Canadian accountant trying to get to Singapore

[Nakeele]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering how difficult it would be for me and my wife to get a working visa in Singapore.
A bit of background:

Canadian (dual citizenship with a European country), 34 years old, speaks English and French, accountant (CGA, ACCA, CAIA designations), 7 years of experience in financial accounting/reporting in manufacturing and finance (private equity mainly).

My wife: Canadian (dual citizenship with a European country), 34 years old, speaks English and French, researcher in linguistics (Phd holder), 5 years of experience.

I don't really know the steps to undertake to get a visa or how difficult it is. From the sound of things, it's pretty difficult but worth a try.

Any insight on job tips/salary/life in general would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Nakeele

[Nakeele]

No one working in finance/accounting who can give even a remote idea?

[dorien]

All I can tell you is you need a job first, then the work visa will be organised by your new employer. I have no idea about jobs in your area, aren't there any head hunters you can ask?

[Nakeele]

it's a good question. I'll send a couple of headhunters an email to test the waters and see.

Thanks!

[Honestly?]

wE HAVE PLENTY OF ACCOUNTANTS HERE IN SINGAPORE. wHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT YOU?

For starters, he is able to use caps lock on his computer the right way, you don't!

[a]

reslut of my free style euopean education mate/

[A Foreign Accountant]

The Singaporean accountants have a lot of paper qualifications and can do the job so long as it involves joining the dots and following the rule book closely.  In terms of interpretation of the numbers or business input they are fairly weak, even the senior ones.

Nevertheless, it is a pretty saturated market and your best bet would be to apply to a Canadian company with ops in Singapore or, even better, to a French company with operations in Singapore where your facility with the French language can be an advantage. 

[bean counters]

FYI, for Singapore-based companies, all the Singapore-based head hunting firms always prefer to hire Singaporean accountants for all levels of accounting positions. This is because Singaporean accountants are known to be honest and dependable in doing their jobs.

[To Foreign Accountant]

Maybe you shuld have your EP cancelled. You obviously cannot join the dots, ie never offend your host dumb ass.
 

[A Foreign Accountant]

FYI, for Singapore-based companies, all the Singapore-based head hunting firms always prefer to hire Singaporean accountants for all levels of accounting positions. This is because Singaporean accountants are known to be honest and dependable in doing their jobs.

The MNC's are full of foreign accountants whose accommodation allowances alone are more than the gross package of the average Singaporean accountant.  You could argue that the MNC's are stupid to pay so much for the foreign accountants but, maybe, you should also wonder if the MNC's got to be big and profitable by being stupid.  Surely, they wouldn't want to overpay for something that they could get cheaper locally.

The answer is the lack of adequate analytical skills in the locally-produced variety.  I am sorry if "bean counter" found this offensive but that doesn't make it any less true.

[It sounds like...]

...you just decided you want to come live and work in Singapore?

Any particular reason why?  My company sent me here and they pay me well for the job they sent me to do.  If you decided to come here - in other words you want Singapore, Singapore didn't come looking for you, it means you are going to have to settle in terms of pay since you are not in a rare field and you are not being internally transferred.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

[foreign accountants]

basically, the only MNCs that hire so called foreign accountants are the Japanese companies which have their nationals doing the accounting jobs.