HK
For IT roles, perhaps more than for any other, banks in Singapore are forced to go global with their job searches.
Why? Singapore is an IT hub, so it needs a lot of techies. Banks often hire in the hundreds in one hit, so the scale and time pressure involved can be greater than when they recruit for front-office functions.
While you might be able to easily source a couple of FX traders within the city state, Singapore’s small population becomes a problem as your recruitment needs get greater.
Moreover, in finance tech, the roles required are still highly skilled, and banks generally want to beat the corporate sector to get the cream of the IT crop.
So you have mass hiring and high job specs in a tiny country. Oh, and plenty of competition for talent from rivals banks (especially if you’re in the habit of shedding IT staff, like RBS).
There’s only ever been one solution to all of the above: India. While most banks wouldn’t provide an employee nationality breakdown, it wouldn’t be unusual for at least half of their Singapore-based IT staff to come from the subcontinent.
There are threats on the horizon from the Philippines (but the volume isn’t as great), and China (English isn’t as good), but for now, India remains the number one techie supply-source for banks in Singapore.
When Barclays had 165 jobs to fill in its global software development centre late last year, it gathered 1650 CVs, a large chuck of which were from Indian applicants.
It then withered these down by about 40 per cent and carried out in-person interviews, some of which were in Delhi and Bangalore. An extreme example perhaps, but most banks in Singapore would look to India for all but their most small/basic IT staffing needs.
As one IT recruiter recently told me: “You can source people with excellent English skills, a solid educational background and great technical skills. In other words, you can usually get exactly what you want.”
Of course sometimes recruitment in India is thwarted by the sheer volumes of applicants, but the more specialist the role, the more India’s size can become a blessing.
“You can drill down to get very specific skills, and end up with 20 good people on your shortlist, even for a very niche, technical job. You can’t do that if you confine your search to Singapore,” says the headhunter.
I loved the headline in this story, Simon. Singapore is indeed “Mumbaipore” as you say. They are everywhere! And not a good thing considering the gap between local and expat Indians continue to widen
Not to mention that they will work for peanuts thus damaging everyone else in IT.
Just want to know… right palce to find the right job.. though iam new to singapore jobs.. cant find the right calls either from the companies or recruiting firms… Iam .net professional with 5 yrs of exp.. working for infosys
Well, what the author says could be true, but I have a totally different experience of the same… While the jobs are advertised on the job portals in hundreds (often repeated/ re-posted almost everyday), I am not sure, if the requirements are genuine. I suspect that the head hunters might be just compiling the CV’s of interested candidates looking for a change, even though there may not be any immediate opportunity. This can be easily observed from the fact that the same position gets advertised so frequently and one wonders that if there are no interested candidates for that position, or is it that, the applications received from candidates did not meet the criteria!!! In any case, if it’s the 2nd reason for re-advertising, then the banks might be better off finding a best fit from the available applicants, even if it means investing a bit to fill the functional knowledge gap. As the banks are NOT seen to be doing so, one wonders, if the opportunities are genuine!
Totally agree with Sanjiv. On one side, it looks the major banks need resources in big numbers by going thru’ ads in different job portals but in reality the same requirement is posted by different consultants and again the ads are carried forward for number of days.
I ‘ve attended couple of interviews recently and for junior/middle level support jobs the banks interview many candidates and take long time to decide on the candidate. At the end, in both the interviews I had attended, the bank decided to fill with an internal candidate or candidate referred by its employees.
In summary, it is not what it is projected.
It is true that most IT jobs in any organisation in S’pore has a large share of Indian professionals. Like some observation above, the current trend in S’pore by placement consultants seems to send emails for jobs just have an updated resume.
I have send numerous resumes to consultants, who do not even confirm receipt of my email and do not provide any contact no’s for me get in touch !
I know for a fact that the salary is colour blind. Be it an indian or a local, as long as the bank can pay, they want the right talent.
Only in Singapore, do we not discriminate on pay or the forex exchange that you will get back home when you are paid in SGD. Else most would get zero or negative increment with the strength of the SGD.