Dear Gilbert,
Thanks for your prompt response.
I was dismayed to find that position taken up, oh well, if Mr. Daniel chooses to expand his presence and business in Cambodia I am always readily available – at the drop of a hat I would leave Qatar!
I choose to leave Qatar because although the money is good and the pay tax-free, as I said expats are 2nd class citizens with little or chance of career progression or advancement.
The longer I stay here, the more stagnated I will become, and there is also no job security due to Qatarization policy. If I stay here till I am 40, I can be sure I will not have a job back in SG.
Did you know that there is a sponsership system here - expats are all sponsored by either a local Qatari or Company. If you leave your job, the company terminates your sponsorship and you have to leave the country immediately, thats it.
No job hopping, no deadweights, pulling strings, hanging around and applying for different visas after that.
I am truly grateful that you would like to publish my mail in your website, You are very welcome to do so, anything to create awareness for our fellow PMETs that our people are being shortchanged in our own Motherland!
And yes I am still based in Doha.
One more detail for you to publish, if you wish:-
I believe the system in Singapore, and the situation it has evolved to is caused at the root by the government flawed policies such as failure to protect key positions for Singaporeans in key industries.
We very badly need a “Singaporeanization” policy.
Only now the labour minister is mentioning the need for a “local talent pipeline”, when it should have been the case all along!
And the government, as the major employer in Singapore really doesn’t have any excuse to fill government agencies and semi-government organisatons with FTs to cut labour costs and increase shareholder value. The government’s capitalist AGENDA is not aligned, and not meant to align with the labour’s cause.
And the union? Don’t even get me started…
As you know 99% of the time, and in my own experience, its not what you know, its who you know, for getting recruited and landing a job.
I have been only recruited twice out of 12 times through recruitment/ resumes sending and interviews, rest of the times it was through referrals through ex bosses and colleagues who knew my work ethics and integrity and know me as a dependable team player – this is particularly true for finance /IT line.
And the “who you know” situation in Singapore is being rampantly overrun by FTs..
My friend, with similar credentials as me and much better work experience, has been looking for a job in IT infrastructure security for 9 months after retrenchment.
This is supposed to be an in-demand occupation – all jobs sites have his resume, JobsDB, Monster Jobs, Jobstreet, Robert Walters, etc you name it.
Every recruiter that emailed for an updated resume stopped correspondence once they found out he is a Singapore-born Citizen.
And all these recruiters / headhunters were Indians / Caucasians / Vietnamese and even Thai?
Come to our country, take up jobs that require no niche skills, that Singaporeans would very well love to take up, yet show a bias in hiring Singaporeans?
If you are a male Singaporean, you are in for a double whammy, since employers find you doubly unattractive with your CPF contribution and NS liability!
I would really love a survey to be done to check what is the percentage of Singaporean recruiters amongst ALL the recruitment agencies and headhunting firms in Singapore.
I am sure we are in for a surprise!
Key headhunters are FTs, HR interviewers are FTs, people managers are FTs, so they tend to favour their own kind.
This is why the FCF is doomed to fail, because the problem is not advertising on the portal and interviewing - the key problem is that the employers are being represented by FTs with either their own personal agenda or with no incentives/ motivations to consider locals especially when it comes to the bottom line of dollars and cents.
This is why I would rather stay in Qatar as a 2nd class citizen, or work in far-flung Cambodia, than return to Singapore as a local with no preference and the handicap of CPF which makes me unattractive to employers.
Income here is tax-free by the way…
Meanwhile if you have any overseas opportunities, please do keep me in mind.
Thanks and look forward to my post being published in your website – maybe we can meet for coffee when I get back to Singapore.
Good day Gilbert, Kudos for your tireless efforts and your good heart!
Best Regards,
Raja
Transitioning.org - unemployment support services is a non-government organisation which provides coaching and counselling support to Singaporeans in employment transition. All our services are offered free of charge and operated solely by volunteers. Our core mission is to ensure that Singaporeans are hired first in our own country and accorded proper labour rights.