Talent is an abused term in employment

The term talent has been shooting off everyone’s mouth like referring to gold or diamond. And often this term is prefixed with another word, foreign, and conveniently attached together as foreign talent. What does this mean to the users of these terms, the ordinary people, the employers, job seekers and the govt?

Very often we also heard people quipped that there is not enough or no Singaporean talents to fill a vacancy. And many do not pause to ponder what is this vacancy that needs talent and why are the talents not found locally. Take an example of a HR Manager. What kind of talent that is so rarefied that no Singaporeans are found to have them that this position must be filled by a foreigner? In the same vein, an Admin Manager, a Finance Manager, a Sales or Purchasing Manager, a Banking/Finance Manager, an IT Manager and so on, even politicians.

On more technical skills like Engineering, IT, Medical or Science, why are the local graduates not good enough as talents and foreign graduates are the right and suitable talents? Did their universities teach them different stuff that is useful to the industries and ours don’t? If that is the case, either we revamp what is being taught in our universities or we close them down and send our students to those universities that are teaching the right stuff.

In the more generic jobs as mentioned above, what talent is one talking about? A HR or Finance professional will have acquired the same basic training and knowledge to do the job reasonably well. All that makes the difference is the attitude and drive in the person, unless the applicant is a moron. And if one is to know the extent Singaporean students drove themselves to acquire good grades, that is telling in itself, that they have the drive, stamina and determination to do well. These graduates who worked so hard to get good grades cannot be the same employees that switched off when employed and paid to do a good job. They strove for good grades without being paid, and now refused to work when they are paid well?

Even those that do not have the good grades but rose to higher management, this fact is enough to show that they are able and capable of doing the job at that level. The knowledge and experience on the job are more valuable than the qualifications of a fresh graduate.

Now, what kind of talents that the foreigners have that the local talents did not have? The foreigners have two brains, three mouths and trained differently and acquired unusual skills from their universities and countries that made them better than the local PMETs?

For the very technical and highly skilled jobs that needed post graduate training, the expertise would set them apart. But many skills can easily be trained, be transferred with on the job or in house training that would not take more than a year to do so. What is so difficult about that?

The truth is that many jobs even at senior management level do not require this thing called talent or exceptional talent that cannot be found in local PMETs. The word talent is an abused word, a red herring that means nothing really.
Anyone who uses this term to justify his special needs as an employer, make him explain why it is a talent in the first place. Talents are needed in very special positions, in special appointments, in highly skilled fields that demanded gruelling years in academic discipline. Another type of talent is how to cheat which is inborn, how to get paid excessively without having to do the work or not knowing how to do the work but getting others to do it and claim the credit. This is unusual talent.

Actually one of the highest level of talent is to be able to con your way to success without acquiring any useful skills but by capitalising on connections, wealth, associations, politicking and conspiracy.