Tricky situation.

[Wd40]

6 months pay! wow! Were employed with them for a long time, like 6 years?

7 years ... though HR calculated one month less than 7 years, oh, add one month for same day termination in lieu of notice ...

the real funny situation was our CeO bumped into me when I was leaving and he said the chosen ones, making up almost 10% of the work force including a guy whose been there for 25 years, we selected by an outside consultant ...and ... not to blame our supervisor etc

and to rub it in they engaged a consultant to do moral support/counseling etc ... though I would have preferred a placement consultant...

no hard feelings though as it happened when my wife had a difficult delivery and me being jobless helps for now ...

Wow that's a really long time to be in a company. I have also been in my current company for 5 years now, but 1st 2 years was contract so in my severance pay they considered only 3 years and I get 3 weeks salary per year served so that's 9 weeks salary = 2 months salary

[Wd40]

Why not send them over to JB on tourist passes? it's helluva cheaper there. Besides she can try to look for a job there and see how it turns out. I know 1 Indian (from your country) who did just that whilst her hubby was in Singapore. She stayed behind in KL and looked for a job and having been there for over 15 years last I heard she's obtained M'asian PR. Not that I think you would want to settle in KL but quite a number of Indians do this.

No sending wife to Malaysia is not an option, unknown place staying with a kid all alone, no way. We would rather stay in a shared master bedroom, if we need to cut costs.

[Aragorn2000]

Thanks ZZM and JR8,

AngMoG, I agree with you that there are better opportunities in anybody's home country, whether its London, New York, Bangalore or Manila, compared to Singapore.

The reason we would like to give one more shot at Singapore is because we have some momentum going here in terms of family is happy here and have formed their own circles here.

Why not send the wife and kid home to stay with family in India for a few months? You can just share a room while taking those short-term contracts and see if anything works out. Best case, you land a good role and EP, find a new place, and the family comes back with just a long vacation in India. Worst case, they're home a few months before you and you saved a bit more money up.

Wd40 situation makes me feel like being the worst spendthrift. i'm gonna leave my 7K job to find luck in a country with a much less dynamic employment market.

i think it all boils down to where u wanna live. If you like singapore so much, fight for it until you have exhausted your choices.

(I'm also encouraging myself...)

[Wd40]

Aragorn2000, just curious, which country is it? Australia?

I wish I had a definitive answer to the question, where I want to live. My answer is its Singapore only if makes sense careerwise, but in IT, my experience is my skills are not that great to clinch a job easily here, whenever I want. Its seems a lower risk option is to go back to Bangalore and there I can find a job much more easily, skill up a bit and then may be more locations will open up for me like London, US etc. In case of Singapore, I have already explored it enough and now that wow factor has evaporated especially so if my next job wont pay me as good as my current job.

[ecureilx]

....

i sent you a pm ...

[Wd40]

....

i sent you a pm ...

Hi Ecureilx,

Thanks, but I have now pretty much made up mind to go back to Bangalore. The responses from companies here v/s there is totally worlds apart. My last date in my current company is 17th may and I don't wish to stay here unemployed, clinging on to hope at the mercy of employers here. Its completely 180 deg opposite experience I have add with a few interviews I have taken here v/s there.

Here, some companies ask really easy questions, act very goody goody and final no offer. Some cases, the job just dies, some cases the interviewers have asked me totally unreasonable questions, its more like they have already made up their mind not to take me. In Bangalore, very quick process, I have been asked how soon can I join and already had Skype Interviews with couple of companies in the last week and about to get an offer. The pay very good there and permanent.

There is one company here though that I still have hope and tomorrow they have called me for the second round. I will take see how it goes and if they really want to offer me, I will stay back or come back.

[Wd40]

Great article!

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/arti ... candidates?

We love you, and you're really high on our top-candidate list. We just want to see more candidates

This is exactly what happens in Singapore, especially in my case.

[yogaloungeforever]

'"Look, Ralph," you say, "we've spent a fair amount of time together. If it doesn't look like a great fit, I totally understand. I'm sure you can see why I can't stay in the process if you're not sure I'm the guy you want."


I tried that with one of the interviewers when he said he could not get back within the next 2 weeks coz he wanted to see some more candidates. It backfired and he refused to budge!

Ironically, 2 weeks and the re-advertised role again for the next 3 months and they are still looking!

Great article!

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/arti ... candidates?

We love you, and you're really high on our top-candidate list. We just want to see more candidates

This is exactly what happens in Singapore, especially in my case.

[Wd40]

'"Look, Ralph," you say, "we've spent a fair amount of time together. If it doesn't look like a great fit, I totally understand. I'm sure you can see why I can't stay in the process if you're not sure I'm the guy you want."


I tried that with one of the interviewers when he said he could not get back within the next 2 weeks coz he wanted to see some more candidates. It backfired and he refused to budge!

Yeah, I agree. If you read the comments section of this article most people share the same views. My comment really was about the favourite line used by interviewers these days. "We are still interviewing other candidates and we will get back to you next week or the week after that" Wow! Listening to that, already my enthusiasm is down to 0. The impression I get is "We don't like you. Next Please!"

[pisceangirl]

Good luck Wd40! I have been hearing a lot of not so good things about the job market here and lots of noise about not hiring foreigners etc. While this approach may not be sustainable in the long term, the short term impact is being felt by applicants.

You have a good understanding of what your skills are worth and of course your own risk appetite and am sure you've factored this in when making your decision. All the best.

[Wd40]

Thanks PisceanGirl. Yeah, I had been informed that my position will be made redundant as early as Jan 2013. I had lots of time to look for suitable job change. Being in banking I am overpaid for my skills compared to other industries. Other banks do very little hiring, especially in my skill area, no I could never clinch a banking opportunity and although I could have jumped for a lower salary level in other companies I thought I would wait towards the end and time it so that I could get the severance pay and then join a lower salaried job. Since the beginning of this year I have been very actively looking out and also attended interviews with around 8 companies and open to like 25% pay cut, yet no luck. Mind you 25% pay cut and with the rent I am paying means I save the same amount of money as I would save in India. So all this trauma is not worth it for the sake of clean roads, low crime rate etc.

[JR8]

I think people hiring are suspicious of applicants willing to take a pay cut. 'Are they desperate to stay on here? Will they quit the moment they get something scarcer, but more to their experience and pay level?'... and so on.

[ecureilx]

I think people hiring are suspicious of applicants willing to take a pay cut. 'Are they desperate to stay on here? Will they quit the moment they get something scarcer, but more to their experience and pay level?'... and so on.

then again, from my experience, when unemployed and you ask the same pay as last drawn, most recruitment consultants go ... 'being unemployed you should lower your expectations ... and be ready for a cut in lieu of being unemployed .... '

and then the consultants may be asked by the employer why the candidate is willing to work for lower pay ... which the consultant will not tell the candidate as a possible reason for rejection .....

though in SME environment, in two interviews, I was offered a basic of about 50% of my last drawn, and the bosses insisted the offers were best in view of my predicament .... no qualms there on screwing a desperate guy ....

[rajagainstthemachine]

Sorry to hear about your situation WD40. I hope you land a job soon. Bangalore may not be as bad as you think these days you know? The long traffic jams en route to Electronics City and Whitefield will still be there, you might want to look for a job in the middle of the city ( MG road, Koramangala etc etc ), that makes a big difference to your travel times.
On a related note, you did mention that you were rusty/lacking in IT skills, this is actually a perfect time to get some new skills maybe? study the market conditions and see what technology/skills are in vogue in todays industry and get some certifications or training on that. It adds value to your resume.
you can use that as a reason to tell employers that you needed to upgrade your skills so you are taking a break and doing some training courses.

Best of luck!

[zzm9980]

Whitefield traffic was terrible, but Electronic city hasn't been bad my past few visits. They actually opened that flyover finally.