Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Genuine question: What makes you think a Manchester Met law grad would be able to get a international law firm TC, and then get a secondment out to Singapore (without any local ties or relevant language skills)? The UK job market is extremely competitive; I went to Oxbridge, and some of my Brit classmates really struggled to get TCs despite having decent-ish CVs. Getting a UK TC is a real challenge IMO, and even more so if you're from a lower ranked uni like Manchester Met.
Also, where else do you suggest UK trained SG students work, shitty Singapore prospects notwithstanding? UK charges ridiculous tax rates, coupled with high living costs, which means your net income isn't that high. US is an incredibly difficult market to break into as a UK fresh grad without a US JD/ LLM, not least because of the immigration hurdles. Hong Kong pays very well if you work for an international firm, but their market currently isn't doing that well either with China's slowdown. Overall, Singapore also has the advantage of lower living costs (assuming one lives at home and saves on rent) and having friends and family around.
For the record, I'm not working in Singapore (HK MC trainee here), so this isn't a case of sour grapes. |
if you have free time amidst your busy schedule and browse through the international law firms based in SG you will see that their trainees or associates have graduated from so called 'lower ranked' UK unis.
They are living the life. Rent for a condo unit paid for, they bring over their partners, they live it up in SG, they love the fact that there is no democracy in SG, no strikes, no trade union demonstrations, illegal for people to protest, SG population is largely domicile and clueless, no welfare system so foreigners won't get taxed to fund the helpless local citizens, wonderful sunny weather and so many other reasons. But the main reason I feel and many of them have directly implied to me is that no where in the world do you see a country who keeps silent and let the market forces dictate that foreigners more often than not gets an easy ride while the ordinary citizens have to struggle day in and day out.
Regarding your points in the second paragraph, it was not me but the guest of honour and many lawyers on the panel of the UK-SG law student society seminar that kept telling everybody to go to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, China to get legal work experience first or become a chef, open a restaurant, go into business instead. and all throughout that 3 hours, the people in the audience showed not even one reaction, except me. I was flabbergasted.
I wish you well on your endeavour in HK. You took a plunge going there and I respect your bravery for doing so. Make us proud!