Tips on How to Look for Jobs in Singapore

Here are some tips that we gathered from friends who came to Singapore to look for work and found really nice ones.
We hope these tips can help others as well...

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Prior to coming to Singapore...
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1. Apply for EPEC (Employment Pass Elegibility Certificate) to be allowed to stay legally for up to 1 year at a time. Application is done online, and its for free.
Visit http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/communities/work_pass/other_passes/employment_pass_eligibility.html

2. Look for jobs online. List all important particulars for matched jobs (Company name, address, email, contact person, phone number etc) to facilitate speedier application when already in Singapore.
Most prominent and useful sites:
- www.JobsDB.com.sg
- www.ST701.com.sg
- www.singapore.recruit.net

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When already in Singapore...
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3. Look for jobs in the Classified section of the local newspaper The Straits Times. These job vacancies are updated and complete. The Classified sections come out every Wednesdays (small companies) and Saturdays (major companies). Each one costs SGD 0.80 (Php 27).

4. Call up all listed companies in your field in the local Yellow pages (companies are sorted according to industry) to ask about job vacancies. Usually one can find job vacancies that are not advertised online using this method. The advantage of this is you have virtually no competition for these jobs.

Here are some amusing remarks that we got from some companies we called-up:

Julie: "Good morning, can you please connect me to the HR Department."
Employee: "Eh, sorry, this is a one-line company so this is it...."
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JB: "Hello, good morning sir, can you please connect me to the HR Department?"
Employee: "Ah no no no no no no, this is a one-man show, sorry." (hangs-up)
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Julie: "Hello, good morning sir, can you please connect me to the HR Department?"
Employee: "I am the only person in the office. I'm afraid my boss is not around so I have no idea..."
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JB: "Hello, good morning madam, can you please connect me to the HR Department?"
Employee: "Sino po hanap ninyo?"
JB: "Uh, I'm sorry?"
Employee: "Sino po yung hinahanap ninyo?"
JB: "Pinoy po kayo?!?!"

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JB: "Hello, good morning sir, can you please connect me to the HR Department?"
Employee: "Sorry, we have no HR department in Singapore"
JB: "I see. Could you please provide me with the contact address of your HR Department abroad?"
Employee: "We have no HR Department, we do not hire employees in our company."
JB: "I understand. Thank you for this information."
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JB: "Hello, good morning ma'am, can you please connect me to the HR Department?"
Employee: "Ahahahahaha we have no HR Department, but maybe I can assist you?"
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Moral of the story: Usually only small companies are the ones listed in the Yellow Pages. The big guys like IBM, Canon etc prefer to be unlisted. So searching for jobs in the internet and newspapers are more important if you prefer to work in a MNC.

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CV Related:
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1. Tailor your CV to match the job description and requirements to the letter (this is very very important) for EACH application. Just don't attempt to lie on your CV.
2. Create a very nice and complete cover letter, again for EACH application. HR people will read your cover letter first before deciding to look or not to look at your CV.
3. When addressing your emails/cover letters, avoid using "Dear Recruiter" or some other general label. Addressing the HR people by name helps your application to be noticed among the tons of applications. So make an effort to research the name of the HR Manager/Recruitment officer (using goggle works) prior to sending in your application.
4. Related to #3, try to email directly to the individual email of the Recruitment officer (instead of common company recruitment address eg. jobs@blahblah.com). This can be retrieved by calling the company directly and asking the HR team prior to application. What we do is we send in applications to all available email addresses.

Other notes to follow...