Market features
The peculiarity of Singapore is that there are many immigrants from India and China. Therefore, potential emigrants often worry that they will have to compete with them. But there is nothing to fear: engineers from Russia have proven themselves well in the international labor market and are highly regarded. There are many Indians in Singapore, but often they are low-skilled personnel, so you definitely won't have to fight for a vacancy with them.
Note . On the topic of the popularity of Russian developers, there is an interesting post on the Inflationary Shock telegram channel. The author tells how he was looking for a freelancer from Russia, and found an Indian who was trying to pretend to be Russian.
Fast
Why go to Singapore
Singapore is attractive for an IT specialist for its technological focus. The government is stimulating the development of new technologies - the number of IT companies here is in the tens of thousands, from tiny startups to tech giants like Google and Facebook. Companies from Russia also open their offices here. The country's growth is pushing the market to search for specialists day and night. But there are rumors that the policy for expats is changing and the government will reduce the visa quota to improve the conditions for Singaporeans.
Good infrastructure . The country is a "remake", there are almost no old buildings, a lot of greenery and shade. Excellent roads, developed public transport. At the same time, there are few traffic jams, because a car is a luxury in the country. Car ownership means taxes, fees, fees, toll roads - very expensive.
High standard of living . 13th place in the ranking of the most expensive cities. The average salary is 3,000 SGD, but since, due to government policy, almost all the indigenous people have their own homes, people do not live homeless, but live well. Most of the apartments have a pool and gym, good transportation, air conditioning and rain protection systems. Moreover, the city has several tens of thousands of millionaires.
Everyone is equal before the law . Whether a tramp or a billionaire, everyone is responsible according to the law. If only because there are security cameras everywhere in the country, so the likelihood of a crime is minimal. This allows a high level of security to be achieved. Newcomers do not commit crimes because they are afraid, and Singaporeans have no need - they already live well.
How to prepare for your job search
Visa or work permit . There are three types of visas.
- S Pass (SP) - for specialists.
- Employment Pass (EP) - for highly qualified specialists with education (suitable for programmers).
- Personalized Employment Pass (PEP) - rather for those who already work in Singapore, because one of the conditions is that the salary must be more than 144,000 SGD (Singapore dollars).
I was considering Employment pass . You can move with her yourself and take your family with you.
This is how the Singapore Employment pass looks like. And here is the history of the visa holder with step-by-step instructions for obtaining.
Requirements for the offer . Before starting the search, I made sure that I pass all the requirements for obtaining a work visa, for example, higher education, work experience and a salary of $ 4500 per month. The company that invites you must also confirm that it has carefully studied the resume of Singaporeans, but you are the right person for the position. The government maintains a balance between immigrants and Singaporean citizens.
Insurance... In Singapore, it is compulsory for everyone and paid by the employer. Physician visits and medications are fully covered even by basic insurance.
Galleys. The market itself, as elsewhere, consists of outsourcing (galleys), food companies and an enterprise.
What to write on your resume
A good resume is a third of a win.
General structure . From my experience, I have highlighted some of the points that HR most often asked about when drafting their internal documents:
- General work experience in years.
- Experience in years in the context of technologies.
- Description of the best achievements in various places.
- Technology stack with which you are familiar.
- Personal assessment of your knowledge.
- Nationality.
Detailed information about yourself, work experience, certification and skills: this is how IT specialists in Singapore make up their resumes.
First page . To make it easier for recruiters to study the resume, I put on the first page brief information about myself, contacts and the above data, except for the third paragraph. The easier it is for a recruiter to find important information, the higher the applicant's chances of being interviewed.
Work experience . On the second page I talked about my work experience, starting with the last one. He indicated the month of the beginning and the month of the end of work and the total length of service in this place. He also indicated achievements for each item. Try to summarize your work experience and describe your achievements as vividly as possible: what tasks you faced, how you solved them.
Life hack... What to focus on when writing a resume? If you have friends who have gone abroad, you can look at their resume and compare with yours. Alternatively, look for developer profiles from large companies on Linkedin for great examples. For example, here's a resume for Jun from Singapore:
This is what a good resume might look like A resume
for each job . It's a good idea to rewrite your resume for a vacancy every time. This takes time but can be beneficial. Look in the vacancy, what qualities and work experience the company highlights, and focus on them.
Literacy . Be sure to check your CV for literacy. Find a native speaker and let him correct the constructions: a well-designed resume is more credible on the part of HR.
Note... The principles of working with a resume for Singapore (in the author's description) are similar to those that apply here. We wrote about them in the article “ How to prepare a good resume for an IT specialist ”.
Where and how to look for work
When you have a resume ready, you can proceed to the search.
My strategy is "I respond to whatever is roughly appropriate."
If there are no friends and acquaintances to help with work, LinkedIn will help out (in Russia it is available through a VPN). Take a premium while you search.
Feel free to connect with people on LinkedIn and share your resume . Often, after submitting a resume for one position, HR offers 2-3 more, and also gives recommendations on the interview process, the required salary, and even suggests what they might ask. Be sure to give HR-y their feedback about each round.
Translate the profile to the desired country so that recruiters can see the resume. Often HR find applicants themselves and write in PM with suggestions, so it's better to spend a couple of hours filling out a profile. And be sure to indicate that you are looking for a job.
LinkedIn profile
In the search, you can specify the desired vacancy and location.
For " Senior Java Software Engineer ", the service offers 240 jobs in Singapore
. I went to a real estate management startup via LinkedIn. The company operates in four countries, with a large engineering team primarily in Singapore. After submitting my resume, I received a link to take an online test on the Codility platform.
The test consisted of three tasks and took 2.5 hours. In the first task, it was necessary to download the archive with the page template and content, layout and upload back. The second contained a template for a React component with a ready-made layout and a description of the Get endpoint. The third task: using jQuery to get data from the Get-endpoint and add it to the DOM.
Interview . Three days later I received a short questionnaire and an invitation to the next round of interviews with one of the team leaders. After half an hour of conversation, the interviewer proposed to solve a small task on an online platform, it was necessary to transform the array into an array of subarrays of three elements.
Three days later, I received an invitation to the next stage of an online interview with an Engineering Manager. I refused this interview because I received an offer from another company.
Conditions (spied on glassdoor) of the company are good. Salary 8-10,000 SGD, trial period 4 months, office near the center of Singapore (ideal to rent something nearby). And then there is insurance and a performance bonus (bonus) from 1 to 2 salaries at the end of the trial period.
Other resources for finding IT jobs
To find a job, you have to send hundreds of responses, as I did. Don't stop at LinkedIn - try different platforms. Here are some of them.
Indeed . The world's largest job aggregator , which also operates in Singapore. Here you can upload your resume, spy salaries and find suitable vacancies.
Search Indeed Home Page. You can enter the desired position and location.
MyCareersFuture . Here's how the company positions itself: “ My Careers Future is Singapore's premier website to help you find a job, advance your career and more. »Differs from other sites with government support.
Home page and search. You can search by job title or keywords, select the type of employment and the minimum wage
Hays . This is an international recruiting agency . They work with various specialists, including those from IT.
Review of Hays on Google
Glassdoor . On glassdoor.sg , in addition to vacancies, there are reviews about the company. I advise you to find and read the opinions of previous employees before applying for a job. You can save yourself the hassle of ineffective managers.
“ Indian management is always busy flattering US managers. Only people who talk a lot are valued here »
Jobs in Singapore . This sitestands out and is interesting in that it is a must-have platform for posting jobs for expats.
Jobs in Singapore home page
It is only available to locals. Here you can spy a fork for any vacancy, but you cannot respond. In any case, you can spy on the salary fork to bargain with recruiters.
Recruitment agencies . There are a lot of vacancies served by recruiting agencies, so feel free to share your resumes with various HRs (even if you don't like it).
HR is attacked here by an army of Indian and Chinese citizens. Therefore, to speed up the process, send your resume wherever possible. HRs will start sharing it within their networks and you'll get more engagement.
And there are hundreds of such resumes! Experience is an important part of a resume, but you don't need to talk about every day of your life. HR doesn't read that, no matter how much candidates like it.
The advantage of working with a recruiting agency is that it is more profitable for them to tell you a possible salary and to successfully complete the hiring process: their bonus depends on this.
When you first contact HR, bargain right away.
At the first contact, when they ask for the current salary and the desired one, I start working as a “salesperson”. I usually drag out the conversation with ideas that I need to communicate with the team and clarify what responsibility will be in the current position. At the same time, I try to give approximate expectations for the future salary without specifying the current one. Sometimes it works. If you already have an offer from another company, you can use this as a trump card:
- For the fact that I accept your offer, and not another company, you will have to pay me (with a salary)!
Through a recruiting agency, I went to a young startup. It was founded in an office interior design agency, conceived as an automation of internal processes and has grown into a separate product.
At the first callHR from a recruiting agency clarified everything I wrote on my resume and salary expectations. A week later, I got a call back with an offer to go through an online technical interview, and an hour before the interview, HR sent me an email with little tips about topics that might be in the interview.
Interview and first test . The technical interview began with the usual questions about experience and goals, and after 15 minutes of communication, the interviewer suggested solving three technical problems.
- One - no implementation: just speculate about possible options.
- The second task was to implement setTimeout inside the Promise.
- The third is the implementation of the factorial function. I wrote the most basic one on recursion. We've discussed a bit more how you can avoid stack overflows and check the input data types.
A week later, I received an offer for a final interview with the workshop in the office.
Test with CTO . STO explained the concept of the company and asked me to talk about the last two jobs in more detail and draw their main business process. Then I was asked to solve a logical problem, but they clarified that there are no correct answers. You just had to speculate out loud.
A week later I received a job offer. Conditions, like everyone else, in general: salary 8,000 SGD, probationary period - 3 months, insurance, an office not far from the business center and a perfomance bonus in one salary.
Salary expectations
Where to get expectations for salary? The lower bar is about 6,500 SGD, it is possible to go for less if you live alone. Living in Singapore is very expensive. No not like this. Very expensive.
Renting an apartment in the center will cost 3,000 SGD, and this is not the limit. But if you live alone, you can rent a room for about 1,500 SGD.
If you love Asian cuisine and cook at home, then you will significantly save on food. A local meal at the food court will cost $ 4, but coffee in Starbucks is about $ 6-7.
For a couple who go out to restaurants from time to time, the food budget could be $ 1000. Guidemesingapore.com.
The minimum bet for a life of one is 6500 SGD. It is quite easy to get it, but if you look at vacancies with salaries higher, then sometimes difficulties arise here. For example, they arose when I got a job in the second largest food tech startup (analogues in Russia - Yandex.Eda and Delivery Club) with a million integrations and a distributed team.
Applied to the company's vacancy on LinkedIn . The conditions are excellent: salary SGD 8,750, dentist's compensation SGD 1,000 per year, training compensation SGD 1,000 per year and a voucher for SGD 20 each week on the platform of this company.
In response, I received a polite automatically generated refusal. About a month later, HR knocked on my personal messages and offered a position to which I sent my resume. I described the situation to her. She took a short break and came back with an answer: I will be scheduled for an interview, and the refusal is a system error.
Interview, refusal and interview again . The first interview was with an employee who simply clarified all the points of my resume and the desired salary. I was targeting SGD 8,000 but was politely hinted to me that I must be very good for that kind of money.
Five days later, around 11 am, I again received a polite auto-generated rejection. But an hour later, an SMS came with a proposal to continue the process and choose a date for the first technical interview.
Second interview... I was briefly interviewed about the basics of React, lifecycle methods, how the virtual DOM works, and hooks. Then they gave me a link to coderpad to complete a small task from the category "Easy on hackerrank" for 15 minutes.
Technical interview with Engineering Manager three days later . A very friendly and experienced interviewer described a little what he does, plunged into the intricacies of building teams in their company. Then we moved on to the technical part: the interviewer showed me three tasks, explained the general essence of each one, clarified my readiness and started the timer for 40 minutes.
- The first task is logic. After thinking for a couple of minutes, I remembered a similar problem on Hackerrank and wrote a solution in two lines. After explaining my solution, I suggested testing it, and we moved on to the next task.
- The second task was to find a bug in an already written algorithm.
- — . , fetch useEffect .
As soon as I finished with the first button, the interviewer laughed and said that the assignment was passed: he saw what he wanted. Said goodbye on a very good note.
Job offer . Three days later, I received an SMS from HR with an offer to call me. On the phone, she explained to me that they are very happy that I completed all the stages of the interview and showed my best side. To receive a written job offer, I must first confirm by phone that I will accept it. After clarifying with her once again what exactly she was proposing, I took time to think.
Unfortunately, I began to very often come across the fact that they ask for prior consent and give from one to two days for acceptance. But if I asked for more time, they never refused.
Interviews and offers
I had four interviews with different companies. I have already told about three, I will describe the latter as an example.
I got a job in a very old logistics company, the main activity is marine logistics. On the basis of the company, a startup was opened, the team is distributed, they open an office in Singapore and are actively recruiting people.
I applied for one vacancy, but I was offered to try myself in another. The whole process was organized by the agency. The HR agency consulted me a lot on the current market situation and possible salary.
First interview . It was conducted by the company's frontend programmer: they walked through my experience, told me about the company, asked about my views on the industry. At the end, they offered to perform a small test task, assuring that it was really small.
Test task . At the end of the day, they gave a link to the test task repository. It turned out to be a project with a stack of React, TypeScript, Webpack, Jest. In the src folder there were 3 more folders with tasks and a README.
- Assignment for knowledge of TypeScript. Given a small function that accepts collections of different types as input, it was necessary to fix all errors in the assembly log.
- Working with trees. Several examples of a tree structure are given; when traversing a node, it was necessary to return some result in recursion.
- React. It is necessary to make a kind of ruler in Chrome, with a reaction to a hovering object of a certain type.
All the tasks took me about 4 hours, but my knowledge of TypeScript is about zero. Three days after completing the assignment, I was invited to the final interview.
Second interview . The STO team gave a very detailed description of the company, I clarified some points of support for Legacy, but I was assured that other teams are doing this, and their goal is only a startup. The communication was very easy, which left a positive impression of the company. Two hours later, their HR called me and made a job offer.
My short "checklist"
At first, interviews seem like a scary thing, but with experience it becomes more pleasant to go to interviews. What advice would I give to those looking for a job?
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- , , Hackerrank.
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- HR — . , .
I had dozens of fruitless LinkedIn responses and empty calls, a few unanswered test cases, and outsourced offers. Failed attempts are also part of your job search, and don't let them scare you. Try it, go to an interview: this is also a skill that can be pumped.
If you want me to supplement the article with some information, write in the comments.
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