Job Hunting in Singapore
Looking for a job in Singapore is proving to be more of a challenge than I had thought. I knew that COVID would play a factor, but the other issue is that many companies are only looking to hire Singaporeans or Permanent Residents. I get that hiring a foreigner right now is tricky, but it’s super discouraging when I read the job description, get excited about the opportunity, and then at the very end, I don’t qualify because I’m a foreigner.
The other thing, and maybe I’m just dumb, is many job applications will ask “Are you eligible to work in Singapore?” Technically, yes but do I currently have a work visa? No. So what does that question mean? Also, if I choose “no”, it’s hard not to think that my application immediately gets sent to the trash because some algorithm determines that a “no” answer isn’t a candidate worth pursuing.
The other tricky workaround is that when I click “apply”, for over half the jobs, I’m taken to a Singapore government website in which I’m required to enter my SingPass ID number, which is something that foreigners/non-permanent residents don’t have, so I can’t apply for the job and the company doesn’t need to look bad by writing “Singaporeans only”. Well played.
Job hunting is tough, especially when you factor in COVID, closed borders, and HR teams that seemingly don’t want to have to file paperwork to hire a foreigner. I’ll continue searching and filtering through jobs that I qualify for, though it’s certainly not a process I enjoy.
