construction workers needed

[construction]

Im 25, Chinese by etnicity and British by nationality, been in UK for 14 years of my 25 years of life. Degree in Construction Management from an ok-ish uni. Am I going to get beat by Indian construction workers for jobs in Singapore? Can speak some Mandarin and Malay is very good.

I have just started working on a £31m project but is due to finish in Dec.

[No Construction]

Industry knowledge myself but with qualifications and some language skills my own opinion would be you have a chance.

I see plenty of Indian construction workers about but they tend to be low level - I usually see a lot of ethnic Chinese Engineers though.

And yes rates are being forced down in many industries by cheap labour - including from the sub-continent. A pal was recently saying his daily rate in IT was 750 GBP 3 years ago and its down to 350 GBP now due to cheaper Indian IT workers. Their CV's can be works of art believe me  - fake art :-)

Indians will also apply for every job - even if they are not eligible - know someone in UK IT Industry and he gets hundreds of CV's from guys applying for jobs even when it says UK/EU only - needs to delete about 50% of emails after reading as far as he needs to but it still takes time. Started to filter on names only now so many eligible candidates are probably never looked at

[construction]

Industry knowledge myself but with qualifications and some language skills my own opinion would be you have a chance.

I see plenty of Indian construction workers about but they tend to be low level - I usually see a lot of ethnic Chinese Engineers though.

And yes rates are being forced down in many industries by cheap labour - including from the sub-continent. A pal was recently saying his daily rate in IT was 750 GBP 3 years ago and its down to 350 GBP now due to cheaper Indian IT workers. Their CV's can be works of art believe me  - fake art :-)

Indians will also apply for every job - even if they are not eligible - know someone in UK IT Industry and he gets hundreds of CV's from guys applying for jobs even when it says UK/EU only - needs to delete about 50% of emails after reading as far as he needs to but it still takes time. Started to filter on names only now so many eligible candidates are probably never looked at

Yea I have heard that Indians are moving abroad in their masses in search of jobs, then again there are a LOT of Indians..

Thanks for your honest opinion, I am still considering the move as I want a change of lifestyle etc. Singapore is just one option from the table.

[cmdsea]

Your current competition would come more from displaced expats spreading out from Dubai and the UAE bagging jobs here, rather than India I think.

There is actually a dearth of mid to senior level construction industry talent here, basically 99% of the locals pursuing a degree will be doing either business or marketing. THey all want to wear shirts and ties and sit in air-con offices rather than be sweating their nuts off building them.! its shunned as a career so correspondingly its (relatively) highly paid and still has plenty of opportunities.

Pay rates are around the same as the UK or slightly better, the big gain is on tax, my tax bill is around what i would pay in NI back home, before you even started to factor in the tax bill. On the downside accommodation is expensive, but given your age, if you dont mind sharing an apartment initially then its manageable. IF you come on a contract basis you might get an accommodation allowance thrown in if its just for one job, but unfortunately the traditional expat package is getting harder to find these days, particularly with the local and Korean firms, you might get lucky with one of the big multinationals or Jap firms though.

[construction]

Your current competition would come more from displaced expats spreading out from Dubai and the UAE bagging jobs here, rather than India I think.

There is actually a dearth of mid to senior level construction industry talent here, basically 99% of the locals pursuing a degree will be doing either business or marketing. THey all want to wear shirts and ties and sit in air-con offices rather than be sweating their nuts off building them.! its shunned as a career so correspondingly its (relatively) highly paid and still has plenty of opportunities.

Pay rates are around the same as the UK or slightly better, the big gain is on tax, my tax bill is around what i would pay in NI back home, before you even started to factor in the tax bill. On the downside accommodation is expensive, but given your age, if you dont mind sharing an apartment initially then its manageable. IF you come on a contract basis you might get an accommodation allowance thrown in if its just for one job, but unfortunately the traditional expat package is getting harder to find these days, particularly with the local and Korean firms, you might get lucky with one of the big multinationals or Jap firms though.

Thanks for the feedback mate, I have many critical decisions to make and they all aint easy, ranging from PhD (see other post) to moving abroad and trying out something new. I dont think I will be particularly fussy about expat package or local package, it will be nice to have things paid for you but thats not the top of the agenda for me. As for competitions, I completely agree with that, many construction professionals lost their jobs in the Middle East during the financial crisis and we are not out of th woods yet! And I have heard that young Singaporeans men shuns the construction industry as it is unpleasant, but it is a man's game and requires a certain mindset. A friend asked me about women in construction, I told her we have one on site...and she is the cleaner!!

Thanks again for the post.