Consultant Salary in Singapore – How Much Money Can You Make?

1. Money To Be Made in The Lion City

Singapore, commonly called the Lion City, is one of the world’s key business and financial hubs. There is little doubt why this is the case: it is strategically positioned and connected, has robust business and legal systems, possesses a strong local talent pool, as well as an attractive taxation framework. For these reasons, almost all of the major global management consulting firms have set up shops in Singapore.

These Singaporean offices usually act as the firms’ regional hubs/headquarters, servicing one of the most rapidly growing regions in the world. This, combined with the high average salaries in Singapore, means that the Singaporean offices of top consulting firms pay top bucks for talent. How much, you might ask? Well, we had a look at the estimated figures on Glassdoor to get an idea. Here is what we found:

It is important to note that the figures shown in the table above are rough estimates only; the figures reported on Glassdoor are often not 100% accurate, especially for firms with complex remuneration packages consisting of different allowances and bonuses. Additionally, there are several other major firms (such as Arthur D. Little, Dalberg, and ZS Associates) featured in our Consulting Firms in Singapore article but are not included in the article above due to limited or absent data points on Glassdoor. Lack or limited data was also why remunerations for certain career levels (e.g., senior consultant, senior manager) were excluded from the table above.

Looking at the data, what immediately becomes evident is that the MBB firms – McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Bain – consistently pay top-tier salaries across all career levels, although there is a degree of variation in pay between the three firms, according to the seniority.

It also seems that some of the non-MBB firms are competing with the MBB firms for analyst-level talent by increasing their pay. Firms like L.E.K. Consulting, Oliver Wyman, Strategy&, and Kearney offer compensations in the same range for analysts. However, it appears these firms struggle to keep up with MBB compensations once we move up the career ladder, with MBB remuneration generally pulling ahead at the consultant and manager levels.

For interns, compensation data were slightly scarcer and more unreliable. For the MBB firms, monthly intern salaries were around USD 4,200. For the consulting arms of the ‘Big Four’ professional services firms, the intern salaries start at USD 600 and USD 750. The remaining firms offered anywhere between USD 750 to USD 2,250. There are some exceptions, such as L.E.K. Consulting, Oliver Wyman, and Kearney offering close to what the MBB firms pay.

2. Tough Competition

With remunerations like these, it is little wonder why management consulting is such a desired profession among Singaporean graduates. It is also why, every year, tens of thousands of aspiring consultants from all corners of the world apply to these offices. This has caused the Singapore offices of these firms to become one of the hardest to get into, rivaling those in other desirable locations such as New York and London.

Therefore, if you want to get paid salaries like the ones in the table above, you will need to outcompete these candidates, both in terms of getting an interview invite and passing through the interview rounds. So, what can you do? Well, start networking and begin your case (and fit) preparation as soon as possible. Remember, it is a marathon, not a sprint!