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by Strong Eagle » Thu, 26 Mar 2009 5:17 pm
What is IT? Or IT management? That's like the cashier at the checkout being in the 'food service business'. You need to be much more specific. Are you a hardware guy? Software? OS? DB? Apps? Security? Networks?
Are you Windows? Linux? Mainframe? Are you an implementer (plugging in the pieces that someone else has designed) or are you an architect (can you create a server farm, or an AD security policy)?
Can you manage a project? Or a P&L? Do people like to work for you and are you a good leader/manager? Can you communicate and write well? Are you comfortable dealing with top management, telling them, 'no'?
My views:
1) If you are a techie, there are many local techies and a company will not have much incentive to hire you.
2) Tech IT salaries start low because there is a lot of competition.
3) Getting hired by a local company is hard and you probably won't like working there anyway, nor the pay. Local companies that do hire expats usually do so because they want to go in a direction but lack the expertise that an expat might have.
4) Your best bet is with an MNC but you better have some skill sets that differentiate you else it will be locals that will be hired (usually a part of an MNC's ethics policy - hire locally whenever possible). If you have architect experience it would be a good thing since there are not a lot of people who actually know how to put sh*t together... and I'm not talking 2 or 3 servers... I'm talking projects like consolidating and virtualizing 200 servers, or building a security system for 5,000 people.
If you can manage projects or a P&L then maybe you're ready to get out of the techie end and you will have a value add. If you know how to manage service operations and know how to compute a TCO maybe there is hope. Far too many techies forget about the business case, the problem that is being solved, and the costs and benefits. Bigger thinking might get you a job.
5) Then again, virtually all MNC's have cut back on capital projects. No money, no projects, so the staff that they have on board is being assigned to operations to try and avoid cutting staff. It will be hard to get on board right now.
6) You can look at jobs with purveyors of IT... the computer companies. They are all hemorrhaging cash right now and they are trying to expand their offerings... professional services, managed services, app development... so if you know how to do these things you might get a job. But pay will suck.
Bottom line: You need more than just a technical background in this day and age. You need complementary business skills. You need to be mid level at least, and creative. You are not only competing against Singaporeans you are competing against well educated Asians from all over the place who really will work for next to nothing in order to get their foot in the door.
Identify the MNC's with major operations in Singapore and approach them locally in the US to get contact information... or go to work for them with the express intention and understanding that you want a transfer.
Virtually all the non-Asian expats I know ended up in Singapore by first working for a company elsewhere then getting transferred here.
SMS is right about the CV. Put a picture on it. Put in your age. Interests. What matters more though, is the cover letter. The CV says what you have done. The cover letter says what you will do. Recruiting firms here are truly a waste of time for standard positions. The job boards are about as useful as a bucket of warm spit for someone like you.
You really do have to customize you own search and MNC's are the place to start. Look at computer companies and telcoms. Check out bio and pharma. Extraction industries are down right now but are still doing better in Asia then elsewhere.
