From my experience yes, signing bonuses are assigned on the job level (e.g. Consultant entry level).

3) Should I try to negotiate more or is what I am offered fair and I should be happy with it?

Signing bonus usually can be negotiated to certain degree, I negotiated 10% more vs. what was offered.

Good luck!

Lucie

Answer 2

2) Do experienced hires usually receive the same bonuses as MBAs for the post-MBA roles?

No, not at all. Signing bonuses are much smaller to experienced hires. I can tell you I was hired as an experienced hire and my sign-in bonus was ~40% of what it would be for freshly minted MBAs.

Answer 3

Hey there!

Here's some input based on my experience:

For MBB you should expect ~30,000 USD
Bonus is linked to job level, not degree/qualification
You can always try - just make sure to do it right!

Best of luck!

Answer 4

Hi there,

I'm going to answer the question you're really asking: Yes you should negotiate.

I highly recommend you try to negotiate your signing bonus. I personally doubled mine when joining BCG and have helped most of my candidates get more from their offers.

Feel free to reach out to talk through how to get the most that you can out of this offer!

Best,

Ian

Answer 5

Hello!

Honestly IDK about the numbers, but leverage Glassdoor or network to find out.

Bonuses are for sure different, and this is the part of the compensation that is worth negotiating 100%.

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 6

Hi,

Great to see that you are going to work in Dubai. I hope you managed to get a relevant answer already. If not, feel free to reach out to me in person. Also, if you have some general questions of working in a Tier 2 company in Dubai let me know.

Personally, I work in Accenture Dubai. Feel free to connect