[T and A Man]

(06-11-2013 01:54 PM)Yano Wrote:  

I told him of my interest to live in an Asian country and he said the ones that i would want to live in that speak English are Singapore and the Philippines. I researched a little here about Singapore and I'm interested.

I am 20 years old graduating in 2 years with a bachelors in Finance and Banking and a minor in Econ from a Midwest University. Next summer I have a couple big internship opportunities available to choose from. I know English (native), Spanish at an intermediate level, and basic Chinese (I can't read or write it though).

I have a couple of questions:

1) Where do I begin looking for a job in Singapore or the Philipines?

2) How likely is it that Singapore would hire a foreigner with a bachelors degree? Is this realistic or am I dreaming?

Very likely. Singapore has a very open visa scheme for graduates of recognised universities to work there, from 8 countries including the USA.

it's called the Working Holiday pass (WHP) and is run by the Ministry of manpower (MoM).

http://www.mom.gov.sg/foreign-manpower/p...fault.aspx

It offers a bit more freedom that the direct company sponsorship, but not much. it allows you six months to prove yourself, and if you're good you'll stay.

However, do not thinnk you can get away with expatriate loafing, as it often in other Asian countries. You have to bust your ass from day one, and the Singaporese concept of 'Kiasu', which means something along the lines 'keeping up (or keeping face) with others', typically has you in the office 12 hours a day.

You 'work hard cuz you have to have parity with others working hard'.

In reality, the locals talk on the phone for 3 hours a day and have 2-3 hour lunch breaks. The expats aren't always so lucky.

However what you can do is apply for you WHP, and then you are able to keep in dormant.

Then you arrive on the ground in SG on a tourist visa and shop yourself around to get a job. Once you've got a job, then you can activate your WHP.

You do not want to spend part of that 6 months, and waste some of that time, shopping for a job. That said, entry level jobs can be hard to find so you may want to go in with 12-24 months of some other practical skillset gained from experience.

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Singapore isn't set in stone, but I am most interested in it. It also has fantastic logistics to the rest of SEA. This by itself holds tremendous value.

It's a good stepping stone to be honest. You won't get in HK other than senior/exec, and there may be a cultural leap in China, Taiwan and Indonesia. Singapore is a good bridge between east and west.

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Learning a new language in order to live in a different country (Ex: Learning Korean to live in SK) is NOT a big deal. I pick languages up fairly easy and have 2 years to really learn it.

I find it funny to observe here 'yeah everyone in malaysia speaks enlgish', and that's far from the truth. other than say Penang and the inner areas of KL can this only exist, and you're still missing stuff.

Even KL outer regions (suburbs) such as Kelana Jaya, Shalam and Kelang you can not get by.

However singapore you truely can get by on English. That said, you're robbing yourself on self-improvement and knowledge by not learning chinese.. if in SG.

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I prefer not living in The States after graduation. I have seen many areas of the country that are cool but the average woman isn't my style. I want out.

Anyways, for those that have experience or knowledge about these things, please weigh in.

It's after 2:30am here and I'm peacing out for the night.

Do it. Just do it.

The downside risk is putting yourself through a city you don't like for 6 months, whilst getting paid $3,000 per month. The upside is so much more.

In finance parlance, upside to downside is called assymetrical return.

Stay in the USA, or any western country, and you'll inevitably be drawn into fat, entitled women and suburban strip malls.

Escape that shit and just go.