Engineering jobs - HELP

[wannamove]

Hi everyone
This is my first stop here! My company has offered me a transfer to the Singapore office and I am very excited. My husband now needs to find a job. He is a structural engineer with 10 yrs experience. He has been calling recruiters and applying online but it is not going anywhere.
Any suggestions what we need to do to get a job?

Recommendations, suggestions please


TIA

[sundaymorningstaple]

What kind of structural engineer? Building? Oil/Petro/Chem/Pharm? Onshore/Offshore? Civils? Tunneling?

Meinhardt comes to mind if he's got project management experience.

[wannamove]

Oil/Gas Onshore for 5 yrs
High rise buildings for 5 yrs

He has been talking to recruiters and they want him to come over for face-to-face interviews but have no confirmed interviews.

Does it make sense to spend 2000 USD and fly to Singapore? Will it help if he spends a few days in Singapore and meet headhunters personally?

Thanks

[sundaymorningstaple]

If it's just the recruiters I'd be hesitant. However, if it's the company then I'd try to set up a video conference via Skype or some such. Getting a teleconference and using that as phase one and then if they are still interested they should be willing to spring for the cost of the trip. Otherwise, it would always be wise to do an exploratory trip here anyway before the actual move. He could try to set something up that way.

[beppi]

The majority of jobs, and certainly all that are customer-facing, require a face-to-face interview. Singapore employers are generally unwilling to fly anybody in for this.
In addition, your husband's lack of a suitable permit to work in Singapore puts him at the bottom of the stack in any case.

I think the best advice is you bring him over as dependant (on a DP), apply for an LoC (Letter of Consent) from MoM (Ministry of Manpower) and let him start the jobsearch then.
SMS will certainly be able to advise further on this path.

[ecureilx]

Oil/Gas Onshore for 5 yrs
High rise buildings for 5 yrs

He has been talking to recruiters and they want him to come over for face-to-face interviews but have no confirmed interviews.

Does it make sense to spend 2000 USD and fly to Singapore? Will it help if he spends a few days in Singapore and meet headhunters personally?

Thanks

he could start off with Macdermott, Halliburton, FW .. etc. and the like who are doing similar EPC projects .. he could get in sooner, if he has clean credentials ..

[revhappy]

I have no info about the oil/gas or construction industry, but from the other replies I can imagine that there are jobs available. What you need to consider is what the demand/supply situation is in those industries, in terms of labor and are locals easily available to fill the jobs.

Since your job is assured and thats the main motivation for the move, you need to consider, how important it is for your husband to get an equally good or better job, than his current one. Will he be able to stay jobless for like 5-6 months?

Those are the questions you need to ask yourself before making the move.

When is your company actually going to move you here? If you still have quite a long time to go, like 6 months, then may be worth for your husband to come over and do some search here, if not just come over together and then your husband will have time to look for a job.

If your husband comes over as your dependant on the dependant pass then employers can apply for an LoC(Letter of Consent) and he can work without even needing an EP.

[sundaymorningstaple]

The majority of jobs, and certainly all that are customer-facing, require a face-to-face interview. Singapore employers are generally unwilling to fly anybody in for this.
In addition, your husband's lack of a suitable permit to work in Singapore puts him at the bottom of the stack in any case.

I think the best advice is you bring him over as dependant (on a DP), apply for an LoC (Letter of Consent) from MoM (Ministry of Manpower) and let him start the jobsearch then.
SMS will certainly be able to advise further on this path.

He cannot apply for a LoC. Only the employer can. And it's only good for that employer. I wouldn't advise him to go that route as he will only get screwed by the hiring company as they will try to cut his salary to somewhere near local salaries. Not a win-win situation. But, yeah, if he cannot come here on an exploratory trip (both of you should do this and give yourselves at least a month or two - you should be able to get 90 visas on arrival) you should apply for a dependent's pass for him. This is provided that the wherewithal to survive on a single income is sustainable if worse comes to worse. But by doing an exploratory trip you all will have an idea of the probabilities of how long he might have to search. If he's open to travel in the region, his odds are greatly multiplied in the O&G sector.

sms

[wannamove]

There is one company that wants a f2f interview but they are not ready to pay for travel. They are not open for a skype or phone interview.
But we are still thinking about an exploratory trip and a talk with recruiters we have been in touch over the phone

Thanks

If it's just the recruiters I'd be hesitant. However, if it's the company then I'd try to set up a video conference via Skype or some such. Getting a teleconference and using that as phase one and then if they are still interested they should be willing to spring for the cost of the trip. Otherwise, it would always be wise to do an exploratory trip here anyway before the actual move. He could try to set something up that way.

[wannamove]

Thanks - but we are really not ready to go down that route. My company does not want me to move till end of yr so we have quite some time to search for a job for my husband
thanks again

The majority of jobs, and certainly all that are customer-facing, require a face-to-face interview. Singapore employers are generally unwilling to fly anybody in for this.
In addition, your husband's lack of a suitable permit to work in Singapore puts him at the bottom of the stack in any case.

I think the best advice is you bring him over as dependant (on a DP), apply for an LoC (Letter of Consent) from MoM (Ministry of Manpower) and let him start the jobsearch then.
SMS will certainly be able to advise further on this path.

[wannamove]

My husband is okie with travel 50% of the time but beyond recruiters who are not really helpful what works in Singapore?
Any suggestions

Thanks

The majority of jobs, and certainly all that are customer-facing, require a face-to-face interview. Singapore employers are generally unwilling to fly anybody in for this.
In addition, your husband's lack of a suitable permit to work in Singapore puts him at the bottom of the stack in any case.

I think the best advice is you bring him over as dependant (on a DP), apply for an LoC (Letter of Consent) from MoM (Ministry of Manpower) and let him start the jobsearch then.
SMS will certainly be able to advise further on this path.

He cannot apply for a LoC. Only the employer can. And it's only good for that employer. I wouldn't advise him to go that route as he will only get screwed by the hiring company as they will try to cut his salary to somewhere near local salaries. Not a win-win situation. But, yeah, if he cannot come here on an exploratory trip (both of you should do this and give yourselves at least a month or two - you should be able to get 90 visas on arrival) you should apply for a dependent's pass for him. This is provided that the wherewithal to survive on a single income is sustainable if worse comes to worse. But by doing an exploratory trip you all will have an idea of the probabilities of how long he might have to search. If he's open to travel in the region, his odds are greatly multiplied in the O&G sector.

sms

[sundaymorningstaple]

Almost all the major construction companies that he would be comfortable with are MNC's. Most of these MNC's do the bulk of their hiring from their main offices. What I would suggest is contacting headhunters in Houston. Maybe Strong Eagle (the other moderator) can give you some names there as I can't, for the life of me, remember a couple of contacts I had there years ago. But there are a couple of good recruiters there who do placements for positions here in Asia (in fact, world wide).

Try this place as well (It's a British organization but recruiters in his line who list there are world wide).

http://www.expatnetwork.com/

Otherwise, a couple of night down on Clark or Robertson Quays will probably find him talking to either financial people or Engineers or both. Good way to start a network.

Good Luck.

sms

[wannamove]

Thanks so much! I have been thinking in similar lines. We are currently meeting up with local recruiters who specialize in Asia-Pacific placements. Hopefully that will lead us down the right way.

Meanwhile we are still hoping to come to Singapore and meet a few people next month.

Hopefully we will find something

Thanks for all your help.

Almost all the major construction companies that he would be comfortable with are MNC's. Most of these MNC's do the bulk of their hiring from their main offices. What I would suggest is contacting headhunters in Houston. Maybe Strong Eagle (the other moderator) can give you some names there as I can't, for the life of me, remember a couple of contacts I had there years ago. But there are a couple of good recruiters there who do placements for positions here in Asia (in fact, world wide).

Try this place as well (It's a British organization but recruiters in his line who list there are world wide).

http://www.expatnetwork.com/

Otherwise, a couple of night down on Clark or Robertson Quays will probably find him talking to either financial people or Engineers or both. Good way to start a network.

Good Luck.

sms