Foreign talents
Came across this article on My Singapore News regarding yet another PM dialouge with the youths in their latestWhat interest me is the point being made in the above linked post.
Extract:
During last night's PM dialogue with the youth the concern of letting in too many foreign talents in the salary bracket of $1,800 and $2,500 were raised. This is the group that will hit very hard on our young graduates and executives. The fear is genuine.
Hsien Loong's response was to acknowledge the concern but added, 'I think we should bring in people who can make a contribution and as for our people, you'll compete with them but at the same time because they are here, our economy will grow and there will be more business, more opportunities for us.'
Personally, I fall into this very group. I graduated couple of months back, with a degree in Information Systems & Mangement. Prior to that, I had a diploma from a local polytechnic in an IT related field as well. You can say that IT is both my interest and probably my forte and I consider myself pretty good at it, and enjoy it as well. Like every other young people, I have dreams of landing a 'dream job' whereby I can get a job that pays well, while at the same time doing what you love. Its easier said than done.
I guess in a way, IT industry is more affected than many others say maybe manufacturing or engineering sector as a result of globalisation. IT projects are so many easier to outsource for example, you can easily get a programmer from India or a web designer from China to do parts or even entire projects without having the need to be physically in Singapore at a fraction of the cost compared to hiring locals. I accepted that fact a couple of years back and as software engineering is not my core interest anyway, I have more interest in networks and hardware, it didn't really bother me too much.
The hard fact hit me when I went job hunting. 80% of the interviews I went to, the interviewer basically just sneer at my so called 'accomplishments' such as projects and my results slip and told me that in the real IT industry, paper qualifications count for nothing, they want actual experience. Cool. I can understand that. I'm willing to work for the chance, the experience, as long as you are willing to give me the chance, and of course, a reasonable pay package. Most of my fellow classmates, which incidently, none is in the IT line anymore, have an average pay package of $2000 - $2500, so I was expecting along the lines of $2000, or maybe slightly lesser by a couple of hundreds, if it meant landing a job I craved.
I did not count the number of interviews I went to, but I'm quite sure that I had been to no fewer than 10 interviews, and I really seen the share of ridiculous offers. The most jarring incident was one whereby the interviewer offered me $1200 and refused to add a cent more, telling me that he can easily get a foreigner with a S-Pass to do the job at that price, and they would be far more experienced than me. In fact, I should be grateful that he is offering me this opportunity to learn and I quote "Nobody will want to hire a fresh graduate these days when we can get more experienced people for less, and they don't need to go back for reservist." I do not want to sound arrogant or anything here, but come on lah, I am afterall a degree holder, you are basically paying me less than what I would have expected even as a poly graduate lor. Back when I was running my pub, I paid my perm staff $1500 a month and he doesn't even have a full 'O' levels. I probably should have gotten a foreigner to do the job too huh... Then where will all the locals go and find their jobs? I seriously can understand if they get foreigners to do stuff that locals want to do such as construction etc, or if they are REAL talents, they can be a CEO or some high ranking expatriates that we have come to get used to. But by allowing them to come in at entry level and take away the opportunity from young fresh graduates, it will only be breeding a whole new generation of discontent youths. Stop giving lip service and model answers in response to questions such as the above mentioned and show us that you are really paying attention to what we are saying.
Labels: foreign talent, fresh graduate, jobs, singapore
posted by Nutcracker @ 1:09 pm
4 comments
