At least a million foreigners are working in Sin
City, and many are in top
management positions with some as CEOs. There were one or two cases where the
foreign CEOs actually misrepresented their qualifications to look very well
qualified. It was something like someone attending a 3 week or a month course
in Harvard and claiming to be a Harvard graduate. But his kind of
misrepresentation is nothing compared to those that came armed with MBAs or
other professional or expert qualifications or experience when they had none.
Recently the MOM announced that 25 foreigners, lauded as
foreign talents, were caught and charged in court and sent to jail. While many
cynical Sinkies were screaming that this is only the tip of the iceberg, it may
be the last time they are hearing foreigners caught faking their
qualifications. The rest of the FTs here are genuine and their qualifications
are indisputable, checked and confirmed to be true.
The way to get a job in the highly prized and well paid
professions is to mark up one’s qualification. To increase the chances of
employment, just add in a few more qualifications, maybe with the help of the
employment agents, or maybe the employers may assist the applicants to do so to
clear the MOM pass hurdles. This seems like fair game for the foreigners and
the punishment meted out, a few weeks in jail, is nothing and worth the gamble
when the returns and rewards were so handsome.
In the case of Sinkies, the opposite is true. More and more
cases of Sinkies downgrading or hiding their qualifications to get a lower
paying job are being discovered. I dunno whether to laugh or to cry? And they
got sacked for being dishonest, for being self deprecating, or for being
excessively modest with their academic achievements. This must be the character
trait of the Sinkies. Don’t tell people how good or how qualified you are if
you are Sinkies and applying for a job in Sinkie land. Only the foreigners can
do that. The foreigners will tell the world that they could even bring down the
moon if asked to.
What is the real damage in the employment scene? How many
foreigners with fake qualifications or make up qualifications that are employed
in high positions to boss over shy and timid Sinkies who had to hide their
qualifications and to work under those who are less qualified than them? How
many Sinkies with genuine qualifications from two of the world best
universities, the NUS and NTU and from foreign universities are working for
foreigners who are not qualified or who came from pariah third world unranked
universities?
The joke is on the Sinkies for supporting a system that
makes them pariahs in their own country. And they are being blamed with funny
names like PMETs, meaning pampered, mediocre, expensive and timid by our local
elite in the main media. And since no one in the govt came out to dispute this
obnoxious humiliation of the local PMETs, what do you think they are thinking
up there in the clouds? Do they agree or disagree with this new definition of
PMETs?
Because there are simply not enough Sinkies and these Sinkies also not reproducing enough what.
ReplyDeleteAnd since PAP die die want to go for high GDP and more money, what choice except to get lots of the BEST AVAILABLE foreign talents and even foreign money, you tell me lah?
Of course some, and luckily not all, of the best available are fake ones lah. And there is nothing Sinkies can do about this, except to catch them where they can.
Hence Sinkies have to accept that there are fakes and tolerate the sick Sinkie jokes arising from all these lah.
Just as 60% accepted that PAP, despite being like that, is still the best available to rule over Sinkies lah.
Too bad lor, Sinkieland does not have oil to extract and export for revenue.
ReplyDeleteSo have to get foreign talents and foreign money as substitute for oil revenues lah.
No choice lah, even if WP come to power and they also want revenues, they will also have to do like what PAP do.
It's like that one lah.
2 or 3% growth cannot be high growth. And worst, this is brought about by flooding the island with foreigners. In reality, there is negative growth without the increase in population. This is the real problem....no growth without increase in population.
ReplyDeleteGood observation. RB. But then who played this sick joke on us? Didn't some overpaid hack tell us that a university degree is no guarantee of a good job? Their election campaign has begun in earnest in case you had not noticed.Zuraidah Ibrahim, sister of Yacob. warned you a few weeks ago that the gloves are off and party loyalists are egging them on to regain lost ground. A first step is to promote Chan to full minister to helm the Tanjong Pagar GRC when the old man steps down as MP soon. It has nothing to do with his "good performance". Citizens cannot even remember what good he did in the last 2 years. Tan Chuan Jin's statement on Facebook is pathetic since if the promotions are based on performance he must be deemed to have been a poor performer. Catherine Lim's speculation that there is party infighting seems accurate and Tan, being mentored by GCT appears to be a victim. Time for change.
ReplyDeleteActually hor.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my PAP friends.
It cannot be helped.
Sinkies, die die will always vote PAP.
So that means it is possible to bully and discriminate against Sinkies and still get re-elected into parliament.
It's the easiest million dollar salary in the world.
So who don't want to make money by exploiting Sinkies .... you tell me lah.
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ReplyDeleteIf you flood SG with 10-20 years FT veterans for a junior job, you can forget about employment for NUS/NTU graduate.
ReplyDeleteRecently a recruiter told me how screw up Singaporean was. No one responded to his job advertisement for a junior position. I meet up the recruiter and he showed me his technical test.
I told him he will filter out 100% of the fresh grsd with the test. He agreed that no fresh grad ever pass his test.
In fact, administering a unreasonable test for fresh software engineer is a norm in industries. The employer will then complain no one in SG want to do engineering.
The juniors are killed off. So where got senior? Also, the pay sucks.
The best way for our local graduate to gain employment is to migrate to Australia whereby FT numbers are curb.
I think it may be ok to get FTs in specialised areas where there is a lack of locals.
ReplyDeleteBut what is important is to have "localisation" programs, whereby there are succession plans for locals to take over these FTs.
In fact when I was working with an international corporation about 20 yrs ago, there were "localisation" programs.
If I am not wrong, these "localisation" programs was supported by the govt. Our govt should revisit this.
So foreign companies are running localization programmes to give jobs to Singaporeans?
ReplyDeleteAnd PAP gahmen is running foreignization programmes (immigration) to give jobs to foreigners?
if you are a singaporean and you have a first class honours degree or master's degree but you don't have 'o' levels, the s'pore civil service will not employ you.
ReplyDeleteLong post 1/2
ReplyDeleteredbean:
When it comes to getting and keeping a job nowadays, you have to have a spirit of competition within an "unfair" environment, which begins with staying mentally balanced and not allowing your preconceived notions -- mostly wrong anyway -- to mess with your mind, and thus you chances of achieving your goals.
Sure, the almost "too-good-to-be-true" opportunities of open borders, open economy and free labour markets are bound to attract the less-than-honourable actors. One has to accept that as FACTS of human nature: i.e. if you hand out goodies based on certain criteria and goodies, there will be people who are prepared to CHEAT or GAME the system. Where there is open competition, there is also collusion.
This is why I don't really believe a "level playing field" ever exists. You have to seek out whatever "advantage" you have over your competition and use it, definitely not behave like a timid fool -- that is mindless self-sabotage.
Not everyone can have their dream job all the time, or anytime they snap their fingers. No one is indispensable and the only person in the world who is empowered to reconstruct reality so that they can be "happy". And yes, every ADULT is responsible for themselves regardless of what happens to them. You don't drag down the rest of society to your level so that you can "compete" -- you have to rise up to a level where you can compete -- and it all begins in one's MIND.
Educational qualifications are only part of the criteria bosses look at in the hiring process. Other factors play their parts too: attitude, autonomy, reliability etc etc and of course PRICE. You have no control on a potential employers perception -- he is human and has preconceptions and other human cognitive failures, just like every human has. However you can influence his perceptions, but it begins with the hard work of self evaluation and a willingness to face up to the realities of one's predicament and one's current environment.
If you are a "job snob" then you're sabotaging yourself -- an unwise choice driven by FEELINGS (negative) rather than RATIONALITY. If you allow your feelings to take over your thinking, you will drop your personal value in the eyes of the potential employer.
Meanwhile, your "competition" appears enthusiastic, hungry, motivated, keen and NETWORKED -- willing to take the pay that is offered as a start, with the positive outlook of improving his condition.
Unemployment is a CHOICE. People hate this truism, but facts are facts and once again, feelings will always present themselves in ways for people to blatantly deny facts.
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ReplyDelete2/2
ReplyDeleteJust like the shopkeeper who has NO CONTROL on who buys at his store -- all he can do is try and PERSUADE people to shop there -- would-be employees have only the power to present themselves for consideration to potential employers. However if you are willing to take any job at any pay, you will definitely get something -- probably not your "dream job", but something is always better than nothing. Even if you have to start from scratch at 40 or 50 years old -- SO WHAT?
Given the current perilous state of the world's financial systems and the global economy, it could tip over and crash rendering even today's high flyers out of their lucrative jobs. No one is guaranteed "job security", not in these times. However work never stops. If it did, we would all starve to death. Modern civilization is based on the fact that MANY PEOPLE are required to work to keep the whole ball of wax churning -- so regardless of the economy, there are always jobs -- if you are willing to work, yes, for less pay if necessary.
I also suspect that many of these "complainers" are not networked or self-marketed well. In today's world you need to be constantly networked, and you have to "work" the contacts in your network. In today's world you are your own BRAND, and you need to be promoting that brand -- especially in professional life. If you're not doing it, other people are, and you've lost one of your most fundamental edges to survive and thrive in your field.
The competition for "the right people" is heating up all over the world. ABE-nomics Japan is opening to import foreign talent. Australia is hungry for qualified immigrants -- even now when both cuntree's economies growth is down.
Unemployment is a CHOICE. Get that into your thick stubborn skulls, and in a short time, your life will change.
Here is a whinging academic (PhD) who thinks the world owes her a living (an arts graduate, no less). Note all the same-o same-o arguments: it is the government's fault, it is not my choice...blah blah blah
Matilah, all you have written is perfectly academic. Academics would write this way. There are many kinds of realities that exist at the same time and all these realities will screw up everything the academics wrote as childish and naive, like what you have written.
ReplyDeleteYou are talking about one kind of reality and forgot about how other kinds of realities make nonsense out of your supposedly clever arguments that are meant to be wisdom.
/// It was something like someone attending a 3 week or a month course in Harvard and claiming to be a Harvard graduate. ///
ReplyDeleteAre you referring to the ex-DBS CEO?
redbean:
ReplyDelete>> There are many kinds of realities that exist at the same time and all these realities will screw up everything
Such as?...go on invent something, so you can "win" your argument. I bet you can't ;-)
OK, I'll make it easy for you: prove to me that if you are a functioning normal adult, that unemployment is NOT a choice.
Can you do that?
redbean:
ReplyDeleteAnd please lah, I am no "academic" -- not by a long shot. I am however, a die-hard realist -- if I am not working, productive and earning, that is my choice/ fault...no one else is responsible.
If you are not willing to look after your own best interests, and to be of value to others, how the fuck are you going to survive, let alone prevail?
I think our minister for manpower should seriously study into the "LOCALISATION" programs.
ReplyDeleteI think a few of our MNCs already have these programs and worth looking at them.
Not difficult to design and promote "LOCALISATION" programs among companies in Singapore.
What is needed is the political will to do the right things......
It is not a sick joke that sinkie has to downgrade themselve to be employable while fake fake FTs bluff themselves to choice jobs. It is a tragedy, a national tragedy.
ReplyDeleteIn China. a FT is never allowed to be a top honcho. He will be a subordinate who will be tasked to train the locals and will be released when his skills have passed over to the local.
Here we entice foreigners with good job to encourage them to cross over. A excample can be found in The Straits Times to day.A finance manager gave up his French Citizen to become a Singapore Citizen. Well, if another country offer him a better job, he will switch camp just as easily!
Best available my foot. The fear factor looms large. When you own the ball and the pitch...oops, cannot say, wait police catch.
ReplyDeleteActually hor.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my PAP friends.
It's not really the "best available" talent that is forming the gahmen.
It's more like the "best acceptable" talent that is forming the gahmen.
But "best acceptable" to who?
Best acceptable to Singaporeans?
Or best acceptable to LKY?
You tell me lah.
ReplyDeletewho becomes our leader is not important.....many, many, when given the opportunity and resources can do it ......
the most important thing is that whatever policies introduced must benefit the majority of locals......
The ball, the pitch, the referee and the score board.
ReplyDeleteBengali one so long, Stinkie one like sotong.
ReplyDeleteTool with talent. Go suck it up.
ReplyDeleteSinkies believe that they are bastards. So it is ok to bring in more bastards to take over this country.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is a sign that it is time to look for greener pasture? Many overseas sinkies everywhere. If people from arabs or china or india dare to do it, why sinkies are so timid, so dependant on their G? Home is where what you make it to be not others. 此处不留人，自有留人处.
ReplyDelete