[This article was sent to the May 1st Organizer and CC-ed to TheRealSingapore.com]
I refer to your Hong Lim Park Protest on 1 May.
I also heard news about how some foreigners were asked to resign after their S-Passes were not renewed in the private sector.
I have a friend working as a pharmacist in Guardian Pharmacy. She also said that a few Pinoys were asked to resign as pharmacists after their S-Passes were not renewed.
Many people have said that if foreigners leave tomorrow, there will be more vacancies and companies in the private sector will start hiring locals especially in the IT, hospitality and healthcare sector.
I am already in my 30s. Somehow, I feel that this is not true.
As the Chinese saying goes, “At 30, one stand firms”. For unemployed PMETs or others who wish to change their career, this may not entirely be true.
When you are a fresh graduate, you have better job opportunities and HR will not grill you so much on why you wish to leave your present job because you have no previous job experience in the first place.
When I was a fresh graduate, I applied to many hospital laboratories as I specialise in biomedical sciences. I realised that this industry has rampant discrimination practices that were not addressed by HR.
For example, many private hospital laboratories in Parkway and even public hospitals are staffed by Pinoys. The reason being that running a laboratory has high operating costs – deep freezer and liquid nitrogen and biological reagents cost a bomb when they operate 24 hours.
In polyclinics, many medical technologists are staffed by females as many patients prefer females to extract blood from them.
For me, as I had a tuition loan to pay back to CPF – I have used my father’s CPF monies to fund my university education, I have to find a job quickly so that CPF would stop sending me red warning letters.
After getting shot down by hospitals, I found a job that is totally out of my field. It was an admin position and salary was only S$2000 a month in a non-profit organisation. At least CPF would now get off my back.
During my working years, I applied to some new hospitals that were up-and-coming such as Khoo Teck Phuat hospital and Private Hospitals such as Novena Parkway Hospital.
By then, I was already 30 years old. I was shortlisted for a Khoo Teck Phuat hospital interview but HR obviously grilled me why I didn’t start my career in the laboratory as a fresh graduate.
I was also shortlisted for an interview in National Parks Board. The HR lady asked me why I choose to go back to health / life sciences when in actual fact, I cannot even find a job that is in my interest when I graduated. It was only when an exisitng employee resigns then the position will be opened up for grabs.
To HR, it is highly implausible that at age 30, one would make a change in career in a totally different field. At age 30, HR will also be hesitant to employ a matured employee and risk creating tension with a younger workforce.
My mother, being naive, was optimistic that several new hospitals coming up soon would mean more job opportunities for me.
She doesn’t seem to realise that with age, there is a law of diminishing returns in a person’s market value.
There was one time, I accompanied her to IRAS at Newton to trash out my father’s taxes. The IRAS officer at Level 1 was very young and definitely a fresh graduate.
At the end of the discussion, I asked her if majority of the IRAS tax officers started their careers as fresh graduates in their 20s. She actually replied that most of them were fresh graduates when they joined IRAS. Even for those with working experiences, they joined IRAS when they were below 30 years old. Once you are above 30, HR will expect the job applicant to go for senior positions such as Director level.
That, to me, is already a form of age discrimination.
To my mother, I hope she should understand by now why I have problem getting a steady job – when I am only 30 years old.
Edmund