Singapore is a hotspot on the radar of bright young professionals chasing new and exciting career opportunities. New jobs in innovative industries are being created as some of the world’s biggest multinationals like IBM, Seiko Epson, ExxonMobil, 3M and Abbott Laboratories continue to make multi-million dollar capital investments in Singapore.

Even professionals who have never considered working abroad, like Filipino Jan Clarence Lim, who recently completed her MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, are finding the work opportunities hard to resist. Reluctant at first to move away from the comforts of home, she is discovering, quite pleasantly, how convenient and easy it is to live in Singapore.

Paying for airline tickets via an automated postal machine; getting a bank account set up and receiving security pin codes within two days; calling for a cab and having it arrive within five minutes; these are just some of the anecdotes that the impressed newcomer has to share after just over a month of moving here.

“Everything I need is very accessible,” she said, “and the Singaporeans I’ve met have all been very warm and helpful.’

Her smooth and fuss-free experience of moving to Singapore has added to her career high of scoring a promising regional job with a Fortune 500 company here.

“To be able to work in a team that handles a whole region will really give me a chance to widen my scope and stretch my capabilities,” she said.

While still new to the job as an assistant brand manager at Procter & Gamble Asia Pte Ltd., Clarence is already looking forward to upcoming business trips.

A global work place

Procter & Gamble Asia Pte Ltd. is among the over 7,000 multinational companies and some 100,000 small and medium-sized enterprises that make up Singapore’s vibrant and diverse economy. Many of these companies have their global or regional operations in Singapore, generating a healthy hiring demand for young, highly qualified graduates like Clarence.

Innovation driven industries like IT, chemicals, electronics and new lifestyle products are also leading the hiring trend. In the last year, global manufacturing giants like IBM and 3M have set up advanced manufacturing facilities and companies as diverse in their product offerings as Abbott Laboratories and Nitto Denko have opened new research and development facilities.

Singapore is also home to more than 200 established oil & gas players, including oil majors, drilling operators, specialised equipment manufacturers, service providers, offshore engineering and specialty products companies. Oil and gas companies such as FMC Technologies, Aibel, GE Oil & Gas and Invista are ramping up their hiring needs in the year ahead, and are looking for talent in headquarters services, front end engineering, research & development, manufacturing and technical service/repair.

Thanks to an open-door immigration policy, there are already over a million foreigners working and living in Singapore. In Clarence’s team, she works with people from four other countries. The diversity at her workplace is typical of many large corporations in Singapore, and Clarence really appreciates how the cultural exchanges that take place daily add a valuable dynamism to the workplace.

“Interacting with people from around the world has made me realise that people are not that different wherever they come from, and it’s made me much more confident in dealing with people from different backgrounds,” she said.

New life, yet close to home

In her new regional role, Clarence had expected to be working all the time but that is

another misconception about life in Singapore that she has cleared up. “I have a nice work- life balance. I go to the movies at least once a week and often meet friends after work to try out different restaurants,” she said. “I’ve even started weekly dance classes with colleagues thanks to the free gym privileges that my company offers to staff.”

Busy as she is with discovering Singapore’s scene, she still chats with her parents in Manila daily via technologies like Skype and Fring.

“It helps that we are in the same time zone and thanks to the many budget airlines, it is easy to go back home anytime.”

But at the moment, she is not done with exploring this colourful city.

“Singapore may be small; and it has a lot of foreign influences,” she reflected, “yet it has an amazing ability to differentiate itself and present itself in unique and engaging ways.”

About Contact Singapore

Contact Singapore is an alliance of the Singapore Economic Development Board and

Ministry of Manpower. It aims to attract global talent to work, invest and live in Singapore.

With offices in the Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, Contact Singapore is the one-stop centre for those who wish to pursue a rewarding career in Singapore, as well as individuals and entrepreneurs who are keen to invest in or initiate new business activities here. Contact Singapore actively links Singapore-based employers with global talent and provides updates on career opportunities and industry developments in Singapore. We work with private sector partners to facilitate the interests of potential individual investors in Singapore.

For more information on working, investing and living in Singapore, please visit

www.contactsingapore.sg

For more information on career opportunities in Singapore, please visit www.JobsAtSingapore.sg