RE: Singapore’s Recession is Over?
With reference to the blog post at http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/19/singapore-declares-its-recession-over/, I would like to just “pen” my thoughts here instead of commenting too much over there. This is also a reply to some of the comments in the post.
I will be out there to look for a job soon and yes I will be competing with the “foreign talents” as well as trying to pay my own bills soon. But that is life. And I need lots of luck for that too.
Whether or not I get a Computing job is secondary, keeping in mind that there are a lot of Indian Post Graduates looking for IT jobs in Singapore’s market(or in fact the rest of the world too except for India itself), but I have my hopes up quite high. Well technically, I am still cheaper than them. Correct me if I am wrong, but according to my calculations, Singaporeans are cheaper and less of a hassle to employ compared to the “foreign talents”.
Most of these so called foreign talents will be offered an Expatriate’s package which may include accommodation, transport(at times) and other misc. expenses a company needs to cover just to employ them. Why a company rather employ and pay the Expats much more is still a mystery to me. Unless they want a person that’s willing to work 18hrs a day and will not have any other commitments besides their job. As if the non-Chinese in Singapore did not have enough problems finding a job in their so called home in the first place. Requirement for like more than 50% of the jobs out there, Bilingual with Chinese or at times, simply Chinese preferred. I’ve not seen them using “Chinese working environment” yet but whatever it is, it’s already hard enough to look for a job here in Singapore already.
On another note, it’s hard to judge whether PAP, People’s Action Party – Singapore’s current ruling party, suck or not until there is an opposition party ruling. But the problem is, I’ve not been won over by any speeches or promises by any opposition party still. All that I’ve seen is flaming of PAP which even Taxi Drivers can do. Seriously, there are no politics that are clean. Look at United States of America for example. How much does an American president get per month? How much do they spend during their campaigns? Do the figures add up? And they are currently the Superpower! It’s good that Singapore don’t have to go through all the drama from the Campaigns like in India and USA.
And another thing I’ve noticed about Singaporeans is that the majority enjoy complaining (especially when they could do it anonymously), but they don’t do anything to make any situation better. Or do they even know how to make it better? Then they will blame the government for anything that is not well for the country (whether or not it is a global catastrophe), but ask them on their ideas or thoughts on fixing it, they usually don’t have any. Then rebuttals like, “We voted for them to do that job, why should we be thinking?” or “It’s a monopoly, what we say don’t matter. The government won’t listen.”
So start your own party or get your voice heard by joining them to make a difference.
Ok if you are lost and don’t know who am I siding with, I am not leaning on any sides. I just dislike the nature of Singaporeans complaining when they can’t make the situation better themselves. Are you going to sue the government or the one in charge if you slipped and fell at the side of the road by stepping on a pebble that may have originated from the hacking of the pavement of the roadworks about 10 metres away? If you don’t like the way things are handled, don’t just complain anonymously, go make a difference.
Respect,
Deen Yusoff
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Actually some of the “expats” are not offered an expats package, such as accommodation. They are willing to accept a lower pay and pay for their own accommodation because the pay is still higher than their native country. So..they might turn out to be cheaper, more hardworking and more hardworking than the typical complain king Singaporean.
Check this out: regarding lack of “talent” in Singapore
http://sgentrepreneurs.com/contributors-corner/2009/11/21/a-foreign-entrepreneur-finds-it-hard-to-scale-a-team-in-singapore/
Hi Weiquan.
Yeah about the expats package, I know that not all gets the full Expat’s package that’s why I mentioned may include accommodation and so on.
And sadly not only IT Job market is affected.
Maybe there is a better reason for IT firms to employ foreigners like for the case of iSyndica based on that article. It is true that most of the IT students in Singapore are not exposed to .Net and JAVA is heavily focused on here. But then how about those that are are capable and not given the opportunity for an interview in the first place because of this very stereotype or other prejudiced/discriminative requirements.
Stability is something that most people want in Singapore. It’s true. Not everyone dares to a plunge into something exciting and adventurous. Especially for Singaporean men who already lost 2.5 years serving the nation for a pathetic amount of allowance. They hope to settle down as quickly as possible with no worries.
So start-ups will always have problems in Singapore, but that article is just written in the perspective of a .Net start-up and not the rest. Also I am not sure if the statement about Motorola’s recruitment drive is true or just exaggerated. The first thing I learned in Nanyang Polytechnic was to use Modulus Operator to determine an ODD an EVEN number for both C Programming and JAVA.
Knowing how Singaporeans are, they would not apply for a job they feel they can’t do and would try to find other jobs the moment they graduate. They will not try their luck and be shamed. They will bitch about what they can or cannot do even before they graduate. I know so many people from School of Computing, NUS that already plan to do other jobs besides programming.
I honestly would like to hear Motorola’s Interview Panel approve of that anecdote, really. Then, slap the Ministry of Education and tell them to wake up because if that is true, it is shameful for Singapore as they can’t groom their people the way they had been boasting about.