6 wks yet no job offer

[tips]

To those of you who are thinking of coming to Singapore to seek employment, I suggest the following:

1) Don't come here cold. Do your homework, line-up companies that are in your industry, get the names of the contact person, call them in your home country beforehand or email them or fax them, then line-up an interview while you are here. It will help you maximise your time here. Otherwise you better just tour and enjoy your trip.

2) If you are already here, get a copy of the ST recruit section on Saturdays and send in your applications. Or call the companies directly, either talk to their HR or better, if you have a contact person, call him/her.

3) Network. Network. Network. Schmooze. Don't come here if you don't know anyone or have no friends, relatives, etc.  Guess that is true for any country you go to unless you're an asylum seeker and even they have a network.

4) Know why you are here. If you are not just a tourist but here to find work, focus on finding work. Give yourself time. 3 weeks is enough only if you did your homework. If you are coming in cold and building from scratch, give yourself at least a year. The good ole days of companies grabbing anyone they can find is over. In case you havent heard, the bubble already burst some years back.

5) Be patient. And you better be able to afford to be patient otherwise, don't even think of coming here. Some companies take their sweet time to hire.

Last advise. Finding work is work especially in an employer's market which it is right now. So you better come here with the right mind set or you will be dissapointed.

Good luck everyone.

[Persevere if you can]

A freind of mine worked here for 5 years and got laid off before 9/11 - it took him 2.5 years to find full time work. Had to restructure the cost base way down and go into basic survival mode - lived off doing lots of project work, scraps - anything which came along to keep the wolves from the door - eventually lady luck smiled.

He didn't have PR so formed a $2 comapny with some flakey business plan which kept him here legally (amazing immigration bought it).

Madness or persistance? I don't really know - most expats would have packed it in after six months and gone elsewhere.

Some guys are lucky and get sent here on juicy terms, others are just lucky - come in on spec and right time, right place or know a freind who swings something for them.

Try see if you can get some project work at low ball rates - do a good job and it starts building some credibility, then network on. Web sites and HHs are a waste of time - blood sweat and tears on the network front to search for the hidden job is the only way, well 80% of the time according to the studies I read.

If you don't have the stomach, perserverence or resources to last six months or more without an income I'd give Singapore a miss and go home. Its an expensive town without an income and cheap accomodation (i.e. freind to stay with on a long term basis).

Good luck - the one thing swinging in your favour now is that times are better - pre-mid 2003 it was really awful.  

[SadTourist]

I definitely agree with the last two post above.  It's a really good thing though it was a planned long vacation for us while job hunting in between.  Don't give your 100% attention to a headhunter.  Most of them won't give you any update which leaves you in the dark.

The problem of sending out resumes from overseas (when you are not in Singapore) is that 99% of the companies won't reply to you at all.  For a whole year while I'm in a company overseas I kept sending out resumes and all, out of around 70, only 2 replied back.

[try it]

sure you can get a job in SG. If you have a personal relationship with the hiring manager, the right skills to suit the role, come in at the right time before other candidates hear about the job, have your employer agree to sponsor an EP, manage to keep the competing candidates at bay.

But what are you doing to make this happen ?  applying to newspaper ads, going on internet job ***, going to head hunters - how can this possibly help ?

Bottom line, as a tourist or whoever you will need to be increadibly well connected, with personal realtionships and perfect timing to understand what vacancies are arising and what people want. Then at the same time be able to sell your skills to meet these needs at the right time.. Phew so it is not easy and this is why it can take 6 to 9 months of heart ounding effort to secure a job in little old singapore.

Oh and I forgot to suggest you make sure you are a suitable age, sex, race and outlook as the potential hiring manager - that will help.

[recruiter]

if your SVP is ending, go direct to the agencies' doostep. if you're lucky, they might have some position available that suits you, and you have the chance to make an impression in case something comes along.

i don't speak for all agencies but unless your skill sets are specifically low in supply, a resume sent from overseas is not likely be given a second look. as someone had said before, why hire foreign when there are better locals?

[wein]

u will job if u are so persistent--in which field u are looking for job?why not cut rent etc expenditure until u get job--HDB 1B or 2B is 1100?did u have to sign contract to live there?