NikkiVT wrote:Hi, My husband children and I are hoping to relocate to Singapore in a couple of months. We don't have jobs to come to at the minute, although we both have a lot of experience and qualifications in our fields. If we don't manage to get jobs in Singapore within the next few months, we are thinking of coming over to look for jobs and maybe staying in Johor Baharu (staying in Singapore may eat away at our savings fast). Is this a realistic idea? What is the job market like at the minute? I'm an experienced Microbiologist/ Biomedical Scientist Manager. My husband works for Microsoft as an IT Service Manager.
Also, we have a dog and 2 young children. Is it easy to get about on public transport with a dog? Any one else have experience of getting about with 2 young children without a car?
If you look at Singapore historically, you can see that it started out as a cheap manufacturing hub, with a great port. As salaries rose/rise, manufacturing has started/continued to move offshore to cheaper locations like China and Vietnam. Singapore still has a robust manufacturing sector in pharma and high tech but at least high tech continues to slip.
The government has been trying to counteract these trends by going higher up the food chain in each vertical. One result is the investments that have been made in various research facilities so that Singapore drives research, development, and management of new technologies. There is a focus on nano tech, pharma, medical technology, and water, to name a few. Take a look at A-Star.
http://www.a-star.edu.sg/
Therefore, you with your background in biomed might find an opportunity. How much it would pay would depend upon your credentials, publications, and previous track record.
Your husband's service manager role is being exported by companies and service providers alike to cut costs. Read some of the comments from people here in the banking industry. I personally moved call centers and tier 2 support from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. I know of companies that have essentially disbanded their IT presence in Singapore due to cost, and know of a large service provider that has already cut nearly a third of its work force, with more to come. They are all heading for cheaper shores.
Couple this with the current populist, anti-foreigner rhetoric, and the tightening up of employment passes, and you'll see that the difficulty of working and living in Singapore has increased exponentially. Even if you were willing to work for local wages, there's no guarantee you'll be allowed to do so.
And one other thing about working for local wages. Beyond the fact that your standard of living may go down, you have the problem that when you decide to return, your salary history is low.
If you want to try, then a search is in order. Start with things like A-Star. Then do an advanced people search on LinkedIn, using Singapore as a location. That returns a little more than 72,000 people and their companies. Add some keywords to cut down the list and you have a list of companies in Singapore. See what they are looking for.
and beppi many girls find me cute...
