Career Growth Opportunities in Singapore

[sg-]

Hi folks!

I'm currently working as a Cloud Architect in Switzerland and looking for career growth opportunities in Asia (preferably Singapore because of English speaking working environment). My main motivation is to life for some time in another country and working in a more fast-paced environment.

I've around 8 years of work experience in IT and hold a Bachelor in Computer Science. My experience:

- 2.5 years as a Cloud Infrastructure Architect (Consultant) at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
-2.5 years as a Cloud DevOps Engineer (GCP, Kubernetes, some programming) at a Fortune 500 insurance company
-3 years as a System Engineer (some networking and linux) at a rather small local company

Unfortunately internal transfer is not an option. Hence I tried to apply for jobs directly but just received rejections.

Before I continue it would be great to hear your experience and stories. Preferably from people who also tried to apply from outside of Singapore.

Would be great to get some answers to the following questions.

1) After some research I found out that companies in SG are restricted by quotas which limits the number of foreign workers they can hire per year. Is it even possible to get hired form outside of SG with my experience and background?

2) What would be an estimated salary I could expect for a Cloud Engineer/Architect or DevOps role based on my experience and background?

Would be really nice to get some insights!

1. That's partially true but Singapore absolutely loves importing foreigners, especially in high-skill domains like tech. In case you're not aware, Singapore has a large import of Indian tech employees in pretty much most of it's tech companies. Take that for what it's worth, it's called "Singapore CECA" and google search "Why so many indians in Singapore".

Most of Singaporean techies have moved out to the US / UK / Europe for tech jobs. Any particular reason WHY you want to move to Singapore for tech that's notorious for mediocre pay, mediocre projects ( Google Singapore vs Google US, the Singapore office works on absolutely mediocre boring projects while the US works on big scale ones ), full of foreigners who struggle hard with English since that's not a pre-requisite whatsoever in Singapore? ( Again, google "Netizens support english test Singapore"... )

There's also plenty of reviews in tech companies stating how Indians often look out for their own kind and will act against anyone outside their race. This has been well documented for the past few years and as much as I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, there's just too much reports about this to pass it off as "********". Not only that, even Singaporean Indians face this discrimination... wow.

2. I'd say around 9-15k SGD with maybe relocation fees in 5 figures.

Also... "more fast-paced environment", yeah you're going to regret this. Trust me, I went from SG to UK, UK to Japan and back to Singapore. I'd gladly go back to Japan that's notorious in the past for suicide due to work-related stress.

You know there's a problem when it's own citizens want to get out of their country so badly lol I've never seen this case in the UK, Europe or even the US. Singapore is the only country where I've seen majority of it's citizen in it's own reddit, forums, etc, literally going "I want to gtfo"

Originally Posted by Unregistered

1. That's partially true but Singapore absolutely loves importing foreigners, especially in high-skill domains like tech. In case you're not aware, Singapore has a large import of Indian tech employees in pretty much most of it's tech companies. Take that for what it's worth, it's called "Singapore CECA" and google search "Why so many indians in Singapore".

Most of Singaporean techies have moved out to the US / UK / Europe for tech jobs. Any particular reason WHY you want to move to Singapore for tech that's notorious for mediocre pay, mediocre projects ( Google Singapore vs Google US, the Singapore office works on absolutely mediocre boring projects while the US works on big scale ones ), full of foreigners who struggle hard with English since that's not a pre-requisite whatsoever in Singapore? ( Again, google "Netizens support english test Singapore"... )

There's also plenty of reviews in tech companies stating how Indians often look out for their own kind and will act against anyone outside their race. This has been well documented for the past few years and as much as I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, there's just too much reports about this to pass it off as "********". Not only that, even Singaporean Indians face this discrimination... wow.

2. I'd say around 9-15k SGD with maybe relocation fees in 5 figures.

Also... "more fast-paced environment", yeah you're going to regret this. Trust me, I went from SG to UK, UK to Japan and back to Singapore. I'd gladly go back to Japan that's notorious in the past for suicide due to work-related stress.

You know there's a problem when it's own citizens want to get out of their country so badly lol I've never seen this case in the UK, Europe or even the US. Singapore is the only country where I've seen majority of it's citizen in it's own reddit, forums, etc, literally going "I want to gtfo"

for what its worth, everyone only SAYS they want to gtfo, at the end of the day we're still here lmao.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

for what its worth, everyone only SAYS they want to gtfo, at the end of the day we're still here lmao.

You're right and I think partly it's because

1. SG Males have NS obligations, 2 years + 10 years ICT cycle, more if you're a commander.

2. HDB BTO can only be purchased by married couples or 35 year old singles.

3. Most of us have friends / family in SG, most of us have never worked overseas or lived in overseas longer than a few months, we don't know what it's like and we're scared. Also it's not like we're suffering in Singapore, there's a few things we are unhappy about but it's not a corrupted country that is unlivable so we bare with it and simply complain 24/7.

For all these reasons listed, a lot of people are less likely to make the move.

Now if you're a rich Singaporean then that's a different thing... you can easily go anywhere. Actually, being rich in any country gives you total freedom tbh so I guess it all boils down to how much $$$$ you have.

avoid working in sg at all means

can refer to nodeflair

DevOps median salary for senior level is 8.5k, lead level is 9k

Originally Posted by Unregistered

1. That's partially true but Singapore absolutely loves importing foreigners, especially in high-skill domains like tech. In case you're not aware, Singapore has a large import of Indian tech employees in pretty much most of it's tech companies. Take that for what it's worth, it's called "Singapore CECA" and google search "Why so many indians in Singapore".

Most of Singaporean techies have moved out to the US / UK / Europe for tech jobs. Any particular reason WHY you want to move to Singapore for tech that's notorious for mediocre pay, mediocre projects ( Google Singapore vs Google US, the Singapore office works on absolutely mediocre boring projects while the US works on big scale ones ), full of foreigners who struggle hard with English since that's not a pre-requisite whatsoever in Singapore? ( Again, google "Netizens support english test Singapore"... )

There's also plenty of reviews in tech companies stating how Indians often look out for their own kind and will act against anyone outside their race. This has been well documented for the past few years and as much as I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, there's just too much reports about this to pass it off as "********". Not only that, even Singaporean Indians face this discrimination... wow.

2. I'd say around 9-15k SGD with maybe relocation fees in 5 figures.

Also... "more fast-paced environment", yeah you're going to regret this. Trust me, I went from SG to UK, UK to Japan and back to Singapore. I'd gladly go back to Japan that's notorious in the past for suicide due to work-related stress.

You know there's a problem when it's own citizens want to get out of their country so badly lol I've never seen this case in the UK, Europe or even the US. Singapore is the only country where I've seen majority of it's citizen in it's own reddit, forums, etc, literally going "I want to gtfo"

Thanks a lot for the insights. Which countries in Asia would you recommend to work in IT considering that I only speak English and would need visa sponsorship (swiss citizen)?

wow quite scary how this thread got so little reply. usually sinkies like to come in and pwn each other.

what happened? are the comments above all true? sg full of FTs taking ur tech jobs?