Should i try to apply for a job? - What are the requirements to do it?

[Travel-Andy]

Hello people!

At first this site and the message board is very informative! It already helped me a lot to answer many of my questions!

Now a short description about my situation and my plan.
Im german, 26 years old and i traveled the last 14 month:

8 month Australia
2 month New Zealand
3 days Singapore
3 days Malaysia
5 weeks Thailand
4 weeks Laos
3 weeks Philippines

Im back home in my country since two weeks but i cannot really enjoy it anymore. I think i changed myself too much and I really wanna go back to South-East-Asia and stay there for a while.
Why Singapore?

From all the Asian capitals and big cities i liked Singapore the most! I think its the city where it is most convenient to live and work.

My background and a short cv:

2001 - 2004 Education as Specialized Computer Scientist (System Integration)
2004 - 2009 Working as a System Administrator in different companies
2005 - 2009 Education as a Certified Computer Scientist (Avocational on an evening school)
2009 - 2010 Alternative Civilian Service at a school for mind disabled children
2010 - 2011 My backpacking trip

I never studied or have any diploma, i just have two educations and both of these are probably not international approved as well as around 5 years of working experience.
I already checked some online job exchanges and i found some job offers who fit with my experiences

My problems and compunctions:

- Thanks to the trip my English is much better than before but definitely not perfect (especially i do have a lack of vocabulary)
- Because of my trip i don't have money left - I get unemployment compensation and can stay for free with my parents but don't have any savings anymore

Do you think its worth to try to apply for jobs in Singapore?

Is it enough to write an English application and translate my certifications myself? Or should i just send an application without and certifications but tell them i can send official translated certifications if desired. I for sure dont have any work permit, do i have to mention these things in an application?
Do you have other tips for applying for jobs?

Thank you for any help! 

[Kafka]

Sorry but you don't stand a chance for the simple reason that you are not particularly needed here... As you have read on this board, foreigners getting a job here have either an industry experience, particular technical or management skills... or are very cheap (Indians, Philippinos, ...)
You don't seem to have any of these... All the more that you are in IT, an area in which there are plenty of cheap resources available in the region...
So, frankly, I don't see why anybody would hire you (not to mention you are not in Singapore physically).
As already recommended to other posters in a similar situation, gain some experience in your home country and try to get your employer to transfer you here in the local subsidiary in a couple of years.

[Listen to that guy]

Kafka said everything I would say about you working in Singapore.

[No chance]

You don't have any decent paper qualifications or good work experience, and you've spent the last 14 months bumming around the world.

Your chances of getting work are zero.

Of all the people who've posted here asking about their chances of working in Singapore, you are the least likely!

[Travel-Andy]

Thx for all the responses!

Yeah i thought the same that my chances are not very high...
Anyway i think i try to apply for some jobs and see what happens.
I dont have anything to loose! 

[Mammarian]

<<I dont have anything to loose!>>

You do if you cant distinguish between loose and lose

[Travel-Andy]

Ok its lose! Its a spelling mistake and this this is a message board so mistakes can happen!
Anyway i will try it and let you know what the results are! 
"to give up" is not existing in my word pool!

[Grouty]

"to give up" is not existing in my word pool!

I think you mean vocabulary

There are thousands of IT workers in ASEAN and the sub continent with at least one degree and more certifications than you can shake a stick at willing to work for less than £4000.  Unless you have a niche skill and experience - and you dont from the information you posted - then you really dont stand a chance.  Stay where you are and get some proper experience and proper certifications.  Employers in Singapore will not understand why you have been wandering around the world for the last 14 months doing nothing, or working with disadvantaged kids and it will count against you.  This is a country where IT workers are expected to work 24 hours a day without any extra compensation or recognition day after day.  There is no employment protection like you have in Germany, you can be fired at the drop of a hat, no laws exist that protect employees.  Its one thing to arrive here on holiday, its another to work here.  Concentrate your efforts on gaining experience and knowledge where you are.

[mummy dearest]

Poor Andy! I'm glad I'm not your mummy! Dear me, 26 years old with no diploma's, no job, on the dole and still living with your parents.
Just get on with it, you lazy sod.

[Travel-Andy]

@ Grouty:

Maybe they will not understand that i traveled the last 14 month without working but i had to do the "Alternative Civilian Service" and work with disabled kids! Its a law and everybody here has to do that once in their life!
It was a great experience and the same with my trip i gained and improved a lot of soft-skills which are at least as important as the working-skills. 

@ mummy dearest:

Lol - its just a temporary solution that i live with my parents again! Believe me i can be on my own... Who can say for himself being 26 and already worked almost 9 years. Oh and trust me spending 4 years going to school almost every evening while having a 50h+ job isnt something everybody does! 
All of my friends who went to uni had loads of more free time than me and they didnt earn a penny!
So dont tell me im lazy! 

God i hope not everybody in Singapore is as pessimistic as you are! 
Maybe i just wanna live there and i dont care about any non existing employment protection aso.

[me?]

Sorry but you don't stand a chance for the simple reason that you are not particularly needed here... As you have read on this board, foreigners getting a job here have either an industry experience, particular technical or management skills... or are very cheap (Indians, Philippinos, ...)
You don't seem to have any of these... All the more that you are in IT, an area in which there are plenty of cheap resources available in the region...
So, frankly, I don't see why anybody would hire you (not to mention you are not in Singapore physically).
As already recommended to other posters in a similar situation, gain some experience in your home country and try to get your employer to transfer you here in the local subsidiary in a couple of years.

What about construction workers at managerial level? I have a degree from UK in Construction Management with overseas experience through the military, im 25. Currently just started on a £31m project which is due to finish in December here in London. Am I going to get beat by Bengal boys or should I just emigrate to my 'home' country China for good? sick of this place, been here for 14 years of my 25 years of life

[2 replies]

To Travel Andy - Every Singaporean male has to do national service also.  But, unlike DE, they have no soft option to go play around like you did.  They are all soldiers, as you should have been.  So, you would lose respect there - if you do apply for a job here just don't mention national service at all.

To the guy above - wow, a Brit emigrating to China.  Would that be a first?  Might be the start of a trend...

[Travel-Andy]

Here its completely different way! Everybody knows that the national service is totally useless and the civil service is the only way to support the community!
"Playing around"  - do the job i did for just one day and you will know how serious and hard it is!

[Sceptic]

To the OP:
Even in the unlikely event that you get a job offer, you would not get an EP (=the higher class of work visa). All EP categories except the highest (which requires over S$8000/month salary - that is management level) require a university degree. The lower wor visa categories, S-Pass and WP, earn below S$2000/month and I guess you won't be temted by that (given that even the smallest apartment costs over S$2000/month rent now).
I am sorry to say, but you better give up this dream and try again in five years or so, when you have solid work experience and some skills employers really need - or a degree.

[anon]

Singapore welcomes foreign talent! As long as you have a pulse you are in! And the SPGs will lurve u long time.