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by Strong Eagle » Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:56 am
I've been out of the Singapore IT game for 5 years now, and, I can tell you that my last three projects were the outsourcing/off shoring of IT personnel for large multi-national banks and manufacturing companies. I judge that the process has only accelerated since I left.
Call centers all left Singapore because the labor costs were too high. The call centers all went to Manila or Kuala Lumpur. At the same time, the onsite support was terminated from each company and replaced with a dumbed down service team that mostly replaced stuff and relied upon the call centers to remote in and do the actual legwork of setup, etc.
Historically, even though the companies had allegedly integrated IT operations, most operated within regions... NA, SA, EMEA, and APAC. If you wanted to be a specialist in Asia... a project manager, a solutions architect, a security guru, or a peddler of computer hardware... you could approach the regional vice president of IT and get the deal done.
All that went out the window with the 2008 recession. IT budgets were severely curtailed for at least three years, and it created a consolidation of the IT function in virtually all of the MNC's of which I am aware. Say goodbye to the autonomous region, and say hello to the global PMO located in Europe or maybe in the USA. Say goodbye to the regional service provider or project management firm, and say hello to the firms that could at least attempt to claim a global footprint.
Now mix in some global virtual teams. A big SAP project of which I was aware, was driven out of Europe, spec'ed and tested in Kuala Lumpur, and programmed in South America, under the direction of a global project manager in the USA. So, it's less about you wanting to be somewhere, and more about whether or not the specialty you have happens to align with the country with the best expertise and labor rates.
And finally, you are correct, finding a job out of country will be very difficult, for two reasons. First, you're not physically here, and you are up against all those people who are here. You've got to look mighty special on your resume to avoid being shit-canned because you complicate things... travel, relocation... things that may not even be in the budget for the position.
And second, as has been noted, the best way to get to Singapore is to transfer in with a company. And the best way to get a new job is to leave that company and move to another company. It is a very small world here, and unless you are a low level grunt, someone will know someone who knows someone who will know you. So long as bridges have not been burned, it is quite common for people to move from company to company with the informal grapevine keeping all informed about your strengths and weaknesses. You've got no such referral network... therefore, and again, unless you've got something special, you're a risk... and potentially a costly one with travel and relocation as part of the recruiting process. It doesn't happen very often.
You ought to drop over to the 20's and 30's "making friends" forums. There do seem to be quite a few younger people that are getting transferred into Singapore, looking at the activity in those forums. You might ask around and get a better sense of what it might take to find employment here.
