Indeed it was. How I wish those days would return but lets face it they won't.
Anyone who disagrees go and take a reality check.
The recruitment agencies and HR divisions of companies here are ruthless, rude, careless (" We dont appear to have received your CV sir, can you send or e-mail us another one ? - sound familiar 
!! ") , insensitive, incompetent and unprofessional to say the least. Just a bunch of tossers and would not cut it in the Uk or US.
The scary thing is that these foreign guys and girls flooding into Singapore (especially from China and Phillippines) are actually very good and talented at what they do. The big thing the PRC Chinese and Malay Chinese have over most of us is they speak mandarin as well as English and almost all jobs in Straits times are asking for that skill.
Many white folk will scoff at this and take a pompous colonial attitude that because Asians have brown or yellow skin then they are useless at their jobs and need a 'big white chief' to show them what to do and how to think !!! well that is not true. They are teaching us mate !
Nowadays, your typical Asian is fully certified, degree qualified (usually from US / UK universities) adaptable, widely experienced, many with some overseas experience and ultra hard working.
To top it off will work for low wages often doing overtime and Saturday work as part of the contract.
I believe as soon as an agency sees Filipino or Thai or Indian on a CV they sit up and when they see a white surname on a CV it goes in the bin as they know a white employee will want more than $1500/month
At the bottom of many job ads they now say 'PRC citizens are encouraged to apply' which means they want a cheap hire and will only pay 800 to 1500 bucks a month for the job and that is for a fully qualified and experienced professional guy.
This place sucks.
The UK emp web sites are overflowing with well paid jobs so we are hot-footing it out of this place like most. Its scary.
This has been the most expensive bit of sunshine I ever had.
