Thinking of relocating- advice needed

[Christi123]

I am really just after your thoughts and advice.

We are currently living in London and my partner works in I.T. We have a 20 month old daughter. My partner is soon to be made redundant and on Christmas Eve we received the good news that he had been granted his PEP.
We now have the massive decision about whether to make the move to Singapore, something we have wanted to do for sometime. I have a number of questions I am hoping that someone out there will be able to answer.

For the past two months my partner has been registering his interest with a number of recruiters in Singapore, sent emails and applied for roles that appear to be a very good fit for his skillset and experience. However, we've had very little by way of a response thus far. Are the jobs simply not there or is it because we are not currently residing in Singapore?

The plan at present would be to travel out with a view to staying three to four months. My partner would then be going to meet with recruiters and apply for jobs. What would our accommodation options be? We don't really want to be in a hotel with our daughter for an extended time. Are short term lets common and if so can anyone point us in the right direction?

How feasible is it to live across the border and commute in to Singapore? I have read some people base themselves in JB. Is this an option? What would the commute be like? What would the visa situation be?

As we are not married I think I get a long term visit pass??? My daughter will obviously get a dependant visa. Do these have to be applied for before we arrive in Singapore??

Obviously we do not have an unlimited pot of cash. We will have a budget of around 20000-25000 SGD for 3-4 months. Do you think it's possible?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Christy

[excessuk]

December and January are not the best months to search for jobs in Singapore. I would even dare to say that February is not a great month either due to the Chinese new year. When I started my job search a while back I received little to no response from agencies during this time of the year.

I personally found my job from London (haven't relocated yet) but I noticed that many employers gave preference to candidates readily available in Singapore, and rightly so since it's a lot less hassle for them to hire someone local. So I would say that unless you (or your partner for that matter) have a very unique and sought after skill set then you're much more likely to find a job if you're on the ground.

Just do a bit of research in advance and engage all the relevant agencies to get advice about the job market. It's a bit hit and miss and you shouldn't trust all the agencies blindly (at the end of the day they're sales people trying to make a commission), but if you're lucky and determined you'll get some good advice from talking to them.

Best of luck in your search!

[Wd40]

Commuting from JB is a big nono. In fact I don't see how you will be allowed to stay in JB without a residency visa for Malaysia.

My suggestion would be to ask your husband to come over alone and take up a cheaper 1bedder Service Apartment or something and get his feet wet and see if Singapore is really the thing for you. At the moment it seriously isn't the best place to be for an IT guy.

[Christi123]

Wd40 please can you clarify what you mean when you sat its not a good time for an IT guy. Is there any particular reason for this, a general slow down or the season??

Thanks

[zzm9980]

Wd40 please can you clarify what you mean when you sat its not a good time for an IT guy. Is there any particular reason for this, a general slow down or the season??

Thanks

Just his anecdotal observations that the companies in his industry aren't hiring as much. My company (and some others I'm aware of) still are.

[ecureilx]

Wd40 please can you clarify what you mean when you sat its not a good time for an IT guy. Is there any particular reason for this, a general slow down or the season??

Thanks

Just his anecdotal observations that the companies in his industry aren't hiring as much. My company (and some others I'm aware of) still are.

And if I believe the coffee shop chat at a building near to my work place, a big employer has set targets to trim 60% of their IT work force here .. to be completed by Feb !!!

in any case, if you are good, you will be able to secure something.. atleast my agent is always sending me JDs ..

[Wd40]

Wd40 please can you clarify what you mean when you sat its not a good time for an IT guy. Is there any particular reason for this, a general slow down or the season??

Thanks

Sure. There are 2 kinds of IT jobs here, well may be more. But mainly its the captive centres like banks having their IT operations here or pure IT firms that cater to local clients. The latter are neither in large numbers nor do they pay like the way the banks do.

The IT jobs at captive centres of banks are in big trouble as they are cost centers and not revenue centers. Banks are being forced by shareholders and regulators to trim their costs in the new environment, since the financial crises started, where banks have to wind down their capital intensive businesses and drive efficiency.

This has forced them to either move jobs to their other cheaper captive centers like India, Poland etc or completely outsource it to pure software companies like Cognizant, Accenture etc who have again big presence in India.

Now, even if your husband is not from the banking industry, I believe there is lot of supply of talent right now and its keeping salaries depressed.

So unless your husband is really niche, its not the best place to be. In fact UK is better placed to find an IT job than Singapore.

Just to prove it to you quickly. Lets compare Monster UK with Monster Singapore.

www.Monster.co.uk

www.Monster.com.sg

I searched for something as generic as "Java". The UK site returned 1000+ results whereas Singapore site returned only 98.

UK is a place that is not very easy to gain a visa for an Asian at the moment and hence the job market there is mainly the locals or Europeans.

Singapore on the other hand is a cakewalk in terms of getting a visa if a job is available, in IT.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Not a very good analysis. The population of the UK is 62 M while the population of Singapore is 5 M. Now let's see.....

If you do the numbers you will find that the percentage of IT jobs relative to the whole population is identical.

[Wd40]

Not a very good analysis. The population of the UK is 62 M while the population of Singapore is 5 M. Now let's see.....

If you do the numbers you will find that the percentage of IT jobs relative to the whole population is identical.

I agree with you to an extent, but you know something as generic as java returns only 98 results worries me, because when you search for something more specific you will end up with only 4 or 5 results whereas in the uk may be 40-50. I would back myself to compete for those 40-50 positions but to compete for just 4-5 slots is tougher because those positions are not just advertised in Singapore rather a recruiter can easily get someone from India or the peens for a much lower salary and visa wouldn't be too much of a problem unlike the UK.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Not a very good analysis. The population of the UK is 62 M while the population of Singapore is 5 M. Now let's see.....

If you do the numbers you will find that the percentage of IT jobs relative to the whole population is identical.

I agree with you to an extent, but you know something as generic as java returns only 98 results worries me, because when you search for something more specific you will end up with only 4 or 5 results whereas in the uk may be 40-50. I would back myself to compete for those 40-50 positions but to compete for just 4-5 slots is tougher because those positions are not just advertised in Singapore rather a recruiter can easily get someone from India or the peens for a much lower salary and visa wouldn't be too much of a problem unlike the UK.

Is that a fact or just another assumption?