The major Romanian companies pay up to 20-30% more to attract skilled people from multinationals, who have experience at large companies with a global presence, but also to offset the risks associated by managers with a career in a Romanian-held company.
"We are getting more and more requests from top managers who explicitly tell us that they want to work for Romanian companies and moreover, turn down job offers from multinationals," says Daniela Necefor, managing partner of executive search company Total Business Solutions (TBS).
A chief executive officer of a Romanian company may get as much as 10,000-15,000 euros in net amount per month, whereas only some of the top multinationals with thousands of employees pay this much money to the most powerful people in their management structures.
"The major Romanian businesses are the ones who reward their executives most generously," believes Mihaela Damian, managing partner of executive search company Stanton Chase.
After a period of fast-paced growth, entrepreneurial businesses feel a stronger need for experienced executives. "We had one case where, in order to take the position of CEO at a Romanian company, an executive asked for and was offered a twice-as-high salary (from 5,000 to 10,000 euros) and was paid six months in advance. In a Romanian company with turnover worth over 100 million euros, the CEO gets 15,000 euros plus bonuses, the CFO (chief financial officer) more than 7,000 euros and the COO (chief operating officer) more than 5,000 euros. Then they also get bonuses and shares after a certain period," says George Butunoiu, owner of the consultancy firm of the same name.
The risks managers associate with jobs in Romanian companies include vulnerable entrepre-neurial businesses, less predictable market trends, higher subjectivity in management (given that almost all business owners
