Advise Required

[expatexpat]

Hi,

I am a senior Information Security professional with 10+ yrs of relevant experience and solid credentials. There are lot of vacancies for senior roles in this domain. My resume gets good response from all companies.

I live in India and want to try my luck for exposure (money secondary). What strategy should I make. Should I travel for over for a month and try my luck. Or, contact recruitment agencies first, arrange few interviews, and then fly. Whats the best method. I have no liabilities or constraints at this moment.

I know this question is asked multiple times. But still, I think the response varies on case-to-case basis.

Pls show me some direction. Thanks in advance and love this extremely active community.

Thanks.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Singapore is expensive. If you want to fly over "just to try your luck" please ensure you have deep pockets. Ideally, you want to set up interviews before arrival either via linked-in, recruiters, direct application. It's hard to do walk-ins here.

[Strong Eagle]

I think you are going to find a lot of tough sledding in trying to find a senior IT security job in Singapore. There are at least three reasons.

a) As SMS has noted, Singapore is expensive, and lots of multi nationals are moving their technical staff elsewhere to reduce costs. Quite a lot of companies are moving support staff to KL.

b) As companies actually commoditize and globalize their IT offerings, things like security are being consolidated at a global headquarters. Patches pushed throughout the world from a central location with regional, non-senior techs monitoring the process from Manila or similar. Networks, routers, and firewalls managed centrally.

Database security is managed centrally, as is software access, smart cards and new users. I contracted with a large company that managed everything worldwide out of Germany and that included hack attempts, server management as well as everything else I have mentioned.

c) As companies move computing resources to the cloud and/or shared data centers, the security jobs move as well... only now, one security guy can look after five companies.

I'm not saying you can't get a job, just that there aren't as many out there as you might think. I'd really target the companies I think I might want to work for and in what roles, then research them for career opportunities via their own websites and linked in. Or glassdoor. It will give you some sense of where they are hiring for what. In Singapore you could look at the mega datacenters.

[expatexpat]

Thanks for your responses.

Security business is growing at steep rate and Singapore is becoming hub for APAC, which is a huge market. Lot of Security product companies are setting up shops over there. Large MNCs, esp. banks, are transforming their Security infrastructure. Labor arbitrage, usually, do not work for high skill jobs, those jobs aren't going anywhere. I am looking at Sr. Mgr/AVP/VP/Architect kind of jobs. Such jobs are few, but highly rewarding, will try my luck. I am at a high salary here, so got nothing to lose.

[zzm9980]

I have your same credentials, had a senior role at an MNC managing our InfoSec program for Asia, but just left Singapore.

SE is pretty close to the mark. Most of the roles in Singapore that are senior will be Singapore-based companies or banks; The companies will pay shitty, the banks will pay OK but expect tons of bureaucracy. A few banks and financial institutes will have their 'second' IT HQ here, and they may have some roles you're interested in. Visa is an example of this, they won't be leaving SG anytime soon. The vast remainder of the banks and large companies fall under what SE said. You'll find low to mid level roles, and the occasional MNC that needs a 'jack of all trades' type of role to interface with business in Asia. These are hard to find, but congrats if you do as they're cushy. Oh, and there are quite a few sales and support engineers for large company consulting wings for APAC. HP Enterprise Services, IBM, etc.

Best way to find a role? LinkedIn. I got a lot of bites all of the time from corporate recruiters (not freelance or agencies; those people are useless just ask SMS), but I also was listed as working at top mnc based in Singapore.

[expatexpat]

Thanks zzm, most of what you said makes lot of sense. I am aware of extreme bureaucracy in Singapore based companies and disadvantages of being part of regional HQ for large MNC.
The future is in product companies like Splunk, Palo Alto, Fireeye, et al. They are slush with IPO money and looking to capture market share in APAC, and using Singapore as Hub. They present lot of opportunity, exposure, fast growth, and hot cash. I am targeting such companies, they will drive next gen Security, services have no charm left - been there done that. Lets see how it works out, chasing few of them currently.

[Strong Eagle]

Thanks zzm, most of what you said makes lot of sense. I am aware of extreme bureaucracy in Singapore based companies and disadvantages of being part of regional HQ for large MNC.
The future is in product companies like Splunk, Palo Alto, Fireeye, et al. They are slush with IPO money and looking to capture market share in APAC, and using Singapore as Hub. They present lot of opportunity, exposure, fast growth, and hot cash. I am targeting such companies, they will drive next gen Security, services have no charm left - been there done that. Lets see how it works out, chasing few of them currently.

You know what doesn't make any sense in this post? It's the phrase, "looking to capture market share in APAC".

You seem to have missed the point of my post and that of zzm. There are very few MNC's with headquarter operations in Singapore... Stan Chart is the only one I can think of.

Decisions about security, vendors, and new technologies are NOT being made in Singapore... they are being made in the US, UK, EU... or wherever the MNC has decided to create its global presence.

Who are these companies going to market to? I'm telling you, titles like "regional vice president" are rapidly disappearing to be replaced by titles like "global manager, virtual teams, security".

If these companies think they are actually going to market in Singapore, other than to local companies, I'm ready to short their stock.

"Hot money" is shit... if these companies actually want to break into the MNC market, they are going to be working out of New York, London, Houston, Germany, Australia... because that's where the decisions are being made... not in Singapore.... unless you're trying to sell a $35 product to a local pte ltd.

Edited to add: All of the contracts/projects which I rescued over the last 8 years or so were signed in the USA, Germany, or Australia. It may have been the regional arm that hired me to do the rescue... just pointing out that the strategic decisions are not being made in Singapore... and that includes security.

[expatexpat]

Thanks zzm, most of what you said makes lot of sense. I am aware of extreme bureaucracy in Singapore based companies and disadvantages of being part of regional HQ for large MNC.
The future is in product companies like Splunk, Palo Alto, Fireeye, et al. They are slush with IPO money and looking to capture market share in APAC, and using Singapore as Hub. They present lot of opportunity, exposure, fast growth, and hot cash. I am targeting such companies, they will drive next gen Security, services have no charm left - been there done that. Lets see how it works out, chasing few of them currently.

You know what doesn't make any sense in this post? It's the phrase, "looking to capture market share in APAC".

You seem to have missed the point of my post and that of zzm. There are very few MNC's with headquarter operations in Singapore... Stan Chart is the only one I can think of.

Decisions about security, vendors, and new technologies are NOT being made in Singapore... they are being made in the US, UK, EU... or wherever the MNC has decided to create its global presence.

Who are these companies going to market to? I'm telling you, titles like "regional vice president" are rapidly disappearing to be replaced by titles like "global manager, virtual teams, security".

If these companies think they are actually going to market in Singapore, other than to local companies, I'm ready to short their stock.

"Hot money" is shit... if these companies actually want to break into the MNC market, they are going to be working out of New York, London, Houston, Germany, Australia... because that's where the decisions are being made... not in Singapore.... unless you're trying to sell a $35 product to a local pte ltd.

Edited to add: All of the contracts/projects which I rescued over the last 8 years or so were signed in the USA, Germany, or Australia. It may have been the regional arm that hired me to do the rescue... just pointing out that the strategic decisions are not being made in Singapore... and that includes security.

I am afraid, I have to disagree. If you are saying APAC business is only about MNCs based out of US or EMEA, then you're greatly mistaken. Japan for example doesn't have much MNC presence and the market is completely virgin, at least 10 years behind in Security Initiatives, and the country is 2nd largest economy in the world. China, the top 4 banks, are local banks, the economy is not driven by MNCs. As I said, Singapore is becoming a HUB for entire APAC, which is a $30B market and growing. Singapore will drive the entire region.

What you said may be true in past/present/Singapore context, but totally untrue in immediate-to-distant future APAC context.

[Strong Eagle]

If you say so. I mean, since you know all the hot companies and all the hot countries and customers, why are you asking what to do here? If I knew all the hot companies and customers I'd be contacting them directly. Ja?

[Barnsley]

If you say so. I mean, since you know all the hot companies and all the hot countries and customers, why are you asking what to do here? If I knew all the hot companies and customers I'd be contacting them directly. Ja?

I was gonna ask same thing.

They appear to know it all.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Thanks zzm, most of what you said makes lot of sense. I am aware of extreme bureaucracy in Singapore based companies and disadvantages of being part of regional HQ for large MNC.
The future is in product companies like Splunk, Palo Alto, Fireeye, et al. They are slush with IPO money and looking to capture market share in APAC, and using Singapore as Hub. They present lot of opportunity, exposure, fast growth, and hot cash. I am targeting such companies, they will drive next gen Security, services have no charm left - been there done that. Lets see how it works out, chasing few of them currently.

You know what doesn't make any sense in this post? It's the phrase, "looking to capture market share in APAC".

You seem to have missed the point of my post and that of zzm. There are very few MNC's with headquarter operations in Singapore... Stan Chart is the only one I can think of.

Decisions about security, vendors, and new technologies are NOT being made in Singapore... they are being made in the US, UK, EU... or wherever the MNC has decided to create its global presence.

Who are these companies going to market to? I'm telling you, titles like "regional vice president" are rapidly disappearing to be replaced by titles like "global manager, virtual teams, security".

If these companies think they are actually going to market in Singapore, other than to local companies, I'm ready to short their stock.

"Hot money" is shit... if these companies actually want to break into the MNC market, they are going to be working out of New York, London, Houston, Germany, Australia... because that's where the decisions are being made... not in Singapore.... unless you're trying to sell a $35 product to a local pte ltd.

Edited to add: All of the contracts/projects which I rescued over the last 8 years or so were signed in the USA, Germany, or Australia. It may have been the regional arm that hired me to do the rescue... just pointing out that the strategic decisions are not being made in Singapore... and that includes security.

I am afraid, I have to disagree. If you are saying APAC business is only about MNCs based out of US or EMEA, then you're greatly mistaken. Japan for example doesn't have much MNC presence and the market is completely virgin, at least 10 years behind in Security Initiatives, and the country is 2nd largest economy in the world. China, the top 4 banks, are local banks, the economy is not driven by MNCs. As I said, Singapore is becoming a HUB for entire APAC, which is a $30B market and growing. Singapore will drive the entire region.

What you said may be true in past/present/Singapore context, but totally untrue in immediate-to-distant future APAC context.

Singapore becoming an APAC hub for developing security markets in Tokyo and China?
surely you must be joking..!

[zzm9980]

I think it's more like if he wants to live in Asia and work as a Sales Engineer as an Indian, Singapore is his only option. SE in Japan would require Japanese, and in China Chinese. Any product position (which is where the real money in this field for someone with OP's credentials) would most likely be in California. Maybe some NYC/Boston or Europe. I'm sure OP is qualified to be an SE, but it's really not going to be a move up based on his presented credentials.

[expatexpat]

Well...let me say that at least it was an engaging discussion. Thanks all for your inputs regardless of the content.

Received my first interview call through LinkedIn from a leading product company - all expense paid. I will divulge and provide more details if things go well.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Wait till you see what they are prepared to offer. Then let us know how many 10s of thousands it was below your expectations. No need to tell us the offer, just the difference between expectation and offer.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Well...let me say that at least it was an engaging discussion. Thanks all for your inputs regardless of the content.

Received my first interview call through LinkedIn from a leading product company - all expense paid. I will divulge and provide more details if things go well.

was it a premium linkedIn account?

#inb4offshoreoildude