Advice for Experienced I.T. Business Analyst

[TFNG]

I have noticed two things for financial IT jobs in SG: there is an uptick in job adverts, and the headhunters in SG are terrible (they are worse then the ones in Japan).

The best websites I have seen recently are: efinancialcareers.com and recruit.net.

There is a new trend in that many of the Financial Institutions are advertising directly on efinancialcareers (JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Standard Charter among others). I have also noticed the jobs will show up on the company's career website up to a week before they show up on the above mentioned web sites. Additionally, some firms are pushing their HR depts. to try and fill positions before turning them over to the recruiters.

In my 18 years in Asia, all the jobs I've worked, not one has been through a recruiter. I've spoken/worked with many recruiters (both looking for a new job and looking to hire) and I can honestly say I have not met one recruiter where I did not feel like I needed a shower after the meeting was over.

Use your network. Also, you might think about creative ways to meet people currently working for Financial firms; have lunch at restaurants near the companies' buildings, or hang out at near by pubs after work and strike up conversations. You never know...

[YankStuckinSuiss]

I have noticed two things for financial IT jobs in SG: there is an uptick in job adverts, and the headhunters in SG are terrible (they are worse then the ones in Japan).

The best websites I have seen recently are: efinancialcareers.com and recruit.net.

There is a new trend in that many of the Financial Institutions are advertising directly on efinancialcareers (JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Standard Charter among others). I have also noticed the jobs will show up on the company's career website up to a week before they show up on the above mentioned web sites. Additionally, some firms are pushing their HR depts. to try and fill positions before turning them over to the recruiters.

In my 18 years in Asia, all the jobs I've worked, not one has been through a recruiter. I've spoken/worked with many recruiters (both looking for a new job and looking to hire) and I can honestly say I have not met one recruiter where I did not feel like I needed a shower after the meeting was over.

Use your network. Also, you might think about creative ways to meet people currently working for Financial firms; have lunch at restaurants near the companies' buildings, or hang out at near by pubs after work and strike up conversations. You never know...

Thank you very much for your feedback. You are not the first person who has told me recruiters in Singapore (and Asian in general) tend to be slow and not very competent. It is good to hear it from someone else, it seems to be a truism.

I guess I need to reinforce my efforts to respond directly to companies. I hate company job sites, they require ridiculous copying of resume info into their own system, then ask you to upload your resume!?!? sigh...oh well it has to be done.

[TFNG]

It looks like JPM, DB, and Citi all use the same career website engine, Taleo. So once you figure it out for one, the other two should be a breeze.

PM me as I will be in SG in about 10 days and would not mind to meet another American.

Also, SMS hopefully no offence taken on the meet recruiter->need shower comment in earlier posting. I'm sure that would not happen with you

[zzm9980]

It looks like JPM, DB, and Citi all use the same career website engine, Taleo. So once you figure it out for one, the other two should be a breeze.

PM me as I will be in SG in about 10 days and would not mind to meet another American.

Also, SMS hopefully no offence taken on the meet recruiter->need shower comment in earlier posting. I'm sure that would not happen with you

Ugh Taleo. I strongly suggest using Internet Explorer if you use Taleo. I've had applications eaten by that system more often than not. For some reason, IE seems to work best.

[TFNG]

You are correct, don't use any other browser other than IE. I had to resurect and old Windows XP laptop during my last job search as no browser running under Linux would work correctly.

Also, if you have a 64-bit Windows 7 machine, use the 32-bit version of IE as the 64-bit IE will not work correctly.

[sundaymorningstaple]

It looks like JPM, DB, and Citi all use the same career website engine, Taleo. So once you figure it out for one, the other two should be a breeze.

PM me as I will be in SG in about 10 days and would not mind to meet another American.

Also, SMS hopefully no offence taken on the meet recruiter->need shower comment in earlier posting. I'm sure that would not happen with you

No worries, mate! If you've read enough of my comments regarding recruiters/headhunters in Singapore you would know that it doesn't bother me at all. I spout the same opinion of them as well. In fact, it's one of the reasons I left and had my own company as a one man operation. I no longer operate in Singapore but only offshore because most of the local clients (companies) have sh*t for brains HR departments as well who shotgun requirements do a dozen or more recruiters at the same time. With no professionalism from HR Departments, it's hard for agencies to work professionally as well. catch 22.

[YankStuckinSuiss]

I'm in Singapore for a few days...plan to go check out Johor Bahru on Wednesday. Might move there for 2 months and look from work in Singapore from there.

Tomorrow I plan to do some walk-ins to recruiting offices. Not sure this will do anything, but I have nothing to loose.

[BnJoe]

Thanks @YankstuckinSuisse for your update. I'm thinking about a similar approach to visit Singapore soon, so I'm curious about your experiences. Good luck!

[YankStuckinSuiss]

i feel like I am doing something very wrong. I have applied for at least 50 positions in Singapore now, where I am a good match for the position. So far, over the last four months, I have had 1 interview with a recruiter, which went no where. I also had another recruiter contact me for an undated CV, and that has led nowhere.

When I did this in Switzerland, I was contacted by recruiters the first 2 weeks, probably in a 3 month period I was contacted 10 times. The questions were usually, "what is your work permit status" and "how is your German". Those were the biggest barriers, but still, I had two job offers at the end of 3 months. That is a very internationally competitive environment. Someone told me though, it might not be for IT, not as many Indians around or nonWestern people in general.

Not sure what to do. I talked to a few recruiters here. They say everything looks good, but for the fact they feel I switched jobs too much for Asian employers (which has never seemed to be a problem in Europe or America).

I have a feeling staying in Taiwan is hurting me, but it is much cheaper there, and I feel it is not far away, I can get here in 4 hours, flights are frequent and I state in every cover letter I will fly down for interview at my own expense.

I'm considering hanging up the towel and going back to The States...job market is better there but I really want to live in Asia, specifically Singapore.

I am setting up some "sit downs" over the next 2 days with major recruiting offices here...got one this afternoon...

[YankStuckinSuiss]

Okay I am in Singapore for 2-3 months.

I have an e-mail list of 95 recruiters. I sent an e-mail updating all of them with my resume, etc. I got most of their contact info cold calling recruiting firms or through Linked In.

I have applied to PEP (just two days ago, so waiting on that).

I apply directly to company websites, especially banks. It seems the big freight shipping companies are not doing much hiring now, neither are the pharma/biotechs...what am I missing?

I am basically trying to get ideas. I feel like I could be doing more, but door to door at big MNC is a joke, as you rarely can get passed reception without a proper appointment.

[zzm9980]

Try a lot of the big tech companies too. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, HP etc. Just head to their /jobs section on their main sites, and see what they have in Singapore currently. Any company you can think of. I know the ones I named have pretty large IT ops here. I also get hit a ton on LinkedIn; the key is making sure your current profile is set to Singapore, and joining all of the random APAC Jobs groups. Most of them are just spam and stupid questions (the same ones questions from the same people you see here with MASTERS), but recruiters will sometimes message you based on membership in said group. Some of them are worthless generic recruiting messages (offering "resume improvement services" and such), others are very targeted for very specific MNC open reqs.

About all I can think of right now!

[YankStuckinSuiss]

Try a lot of the big tech companies too. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, HP etc. Just head to their /jobs section on their main sites, and see what they have in Singapore currently. Any company you can think of. I know the ones I named have pretty large IT ops here. I also get hit a ton on LinkedIn; the key is making sure your current profile is set to Singapore, and joining all of the random APAC Jobs groups. Most of them are just spam and stupid questions (the same ones questions from the same people you see here with MASTERS), but recruiters will sometimes message you based on membership in said group. Some of them are worthless generic recruiting messages (offering "resume improvement services" and such), others are very targeted for very specific MNC open reqs.

About all I can think of right now!

Thank you zzm9980...I have applied to more groups with Linked In, and looked at all the companies you mentioned.

[Mi Amigo]

I've never had to look for a job in Singapore myself (I was transferred here), but it certainly seems to be a nightmare. One site that I saw mentioned somewhere looks quite interesting - it seems to do consolidated searches by keywords across many other job sites:

http://www.indeed.com.sg/

Might be worth a few searches, although I expect it'll throw up duplicates of jobs you've already seen.

[YankStuckinSuiss]

i found out today, after 3 weeks, that my PEP application has been approved!!!!1

[sundaymorningstaple]

Congratulations, dude! So, once more, another spanner in the works to keep everybody guessing. Welcome to Singers!