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Does anyone have any insight it is like to work in Singapore as a developer if you've previously worked in the West? How are salaries? How is the work culture?
by yomly 8y ago
Does anyone have any insight it is like to work in Singapore as a developer if you've previously worked in the West?
How are salaries? How is the work culture?
Is the industry growing such that moving there would be a good career play?
- rch 8y agoWell, it's the only place where I've had to randomly hand over my passport to guards holding machine guns. Cambodia and Vietnam were much friendlier (although not necessarily safer).
- pytester 8y agoI have. The salaries are low by western standards. I tripled my income coming back to the UK. The work culture is shitty. Long hours are routine. Developers are cogs in the machine. The boss is always right. You need to do things by the book. There's a hard class distinction between "worker bees" (includes developers) and "managers". Those managers were typically clueless about tech, also, which made interviewing a crapshoot.
- hnick 8y agoThis matches what the people I know said. It will of course depend on the company. Facebook has a significant presence there now, I've only met one person there but they were a local and said it's very atypical of the Singapore experience (the office was nearly empty at 5pm).
- jesterson 8y agoGlobal companies like FB or Google bring global work culture in Singapore, so general assumptions about work might not apply to them. They are notorious here for paying below average salaries though
- jesterson 8y ago> The salaries are low by western standards. I tripled my income coming back to the UK. This is true. Maybe not three times lower, but salaries are lower comparing to UK/US. > The work culture is shitty. Long hours are routine. Developers are cogs in the machine. The boss is always right. You need to do things by the book. True. The last sentence applies mostly to local companies. > There's a hard class distinction between "worker bees" (includes developers) and "managers". As everywhere else. > Those managers were typically clueless about tech, also, which made interviewing a crapshoot. Disagree. Share of incompetent managers is close to share of incompetent developers. Hiring a skilled, knowledgeable, self-organised developer is very hard. Source: I am a manager :)
- Gigablah 8y agoThis article should shed some light: http://elijames.org/the-two-tiers-of-singapores-tech-companies/ http://elijames.org/the-two-tiers-of-singapores-tech-compani...
- yomly 8y agoThanks for sharing - I guess it's no surprise that Singapore tech salaries would be bimodal...