trakow wrote:Wow, thanks for reply but no need to be that harsh! I think my salary should be more than enough to support me and my wife in Singapore I just wanted to ask about job situation in general. My wife doesn't want to sit at home doing nothing, she wants to be professionally active and we were wondering how tough it is getting a job in Singapore nowadays.
But thanks for your answer anyway, it gave us some feeling as to Singapore job market.
Morning Trakow, and welcome to the forum.
From what you've said I'd focus on getting yourselves here and set up in an apartment, plus you into a work routine. That is going to be a huge amount of work, stress etc. for you both.
If your wife has the qualifications/skills required she might be able to find work here. But I wouldn't expect to make headway in that direction at this stage of your relo (as if it is not stressful enough already
).
What she could do is be keeping an eye on what kind of opportunities there are here, by scanning job ads. Who is hiring, what qual/skills are typically required here etc. That way when you arrive she might have a feel for the type of opening that could work, and via which kind of companies.
Getting a job here, as a new hire rather than an internal corporate transfer, has never been easy. There is a strong element of having to clearly demonstrate you have qualities/skills that are not available from the local workforce. Due to political pressure this hurdle has recently got higher still, with the likes of Jobsbank (where hiring companies are legally required to post all openings), and ... well, I imagine companies now have to keep audit trails of how they considered all applicants both local and foreign, and everyone suitable got interviewed, how/why the eventual hire got chosen etc. Anyway, you get the picture.
The issue of 'trailing spouses' is an old one. [Side-thought: Indeed I am a trailing spouse, and getting on a bit too
]. The idea of the 'TS' having a productive career at home, and losing it here. 'How will they fill their day, be socially engaged, keep busy, justify the career-gap?'. Well, somehow or other they seem to manage to, it just requires some adjustment. Many who want to continue their career might be able to. Many, a few months in-country, find that in fact a few hours by the pool each day, tennis, and running the home + some productive side activities is actually pretty damned fine too.
There could be avenues in between those two for some freelancing, but that gets complex on the visa/tax side of things, so I won't go any further on that at this point.
