Computer Programmer in Despair........

[stephan_dasilva]

I came to Singapore last July and I was hoping to land a good job here as a Computer Programmer in par with what I had in Netherlands.  I was earning about $7000 a month previously but I couldn't find a job that would pay even half of that here.

I got a job sometime in October and was promised a pay of $3000 but they cut it in less than 3 months with a lot of bad excuses.  The working atmosphere was so bad that I got pretty stressed out just thinking of going to work.  It's not a matter of the colleagues but the bosses who had no respect for their workers.  There wasn't a month that went by without colleagues quiting.  Its totally a different environment which I was used to back in Netherlands where the company practiced open concept amongst workers where talking to one another was easy.

I quit the job after working about 4 months as I see no prospects in it at all.  Now I'm on Social Visit Pass till September and struggling to find a new job.  

I was resigned to the fact that I may not be able to get more than $2500 a month.  I'm married to a Singaporean and I worry that I have to leave if I can't get a job soon.

She has a daughter from a previous marriage and moving to Holland might put unneccesary stress on her 7 years old daughter who is close to her father.  So we're in a dilemma.

So any tips or any job openings are welcome.  I have a Masters Degree in Computer Science with 6 years of experience.  What would the proper salary be for that here?

My e-mail is : stephan_dasilva@yahoo.co.uk

[Been There]

I had the same demise, but keep on applying. Singapore is still in Technical Recession, with big companies retrenching IT staff to reduce operation costs. There are no new projects. Sales people can't sell products due to travel advisories (SARS). Tourism in SG has gone down, etc. You have to think at the business side of it so you won't feel depressed. Thinks of it as a bad nightmare, and you are not yet awake!!!

Good Luck! Keep on trying to apply for IT jobs. If you are married to a Singaporean, she can sponsor you to get your PR. There's a "Family-Relationship" category for PR Application. Don't think about the "Skilled-Independent" category at the moment.

[ITgrad]

I'm a Singaporean, graduated with an IT degree a few years back, have 5 years of working experience, all of which are software development in C++, java, asp, perl. I stopped work 2 years ago to move abroad with my foreign husband and now I can't even get an interview for an job in Singapore.  I've never seen the IT industry this bad and it never cease to amaze me when I read about some high school kid still aspiring to go into computing.

[I T forver!]

Computer Science is not just programming for businesses/corporates.
That is just the tip of the iceberg.
Computer Science  is an area so vast; eg: designing the navigation system of any air/sea crafts/war missiles, functionalities of high-tech medial equipements, elevators, automobiles, etc...
Almost everything in our modern life requires computerisation!

[But]

You must know the business as well. Comp Sc has it's industries and one cannot master them all.

Unless what you mean is system administration which is very generic (i.e. Email System, Network, etc.).

Software engineering is another huge field.