Headhunters in Singapore?

ChrisCH · Post by **ChrisCH** » Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:20 pm

Hi!

I am considering to relocate from Switzerland to Singapore. I live here as an expat and I already recognized how different business cultures are within Europe. So I have a short question on the Singaporean attitude towards headhunters: In some countries, agents are the way to go to find a good job. They are smart sales people and if they find your CV suitable for their customers, they will try to sell you well to them (as they earn a fee based on your salary...). So they find jobs for your that were not advertised based on their network.
I have experienced that at least here in Switzerland, that is not the reality. Agents were pretty passive and basically forwarded me ads that were on the standard job websites for weeks. So it is very unlikely that any employer enjoys to pay a huge comission for me, if they have other applicants they can have for free...

So: What do you think when it comes to Singapore: Are headhunters good? Any recommendations?

(I am mid-career with a technical background+MBA in telecoms)

Thanks!

Chris

deity_me · Post by **deity_me** » Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:06 am

I was hoping this would have had a few votes already.
I'm also interested in people's opinion on this matter.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 26 Jan 2011 11:32 am

It's a bad poll as there is no one method that is best. One should use all three methods in order to ensure one covers all the bases. It's a major decision in one's life. Don't you think that it deserves all the chances possible?

To reinterate, it's needs a forth choice: all of the above.

ecureilx · Post by **ecureilx** » Wed, 26 Jan 2011 1:23 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:It's a bad poll as there is no one method that is best.

I beg to disagree, chief: I add my valued voice in - to find I am the only one to have voted

ksl · Post by **ksl** » Wed, 26 Jan 2011 1:58 pm

The results don't show for me, I voted too! Even checked my pop up blocker.

ecureilx · Post by **ecureilx** » Wed, 26 Jan 2011 2:30 pm

ksl wrote:The results don't show for me, I voted too! Even checked my pop up blocker.

Liar

I am the sole voter and I am 100% in favor of option 3 - so I win ..

that was in jest - but, yes, I can only see my vote ....

beppi · Post by **beppi** » Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:49 pm

Headhunters in Singapore are as useless as most HR departments: Keyword matchers at best, but certainly not going out of the way to find or match the best candidates/jobs.

Post by **nakatago** » Wed, 26 Jan 2011 11:08 pm

beppi wrote:Keyword matchers at best

THIS.

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:06 pm

I thought this was related the notorious Chelsea Hooligan mob from the 1970's/1980's

Barnsley · Post by **Barnsley** » Thu, 27 Jan 2011 5:53 pm

4 votes cast so far.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Thu, 27 Jan 2011 6:29 pm

Barnsley wrote:I thought this was related the notorious Chelsea Hooligan mob from the 1970's/1980's

Or the 'Sham Army'

ksl · Post by **ksl** » Thu, 27 Jan 2011 7:07 pm

ecureilx wrote:
ksl wrote:The results don't show for me, I voted too! Even checked my pop up blocker.

Liar I am the sole voter and I am 100% in favor of option 3 - so I win ..

that was in jest - but, yes, I can only see my vote ....

Ha ha! really i did vote that day, must be something wrong with my browser at home...I noticed I cannot use my spell checker, it says not connected to google server, check internet connection.... I closed the brower reopened expats and tried again, same thing occured though th epost was submitted. Some sneaky bug on my IE browser.....it's bloody useless these days. Oh well i voted wth another machine today!

ChrisCH · Post by **ChrisCH** » Sat, 28 Jan 2012 2:01 pm

Well, I just found this thread I started a year ago. I moved to Singapore in September without a job (following the wife who was placed here by here European employer). So I had an intensive job hunt and can comment on my own original question: There are countless of headhunters and about 90% are a complete waste of time. I was in touch with many and found exactly two who had a professional attitude, the right customers for my profile and the common sense that I would work with them. Not two agencies, two individual persons there... so overall would I recommend to search on your own instead.
If you are new here like me do you obviously not have the network, so you need to go the extra mile and simply write a lot of applications. I did and found a decent job withing few weeks. Overall is the job market here way better than anywhere in Europe. However, the applications I wrote when I was not in the country yet were a complete waste of time as I got absolutely zero feedback from companies and a "call us when you are here" from agents. It is a catch22 for anyone who wants to come here...

sweetgazebo · Post by **sweetgazebo** » Sat, 28 Jan 2012 2:43 pm

Completely agree. The most recent was just last Wednesday when I had called up a headhunter and spoken about my fit to a prospective job I'd found via the headhunter's website. When she heard how great a fit I was to the job, she immediately asked to send my CV over. Only for me to follow up with her the following week for her to tell me that she did not have anything for me. Not only that she could not even tell me the job title I was enquiring about when I asked her if she knew which job I'd spoken to her about the week before!

ChrisCH wrote:There are countless of headhunters and about 90% are a complete waste of time. I was in touch with many and found exactly two who had a professional attitude, the right customers for my profile and the common sense that I would work with them. Not two agencies, two individual persons there...

Sir · Post by **Sir** » Sat, 28 Jan 2012 4:35 pm

poll shouldnt have a 'haven't a clue' option

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