IMO... all countries have the pros and cons lah..... pple are envious of me working in US and ask me got job lobang here a not.... As for me, for 2 years I have been asking pple for job lobang in sg..... ~sigh~ Guess this is life...
Working overseas to escape Stifling Singapore
- Thread starter David
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idor said:
Perhaps you may want to share with the thread starter the reasons why you want to come back to Singapore. Is it the weather? working conditions? Cost of living? Miss your favourite char koay teow? Etc...
I think singapore would seem like a much greater place to live in if we concentrated on just being nicer in general and less hard-up on results, and also if we focused less on shopping,buying stuff and money. A few of the reasons why I find my thai and malaysian friends to be more interesting as people to talk to
espn said:
Actually all these ISO things have got their purposes, and they are never about you. Most companies' real reasons for achieving certain ISO certification is so that they can get listed, or they can supply to certain big customers who demand certain ISO certification. The person is right. It is always goal oriented.
Ansel said:
To be fair, if you're striving for a high-paying career, isn't that also goal oriented?
Whether working overseas or in Singapore, you have to access your own views on what is "quality of life/living"
Actually, I find cost of living in SG is relatively low; I mean, if you don't own a car, don't smoke, don't go clubbing, don't change handphones every year, don't upgrade digicams every quarter, eat in hawker centres etc, you'll find your expenses pretty low
Actually, I find cost of living in SG is relatively low; I mean, if you don't own a car, don't smoke, don't go clubbing, don't change handphones every year, don't upgrade digicams every quarter, eat in hawker centres etc, you'll find your expenses pretty low
Papilio said:
Well, I think I dun need to mention the good stuff about working here since most of you have read and heard from different sources... The bad part of working here is.... I am in texas... hehehe Anyways, a lot of people tend to think americans are well informed...... well, I can tell you that apart from the cosmopolitian cities in the coast, most american are like kampong people not being able to differentiate the diff. between sg and china. but their ego is as big as Alaska..... meaning that its super big.... I can tell you staying with these "mountain tortise" for a long time you will also get more and more stupid... :bsmilie: Anyways, back to my topic for wanting to go home.
1. Firstly, like it or not, sg school system is still 1 million times better than school systems here.... until college level....
2. If you are Living in Houston, I bet that you will not dare to roam around the streets at night... the only city where its relatively safe to walk on the streets in whole USA i think is Las Vegas...
3. There is no such thing like Orchard Road here.... if you wanna buy electronics stuff, you drive to electronics store.... if you wanna buy clothing.. you drive to departmental store. BTW fashion here is like our fashion back home 3 years ago.....
4. Over here there is almost no chance of meeting new people and making new friends cos its too spread out... another reason is cos their exposure to foreigners are lower than coastal cities and therefore they are less tolerant to our accent.
5. Most pple only see USD-SGD conversion... they forgot that we make USD here and we spend USD also.... I prefer to count how much savings I can have at the end of the month. Over here if your house cost 100k(90% of the time its higher), assuming you follow the general trend, put in 20% downpayment and finance 80%... going with current interest rate, and assuming you are living in a cheapo white neighbourhood, after adding property tax, homeowner's insurance, school tax... all kinds of wierd charges... you are looking to pay 1k USD on your house every month.. then we add in 2 cars(1 for me 1 for my wife... ) installment, interest, insurance, maintanence, its another 500-1500 a month... depending on what kind of car you have Den after that, they will deduct income tax, social security tax, medicare tax from your salary... and then health insurance for family.... so before we start to budget on food.... more than 2k already fly out of pocket.... With this kind of economy, the current starting salary for Houston area is 2.5-3k a month... so you see how much savings can you have if you are a fresh grad from college. At least in sg, I can stay with my parents while saving money to buy house... here I have to rent an apartment which is about the same cost as buying a house... Also, here i have to budget the cost of flying home to sg to visit my parents at least once every 2 years.... that will be like 2k USD fly out of my pocket every other year.... Oh yah... den all the bo liao present for the bo liao people to shut them up.... 10 presents that cost 10 dollar also add up to 100 dollars liao... and if suay got shopping list somemore... sure die man... go home is like chinaman go home like that :bigsmile:
6. Sg have 2 singapore dollar char kuay teow... here if you eat out... minimum 5 USD a person...
7. here if your car kena langa by Black mama, you sure die one... the "hei se hui" pple come out of nowhere to be withness and tell police its your fault... in sg at least its homeground advantage.. I can fight back.... :devil:
8. Nikon D2x cheaper in sg.... target dun look so impossible :bsmilie:
9. sg got channel 8 TV show... here only american sitcoms..... super boring sia... all day long talk about sex...
10. Singapore have hainanese curry rice.....:bsmilie:
HAHAHAHAHA 10 reasons to go home.... happy reading... LOL
Hi all,
My only gripe about Singapore is the humid factor. Its always been the weather that really turns me off. I pray for 16~20 degrees celcius, no rain on weekends but its ok to rain during the weekdays, Monday especially. The country may be lacking of lot things e.g. nature parks, amusement parks or whatever but I feel its the people that makes this country interesting. Cheer up peeps.
My only gripe about Singapore is the humid factor. Its always been the weather that really turns me off. I pray for 16~20 degrees celcius, no rain on weekends but its ok to rain during the weekdays, Monday especially. The country may be lacking of lot things e.g. nature parks, amusement parks or whatever but I feel its the people that makes this country interesting. Cheer up peeps.
A true story about my wife's cousin who used to study in the US. He graduated, went back to Malaysia and was a very successful securities trader, with a 6-figure income. But his dream was always to return to the US because of all his good memories during his student years there. So one day, he saved up enough money, packed up his family and went back to the US. He could only be employed as a bank officer, and worked his butt off for a meager paycheck. After a while, he couldn't stand it and moved back to Malaysia.
Point is, for a Westerner to come to Asia to work, they are automatically given a higher status, even though they may be just another lowly-paid worker in their home countries. They're given well paying jobs with handsome benefits here. An Asian working overseas on the other hand, is just another lowly worker, noting special (only very few people I know have actually struck gold by moving overseas). So reality is seldom like what you see in the movies :bsmilie:
Point is, for a Westerner to come to Asia to work, they are automatically given a higher status, even though they may be just another lowly-paid worker in their home countries. They're given well paying jobs with handsome benefits here. An Asian working overseas on the other hand, is just another lowly worker, noting special (only very few people I know have actually struck gold by moving overseas). So reality is seldom like what you see in the movies :bsmilie:
This may be true.... but less so these days.... From my understanding, US itself is still quite meritocracy, so if you are good, with good US degree/MBA, you can still get almost equal opp with them. Even PRC students in US are employed by companies like Merrill Lynch.... So you cannot say Singaporean cannot, but rather they may not have the qualification/connection/drive/opportunity
Sion
Senior Member
Gymrat76 said:
This is a good point.
Tomorrow let's go and ask our Ang Moh superiors that were they in fact a rubbish collector or a floor sweeper or a bus driver in USA, UK or Aus.:sweatsm:
hi, so far, only singaporean & our malaysia brothers had spoken.
i m sure there is quite a big numbers of cser from oversea, be it working here in singapore or else where. would appreciate if they can view their views here.
thanks in advance.
i m sure there is quite a big numbers of cser from oversea, be it working here in singapore or else where. would appreciate if they can view their views here.
thanks in advance.
David said:
Dismay? I am not.
I am not a graduate and armed with only an 'A' level, I managed to work to a 5 figure salary.
As the saying goes all good things must come to an end. I no more earn the same amount and now I pay myself 30% of what I was paid, and putting in much more hours in my work, in order to run a cost effective and viable business.
But I am still satisfied and happy to be here in Singapore. Nobody nor country owes me a living nor oblige to pay me high, I believe in honest hard work and charting your own course in life. And I am always thankful that I was given the opportunity to develop and grow here.
Yes, I know, they'll follow the ones that would work fo rthem, not against them. To SG context, taking good care of staff equates to killing productivityAnsel said:
espn said:Yes, I know, they'll follow the ones that would work fo rthem, not against them. To SG context, taking good care of staff equates to killing productivity
Ya, many local companies even the HUGE ones think that way. The big MNC's usually provide better pay and employee benefits than local companies
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