Singapore Expats

I have a few friends who are trying for a job, i hear the market is really hard, not only for expats but also for PRs. My personal experience is that I have been trying so hard for the past 7-8 months, and have been given silly reasons for rejection like- I am on DP, or I dont have knowledge of Mandarin etc. I have tried to make some friends on Linkedin and other networking sites but they too mention that the hiring has stopped/put on hold in their companies. It has become pratically impossible to find a job here in SG. Anyone agree with me?

I have been recruited twice in the last 8 months and been offered more. I guess it depends on what you do!

What type of work do you do?

oh great.. lucky you.. am trying in the financial services space.. may i ask which field you specialise in...

cresatives.sg wrote:I have a few friends who are trying for a job, i hear the market is really hard, not only for expats but also for PRs. My personal experience is that I have been trying so hard for the past 7-8 months, and have been given silly reasons for rejection like- I am on DP, or I dont have knowledge of Mandarin etc. I have tried to make some friends on Linkedin and other networking sites but they too mention that the hiring has stopped/put on hold in their companies. It has become pratically impossible to find a job here in SG. Anyone agree with me?

Being on a DP should not be a reason for rejection-you need to make potential employers aware of the Letter of consent option- MoM grants LOC to DP holders so they can work in Singapore. The employer needs to apply for your LOC, just like they would do for an EP. I worked on an LOC for my first job in Singapore. Good luck!

How does one quantify if finding a job is "getting harder by the day" or not? You pretty much either get one, or you don't, right? Or do potential employers now give out scorecards telling applicants how close they got to getting an offer? (Sorry, you asked if we agreed with you. I guess this is me not agreeing)

Sound like you giving up.

You wouldn't find a job by moaning, would it?

This reminds me of all the various uk headlines on the number of applications per vacancy being ridiclous but such headlines fail to put the change in context. I've never done it but I believe it's quite possible these days to apply for 10s or 100s of jobs just at the click of the mouse and with applications being so easy to submit I'm sure many of the applicants already have jobs and wouldn't otherwise bother to apply.

Ok, right. That makes perfect sense

Speaking of which, I've found a theory from someone in another forum, mentions that February, March, and April are the best months to apply for a job. As for the reason, he wrote that some people will jump to a new company after he/she received the bonus+"13th month"+etc.

I won't say that's a bull, but I may take it as a possibility since I received a lot of phone calls during that months, which were related to job offerings

As I AM an HR manager, I can confirm that v4jr4 is correct. Locals, in particular, will tend to not make a move until receiving their bonuses. This is why it's virtually impossible to get decent jobs during the last quarter of the year with it getting progressively harder as the months count down to December.

Our way around the bonus situation is that we've done away with the 13th month bonus completely and now give bonuses on the religious holidays of the various workers. Additionally, we only give 70% of the bonuses with the balance of bonuses payed out on the Chinese New Year at the beginning of the following year. Even then, we still tend to have a higher movement after the CNY holidays.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:As I AM an HR manager, I can confirm that v4jr4 is correct. Locals, in particular, will tend to not make a move until receiving their bonuses. This is why it's virtually impossible to get decent jobs during the last quarter of the year with it getting progressively harder as the months count down to December.

Our way around the bonus situation is that we've done away with the 13th month bonus completely and now give bonuses on the religious holidays of the various workers. Additionally, we only give 70% of the bonuses with the balance of bonuses payed out on the Chinese New Year at the beginning of the following year. Even then, we still tend to have a higher movement after the CNY holidays.

This 13th month bonus is such crap anyway, it should be done away with completely. Look, you can get paid bi-weekly, which creates 26 pay periods in a year. Or you can be paid semi-monthly, and get 24 pay periods in a year. All the companies are doing is paying you a bi-weekly salary on a semi-monthly schedule so that they can give you your "bonus" as though they are giving you some sort of reward.

Nah, it's not a reward but a layaway plan to keep you for at least one year before you go off job hopping as is the wont of locals like it's almost a game. That's why even now, we only give 70% to the various employees on their personal religious holidays, cause a lot will jump ship even then. Some are hard core though and will still jump.

Shouldn't the real purpose be to create a happy, respectful, ethical, efficient working environment so that employees are happy to be working for the company, rather than monetary strategies just to keep employees? Same goes for those appointed to managerial positions, their performance should be assessed by their seniors and subordinates and not just give free range to do whatever they want, promote their own agendas etc

macaroonie wrote:Shouldn't the real purpose be to create a happy, respectful, ethical, efficient working environment so that employees are happy to be working for the company, rather than monetary strategies just to keep employees? Same goes for those appointed to managerial positions, their performance should be assessed by their seniors and subordinates and not just give free range to do whatever they want, promote their own agendas etc

Oh you crack me up!

I can't stop laughing! My sides are aching...

Macroonie, This country is spelt S I N G A P O R E not U T O P I A.