What are your experiences with hiring NUS, NTU and SMU grads?

[Swindon]

Having been in the country for some years, I noticed that much conversation on recruitment revolves around local and foreign grads. As the company that I manage spends considerably on staff development, naturally recruitment is pretty full on. The HR director commissioned a study and also tracked candidates applying for jobs. The results differed greatly from the above results that Hey Hey mentions. These were our findings

- results from local grads especially from NUS were much better than locals with foreign qualifications in the main.
- locals with foreign qualifications who had better A level results actually went on to work in the country that they graduated from before returning to Singapore
- what was consistent was that good performers from local and overseas Unis had high grades in A levels
- my company since 1998 applies 2 criteria - both A and Uni results must be good. It helps cull the western trained street smart kid. Using this criteria, the successful candidates inevitably come from NUS, UK better Unis and US Ivy league.
- we also ended up taking locals ( not by design but by qualifications and interview results)

Since that study and the results of the tracking, the company does not care about your background or where you studied, just the academic results for both A & Uni, interview performance and experience that you bring. However PR came from OZ and Legal came from States, recruited directly for obvious reasons.

Here is the catch, good locals are hard to get as they get offers from other MNCs or move from one MNCs to another. If ever good locals have an issue - its articulation. 

[good laugh]

thanks for the good laugh!

[unicoi]

To be fair, we need to look at the individual over the long run. We have a tendency to sterotype as human beings and often there is a need to remind ourselves not to associate people with a certain image before giving them a chance. I've worked with exceptional individuals from many races and educational backgrounds and perhaps we need to keep an eye out for these gems.