Whats the story with Singapore Recruiters!!!???

[zzm9980]

This is a rough time of the year. In both HK and SG, you have bonuses paid around Chinese NY, along with 13 month this month. Companies know this and don't expect to find quality candidates until after CNY.

I'm trying to fill a position in Singapore (quality role, north of $10k/month as you said) and my HR department basically told me no one is seriously looking (on either side of the fence) until after CNY.

I'm thinking that the assumption is anyone looking right now must not be 'quality' because 'quality' will be getting a good bonus for CNY and wouldn't want to leave before that. Yes, I realize this is quite myopic (as not every company pays a bonus around CNY), but think of it from a local's perspective who's only worked for a local company with policies like this. This is who fills the HR departments even at MNCs here. (Sorry SMS! Exception for you of course )

[Wd40]

This is a rough time of the year. In both HK and SG, you have bonuses paid around Chinese NY, along with 13 month this month. Companies know this and don't expect to find quality candidates until after CNY.

I'm trying to fill a position in Singapore (quality role, north of $10k/month as you said) and my HR department basically told me no one is seriously looking (on either side of the fence) until after CNY.

I'm thinking that the assumption is anyone looking right now must not be 'quality' because 'quality' will be getting a good bonus for CNY and wouldn't want to leave before that. Yes, I realize this is quite myopic (as not every company pays a bonus around CNY), but think of it from a local's perspective who's only worked for a local company with policies like this. This is who fills the HR departments even at MNCs here. (Sorry SMS! Exception for you of course )

There are couple of exceptions to this:
The person looking for a job is quality but his role is may be becoming redundant. This is especially true in banking.
Another reason, banks dont give out lots of bonuses these days anyways. So many people wouldn't mind losing the 1/2 month - 1 month bonus, if they can get a new job with a hike that takes care of the loss in bonus.

[zzm9980]

This is a rough time of the year. In both HK and SG, you have bonuses paid around Chinese NY, along with 13 month this month. Companies know this and don't expect to find quality candidates until after CNY.

I'm trying to fill a position in Singapore (quality role, north of $10k/month as you said) and my HR department basically told me no one is seriously looking (on either side of the fence) until after CNY.

I'm thinking that the assumption is anyone looking right now must not be 'quality' because 'quality' will be getting a good bonus for CNY and wouldn't want to leave before that. Yes, I realize this is quite myopic (as not every company pays a bonus around CNY), but think of it from a local's perspective who's only worked for a local company with policies like this. This is who fills the HR departments even at MNCs here. (Sorry SMS! Exception for you of course )

There are couple of exceptions to this:
The person looking for a job is quality but his role is may be becoming redundant. This is especially true in banking.
Another reason, banks dont give out lots of bonuses these days anyways. So many people wouldn't mind losing the 1/2 month - 1 month bonus, if they can get a new job with a hike that takes care of the loss in bonus.

You're stating the reality; I'm just stating what prevailing mis-guided assumptions might be amongst HR groups.

[ts1978]

My experience with recruiters in Singapore is like so many other things in Singapore:

1) Straight-forward, known quantity type roles they do a great job.

2) Roles requiring significant creativity or rule-bending (both in finding/placing applicants) is a lost cause.

I recently went through a job change too, with two recruitment agencies. Both tried to be very helpful: each organized a lunch and tried to understand my skills and what I was looking for. But the roles they actually proposed afterwards were really (REALLY) far off base.

My fatal flaw with recruiters was falling into category (2) above. Maybe that's the problem for the OP too?

In the end a LinkedIn job ad was all it took to find my new role.