A Malaysian in Singapore

[KuchiRat]

Hi Guys,

My partner recently secured a lucrative job based in Singapore and I am planning to move along as well - both of us being Malaysians.
I have tried sending my resume to several headhunters and/or placement agencies but it's been more than 3 months now since I started looking - no luck yet. Some of the feedback I have received is that the financial services job market is very tight at the moment. I am pretty much done looking at the online job boards. I think my next step would be to send my resumes directly to companies.
From what I have gathered so far, most Singaporean employers would be cautious in bringing in someone who comes from a place with relatively higher wages i.e. UK/Japan.
How would Singaporean employers view a Malaysian wanting to work in Singapore? And would potential S'porean employers view my predominantly Malaysian experience as bringing value to their company?


Would appreciate your views. Thanks.

[/b]

[ksl]

send your CV!

[Saint]

I've written a few postings on my recent hunting experiences.

Here's one I posted a few weeks ago

Employment Agents/Headhunters are a complete and utter waste of time in Singapore and all they are interested in is collecting CVs by the thousands. I reckon half the jobs posted on sites like Monster and Jobsdb don't actually exsist. Most MNC in Singapore don't use agents because they are a waste of time and so positions themselves.

Here's where the next hurdle comes, HR departments. They are incredibly slow and are usually not skilled enough to understand CVs and just look at your qualifications. This is a problem I've had over the last couple of weeks while job hunting here as I don't have a degree so my CV tends to never hit the Business Manager's desk. This nearly cost me a job offers yesterday but it was only because I managed to find out the Manager, who was recruiting, email address and sent my CV directly to him that I got an interview with him.

By far the best way to get yourself noticed and find out about jobs going and who to speak to is by networking, virtually all the interviews and contacts I've made over the last few weeks is by going out and having a few beers with people, especially with people from Forums like this one!

[MikeDirnt]

if you have the qualification why not. keep trying. we are a multi national country

[KuchiRat]

Thanks for your replies.
Just wanted to find the best way to get my foot in the door since Singapore seems to be the chosen place for job applicants everywhere. It gets a bit disheartening after going through a lot of placement agencies/job boards... but goes to show that nothing comes easy around here!

Anyhow, I'll be trawling through the forum and working hard on getting a job.

[RULDS]

My wife and I moved here because of my job. My wife sent out over 100 resumes and 6 weeks later finally landed a good job.

Takes time....actually, too long of time.

[Thaiclan]

What area of work within the finance industry are you looking for?..

[Pguy]

I wouldn't mind at all - probably some employers would!

[Boon]

[quote="KuchiRat"]Thanks for your replies.
Just wanted to find the best way to get my foot in the door since Singapore seems to be the chosen place for job applicants everywhere. It gets a bit disheartening after going through a lot of placement agencies/job boards... but goes to show that nothing comes easy around here!

Anyhow, I'll be trawling through the forum and working hard on getting a job. [/quote]

To be honest, unless you have special skill or brilliant speaker who excel during interview, your chance of landing a good financial job is not optimistic. Reasons are:
1) You are unemploy now, which make u less attractive to the employer.
2) Spore employers dont really recognise Malaysia's working experience, so they will discount yr working experience.

My advice to u is leverage on yr partner's contacts here, since he is given a lucrative package, which naturally comes with good contacts (by default).

[krptykcookies]

To be honest, unless you have special skill or brilliant speaker who excel during interview, your chance of landing a good financial job is not optimistic. Reasons are ....

2) Spore employers dont really recognise Malaysia's working experience, so they will discount yr working experience.

Don't quite agree with the above. I have seen how Singapore employers are now fishing for cheap IT labour in KL (and these candidates have never been out of KL before!). The same can be said about finance candidates - just yesterday someone told me that she managed to fill up a finance vacancy spot in Singapore with a Malaysian candidate who apparently had cut a good deal with the remuneration package too.

[calvink]

I was called in for quite a number of interviews in SG..Managed to go through the second round but was unsuccesful. Two months unsucessful job search in singapore led me obt for a job in KL while still looking for one.

I'm still looking for marketing position.

[Biogentic]

Hi Guys,

My partner recently secured a lucrative job based in Singapore and I am planning to move along as well - both of us being Malaysians.
I have tried sending my resume to several headhunters and/or placement agencies but it's been more than 3 months now since I started looking - no luck yet. Some of the feedback I have received is that the financial services job market is very tight at the moment. I am pretty much done looking at the online job boards. I think my next step would be to send my resumes directly to companies.
From what I have gathered so far, most Singaporean employers would be cautious in bringing in someone who comes from a place with relatively higher wages i.e. UK/Japan.
How would Singaporean employers view a Malaysian wanting to work in Singapore? And would potential S'porean employers view my predominantly Malaysian experience as bringing value to their company?


Would appreciate your views. Thanks.

[/b]

Your title is quite vague, when you are talking about Singapore Employer, do you mean Singapore Home Grown Company? If it is, i think they generally welcome anyone with the right qualification, right experience at the lowest amount of salary....
Generally Singaporeans don't really welcome Foreign Talent... i guess it is the same for every country, who like their job opportunity to snatch up by foreigner??? Especially during this point of time when a technical recession just set in, you have to lower down your expectation and salary by a few notch to be competitive

[molihua]

I was a former malaysian who graduated from UK.

It took me 6 months to get a job in spore when i first graduated. Many offers came after 6 months and i was spoilt for choice. it is advisable when you r young to choose a MNC bcos 5 day loh and many benefits and also good track record.

Spore employers wants cheap and good. So most of the time if u are rejected is bcos they think yr attitude stinks maybe not working to put in extra hrs for free, u may be job hopper, you do not fit in with their company culture, they need to be able to be in control, u noe wat moi means.

So if u sell a bit cheaper then Singaporean they will just grab anytime.

[kyshine]

Well, blame it on the bad economics situation that the whle world is facing now and this leads to slow employment opportunities.

Be patience and don't be choosy.... I remembered that my housemate took almost 9 months before she landed to a job....

Whatever it is, just keep your option open and good luck