Singapore Expats

I needed a new job a few months ago. In Singapore as we know it's not easy for an expat to jump ship. However I did it - buy using LinkedIn's premium paid service and by paying careful attention to keywords that I knew recruiters would be searching with. If you haven't looked for a job in the last 12 months I'm here to tell you that the whole LinkedIn thing has changed it. Instead of looking for work - let it find you. There are hundreds or thousands of recruiters who sit in front of PC's typing in keywords trying to find candidates every day - what you need to do is make sure you come up at the top of the list.

DO - pay the fee - it moves you to the top of the results list.
DO - pay attention to keywords - 'project manager' is going to get millions of results for a recruiter - 'singapore oil and gas project manager' probably 100 results; 'singapore oil and gas project manager <insert>' even less - if you pay the premium fee - you'll be top of the list.

I thought Linked was BS - until I did the above - and in all honestly - the phone didn't stop ringing for 6 weeks until I stopped the premium fee and had found a new job.

I'm not pushing LI here - just telling you that the paradigm has changed.

I tried the 'push' method - looking on jobsdb, seeked etc.... NOT a single reply. The 'pull' method - esp for professionals was far more successful and frankly - if they find you - they'll be willing to pay more.

Damn good advice. +1

Agreed, I had a premium account for a while and I had at least a call a day for a month, also, the stats you see and such are better.

I will sign up again when looking, too expensive (and inconvenient) when I am not searching, all the calls!

Good call offshoreoildude!

Been indecisive about taking the plunge on the premium account or not for a while now. Have been able to get some leads and interviews through the free account but thats about it. Have tried the "Push" method (Jobsdb/Jobstreet) but not of any use either. Will take the plunge on the premium account I guess. Do you mind if I PM you seeking some tips on the "Keywords" thingy? And Thanks for the tip!

Darthcoder wrote:Been indecisive about taking the plunge on the premium account or not for a while now. Have been able to get some leads and interviews through the free account but thats about it. Have tried the "Push" method (Jobsdb/Jobstreet) but not of any use either. Will take the plunge on the premium account I guess. Do you mind if I PM you seeking some tips on the "Keywords" thingy? And Thanks for the tip!

Sure. I just thought really hard about what sort of words I'd want in my new job description and how 'tight' they are.

Thanks mate, this might be just the thing to get me moving rather than waiting around thinking about it.

Sounds like very good advice,

offshoreoildude wrote:I needed a new job a few months ago. In Singapore as we know it's not easy for an expat to jump ship. However I did it - buy using LinkedIn's premium paid service and by paying careful attention to keywords that I knew recruiters would be searching with.

By "premium" you mean one of these for job seekers or as they call it a business account?

x9200 wrote:

offshoreoildude wrote:I needed a new job a few months ago. In Singapore as we know it's not easy for an expat to jump ship. However I did it - buy using LinkedIn's premium paid service and by paying careful attention to keywords that I knew recruiters would be searching with.

By "premium" you mean one of these for job seekers or as they call it a business account?

'Job Seeker'. They do have a lot of account types!

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Damn good advice. +1

Agreed. I'm a basic(free) Linked In user, haven't optimized my profile, and I still get messaged constantly by recruiters. It's an excellent tool if you understand how to use it. And if you can't figure it out, your resume and interview skills likely suck and you're a lost cause anyway

It's an amazing thought to realize that all that lies between now and getting that one in the world perfect job offer - (and there are SO MANY recruiters using linked that that the probably of that job being in the hands of a recruiter is very good) - is a well written linkedin profile that catches the recruiters eye long enough to register in their peanut brain. It's very different to when I first started looking for work 20+ years ago. Then it was about who you knew - still counts but LI at least helps them find you!

It even works for Dilbert!

Clicky

nutnut wrote:It even works for Dilbert!

Clicky

Ah, that will come in handy when I decide to become a despotic, evil overlordand need an army of henchmen.

zzm9980 wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Damn good advice. +1

Agreed. I'm a basic(free) Linked In user, haven't optimized my profile, and I still get messaged constantly by recruiters. It's an excellent tool if you understand how to use it. And if you can't figure it out, your resume and interview skills likely suck and you're a lost cause anyway

Ditto. I'm currently a basic LI user and I also have been contacted for regional job offers. So imagine if you're a premium user...

Good thread, but I wonder how I can do the same, from Finland, into Singapore.

Problem is that I have many co-workers and even my boss is a "friend" in LinkedIn, so I can't explicitly write it in my profile "LOOKING FOR WORK IN SINGAPORE (boss/coworkers, please disregard)"

So is there a discrete way of letting potential employers/recruiters in Singapore know that I'm interested to work there?

Please excuse my ignorance, but I have never used the premium or job seekers option, so does it have options for desired work locations, for example? (that your "friends" cannot see)

Flashman wrote:Good thread, but I wonder how I can do the same, from Finland, into Singapore.

Problem is that I have many co-workers and even my boss is a "friend" in LinkedIn, so I can't explicitly write it in my profile "LOOKING FOR WORK IN SINGAPORE (boss/coworkers, please disregard)"

So is there a discrete way of letting potential employers/recruiters in Singapore know that I'm interested to work there?

Please excuse my ignorance, but I have never used the premium or job seekers option, so does it have options for desired work locations, for example? (that your "friends" cannot see)

And there I went and already made my first mistake - there are options that let you turn "off" your profile updates from the activity feed, but (on another page!) it tells you that you cannot turn off the announcements of which groups you join. I didn't see this until after I joined certain groups...

So, stupid me just joined "Singapore Banking Professionals", "Singapore Job Listings" and "Singapore Careers" before seeing the warning elsewhere that the groups you join are visible to everybody(!) Even if you leave those groups, it still appears in your (and your friends') activity feed. If you try to "defriend" your boss discretely, LinkedIn sends a message to your friend that you have defriended them, so that's out of the question.

So, I did the best I could to make all sorts of changes (adding lots of groups, adding a bunch of new friends, making profile changes, etc.) so that these new Singapore groups that I added will be hidden in all the clutter. F***!!!