Below are parts of a post by a ‘Return Singaporean’ on his experience and advice to Sinkies to go seek employment elsewhere to gain the overseas exposure. I removed a few paras to make it shorter to read.
The first point I like to make is that not all jobs required overseas experience. How many jobs needed that? The second point is that from what he said, Sinkies are just poor workers and those foreigners he recruited are good workers. Presumably he is getting all the good candidates with genuine qualifications. And this is possible as they came from the world pool where there are hundreds of millions out there.
So what’s the beef? In the Sinkie context, in many cases it is not because the Sinkies are not good and the foreigners better but Sinkies were simply sacked and replaced by foreigners. Two, in many cases, even with my eyes closed, many of the foreigners faked their qualifications and CVs. Three, many jobs don’t need overseas experience or exposure. And fourth, the most important, why are Sinkie running away from home and be willing to be replaced by fakes or people that are not better than them? By doing so, Sinkies are losing their homes and country by default when the foreigners keep coming in to replace them by cheating and Sinkies running away without a fight.
Returning Singaporeans may be writing his piece with good intentions but his reality is an illusion. The reasons for Sinkies losing their jobs are not because they are not good enough. And with so many jobs that don’t need overseas exposure, it is something good to have but not necessary most of the time.
The most important thing for Sinkies is to get their house in order and kick out all the fakes and foreigners that are practicing discrimination against the Sinkies. Ideally the govt should take the lead. If the govt is not going to do so and condoning the discrimination and alienation of Sinkies in jobs, then a new govt must be voted in to do the right thing for Sinkies, to protect their jobs, their homes and the country. Running away or going overseas is a defeatist thing to do and very dangerous, as Sinkies will lose their country be default. All Sinkies must look at the bigger picture of country and the people as a whole and not at individual cases. If one is looking at each case individually, I would suggest we replace the whole cabinet with more competent and cheaper foreigners.
What do you think? Should Sinkies just run away and be replaced by fake foreigners and ruffians in their own country?
You may now read what Returning Singaporean wrote below:
‘….Most of the locals lack overseas exposure/s and a rather severe skill-set mismatch with what the market currently needs (or will need in the future).
I’ve to confessed that I’d “lower” the benchmark for a couple locals, hoping that I was wrong in my initial assessment and that they will turn out to be a gem in the later stages of the selection.Boy was I wrong! Not only do all the Singaporean applicants lack in-depth experience and knowledge, they also lack that sense of aggression, enthusiasm and that desire (or should I say… “hunger”) to succeed.
It almost felt as though as if, they are “entitled” to the job, because of the mere fact that they are….. Singaporeans.I’d fought inch & tooth to increase the headcount in Singapore and not move it to lower cost bases in India or China. If this new hire is a poor match and does not succeed, it will be my neck on the chopping board….
This decision wasn’t made because of a “Foreigner-vs-Singaporean” conflict.
It was made because of the candidate’s suitability to the role. I’d to choose the best person, who can succeed and help us achieve the firm’s targets. It was just painfully sad that it was not offered to a Singaporean instead….I strongly urge Singaporeans to widen their horizon. Go out to the world, try something new.
Increase your knowledge base, consistently venture out of your comfort zone/s and make this a habit….
If we do not make ourselves worthy of every single penny/cents, it is really that easy for firms to just unplug from Singapore and move on to the next “lower value cost center”.’
Chua Chin Leng aka redbean
* The writer blogs at mysingaporenews.blogspot.com.