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IT jobs in Singapore for foreigner

Discuss about getting a well paid job or career advancement. Ask about salaries, expat packages, CPF & taxes for expatriate.
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rajagainstthemachine
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Post by rajagainstthemachine » Thu, 21 Feb 2013 1:39 pm

Wd40 wrote:
rajagainstthemachine wrote:The only benefit you get from working in Singapore is Monetary, the R&D power houses and software companies in India do much better quality of work than in Singapore. [ There are exceptions however]

The career growth is better in India than Singapore.
Even that comes at a tradeoff. For eg, if you are a bachelor sharing a room or something or live in a cheapo HDB etc.

For a like to like living style as in India, you will actually struggle with the salary here.

In Singapore what is the median salary? 5k? An IT developer makes how much? 6k? So an IT developer in Singapore is just above average. Also considering foreigners need to rent and rent is huge here, you actually are close to low class just above poverty level for Singapore.

India what is the median income in a city like bangalore? About INR 25,000. Now how much an IT developer can make in Bangalore? easily 100,000++, infact a person getting 6k SGD here can get INR 150,000-180,000 in Bangalore. Thats lavish for Bangalore standards.

So the only reason to come to Singapore is to try and save as much as possible i.e. atleast 2000 SGD a month which is about INR 90,000. With a family here you will struggle and if you have school going kids then heaven forbid.

The only reason I had to come to Singapore was that they closed my department in India and fired everyone else except me.
They gave me 2 choices.
move to Singapore
or
find another department to work in
And since
a.) there weren't any departments with vacancies I couldn't move laterally.
b.) I loved what I was doing in the current job I had, thanks to blindingly stupid management decisions [ by a Singaporean incidentally] my department had a cull and I had to move overseas.

The thing that helped though was I had been coming to Singapore very often as often as 15 days per month in the last 2 years so making the move finding properties settling in was no problem.

I just found the workplace here to be a feudalistic hellhole compared to the other places I've worked in.

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Wd40
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Post by Wd40 » Thu, 21 Feb 2013 6:47 pm

NiceGuy406 wrote:
Wd40 wrote:every Tom, dick and Harry who comes out of college also knows .net or java.
100% correct, JAVA/J2EE is very common skill in india.
what about the chances over there?
Its worse here. Try UK or USA. Singapore is just another off shore development center which doesnt even have the cost benefits that Indian cities have. I wonder why will anyone offshore jobs here anymore. When offshoring started some 10 years ago, 1USD was equal to 2SGD. Now 1 USD = 1.2SGD. The cost benefits have just evaporated.

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Post by ulu ulu » Thu, 21 Feb 2013 8:02 pm

NiceGuy406 wrote: 100% correct, JAVA/J2EE is very common skill in india.
what about the chances over there?
As already pointed out by other posters, plain Java/J2EE application programming is a common skill and unlike to get you a job in any developed economy if you can't find a job in India.

You have to have something that helps you stand apart from crowd. It could be domain knowledge like finance/banking or a technology niche for example big data/nosql these days.

I remember for people in healthcare IT domain there were some industry standards that all providers have to adhere. So knowledge/certification on that can be quite useful.

So if you have something like this, you can command a premium. Otherwise the work you are doing can be done by any junior coder and there is no reason for any company to hire someone expensive.

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Post by NiceGuy406 » Thu, 21 Feb 2013 8:23 pm

if you are in IT field over 5 years , you should be expert in the domain which you are working.

As a Tech Lead you need not do coding , but you have other responsibility to do requirement analysis, design, helping team members, code review , client meetings , internal meetings, resources work allocation, test cases review ,
discussion with BA etc...


Almost 60% of projects developed in common technologies like java .net.

I have domain knowledge of banking,telecom,elearning

Can you please tell me what are other roles in IT sector in large number.
other than
BA, Project Manager, Sales guys ,HR guys will be less in number (less openings than developer,TL).

Tell me Max how many BA's will be in a project?
Last edited by NiceGuy406 on Thu, 21 Feb 2013 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Wd40
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Post by Wd40 » Thu, 21 Feb 2013 9:02 pm

If you want to and have it in you, to go to the US then now is the right time. This year H1B filings start in March. Go to naukri.com and search for H1B and just apply for all companies that are going to file for this year. You never know if you are lucky enough you end up in the land of huge opportunities for IT and your life is settled :)

Just get Singapore out of your mind. Singapore is not the place where you plan and put in efforts to get to. It's a good place if a headhunter hunts you and offers you the moon.

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Post by NiceGuy406 » Thu, 21 Feb 2013 9:18 pm

Wd40 wrote:If you want to and have it in you, to go to the US then now is the right time. This year H1B filings start in March. Go to naukri.com and search for H1B and just apply for all companies that are going to file for this year. You never know if you are lucky enough you end up in the land of huge opportunities for IT and your life is settled :)

Just get Singapore out of your mind. Singapore is not the place where you plan and put in efforts to get to. It's a good place if a headhunter hunts you and offers you the moon.
Thanks a lot dear friend, I have been in US, fremont. still i have L1 visa with me no worries.

US job market is pretty bad i think you don't know that. people there even ready to work 3 months contract job.

I hope you are from India. once again thanks for your advice.

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Post by Wd40 » Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:28 pm

My colleagues in the US are doing just fine. Some got fired but found a job within a week. Contract jobs in US are very common, they have very high billing rates. Even if you have you are jobless for a short while, you can make up during the time when you are employed.

If you think India is bad and US is bad I dont know what to tell you. Good luck man, is all I can say.

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Post by bioshock » Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:36 am

Dear NiceGuy406,


There are actually a lot of IT opportunities in Singapore.

If you are willing to do shift work in the IT department of a big bank in Singapore, you can actually do get a salary of up to SGD $6000 to SGD $7000 per month, if you have around 2- 3 years of relevant working experience.

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Post by NiceGuy406 » Mon, 11 Mar 2013 3:01 am

bioshock wrote:Dear NiceGuy406,


There are actually a lot of IT opportunities in Singapore.

If you are willing to do shift work in the IT department of a big bank in Singapore, you can actually do get a salary of up to SGD $6000 to SGD $7000 per month, if you have around 2- 3 years of relevant working experience.
Dear Bioshock,

Thanks a lot for you Positive feed back.
can you please share me what is the right way to get a job apart from applying jobs through job portals.....

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Mon, 11 Mar 2013 7:01 am

The first way would be by not paying to a newbie who just registered less than 24 hours ago and is posting willy-nilly all over the board and sounding like a local who is pumping up the salary figures just so you will probably ask yourself right out of a job. :-|
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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