Editor's note: As Singapore is further unblocked, more people are considering coming to Singapore in search of job opportunities. To work in Singapore, you need to apply for a work permit, and there are various categories such as EP/SP/WP. Before you come, discover the real Singaporean work experience.
I came to Singapore with a work permit. There are many types of work permits in Singapore, with different requirements for academic qualifications, years of service and salary. I hold a three-year EP, which is in the Professional category and can also apply for a Dependent DP. Arin, a computer engineer on the same plane as me, is also an EP. "When I'm settled, I'll bring my family with me." On the plane, he looked at the photo with his wife and children on his mobile phone, and his eyes were full of expectations for the future.
The plane landed, came out of the cabin, walked through the long passage, covered with carpets, and the colorful Changi Airport was eye-catching, worthy of being the world's first airport, and the hardware and software were very good. The agent who picked me up dropped me straight away at the accommodation. Pulling the car door open, a wave of heat swept over me. "Emma, did you move your home?" Looking up, a fair-skinned girl dressed in black and black pants reached out and took the large box that the agent had moved down. The agent told me that this northeastern girl was my roommate and had just returned from work on the company shuttle.
Fortunately, with the help of this roommate, I quickly integrated into the work and life of Singapore. She is also my colleague, majoring in English at university, and now works in the company's secretariat, while I work in the technical department. The company in the western industrial area, commuting to and from work has a shuttle, so do not take public transportation, but also save a lot of silver, the most important thing is to be able to leave work on time, although overtime days are also there, but very few.
I had planned to take two days off before going to work, because I had to go to the immigration department to change my official work permit. But early the next morning, my roommate pulled me onto the company's shuttle and said that the boss had asked me to report to the personnel office first. When I arrived at the company, the HR of the personnel office took me up and down to tour the company, and finally took me to the boss's office. I saw a Chinese man with glasses lying in a pile of drawings. There are also many "positive" words written on the white paper at hand, and one of them is not finished.
"Ah, here it comes." He looked up and spoke Mandarin with a Fujian accent. After a few brief questions about my past work conditions, he pushed the drawing in front of me. "This should be very simple for you!" So I walked out of the boss's office with a bunch of drawings and HR.
Just as I was about to go downstairs, the door to the next room opened and out came a tall middle-aged man, and later HR told me that he was a director of the company and was rarely in the company. "Designers from China, they can draw on computers, right?" He speaks Mandarin with a Malaysian accent. After a while, I had a few more hand-drawn drawings on my hands. And so my work in Singapore began. On the weekend, I slept in bed for a whole day before I could barely regain my normal breath.
That's how the first month came to be. Mainly because of the lack of proficiency in English, the written is good, and the oral listening is really fatal. Singlish really stuck with me and made a lot of jokes. Fortunately, the colleagues are very friendly, and although there are Malay and Indian colleagues in the company, the Chinese are still the majority, and most of them speak Mandarin. Another thing that is not used to is that there is no rest time at noon, and I start working at one o'clock in the afternoon. But there was time for afternoon tea at the company, otherwise I really doubted that I would fall asleep on the drawings.
After surviving the first month, the back is much easier. After passing the language barrier, the workload is actually not as large as in China. There are many young people in the company, the atmosphere is better, as long as the boss is not in the company, everyone is giggling, and every day passes very quickly. But there are also colleagues who do wrong things and are scolded by their bosses to the point of bloodshed. Therefore, everyone is still more serious about their work. There are also requirements for dress in the company, usually wearing formal clothes, and girls' skirts are above the knees, and T-shirts and jeans can only be worn on Fridays. So I was in a particularly good mood on the day I went to work in jeans, because it was the weekend again.
Mixed with colleagues, the weekend will be about to play together, colleagues with a car, carry everyone to the river, go to the corners of Singapore to find food, the first time to eat Laksa almost vomited, durian is also like this, after habituation is delicious.
The company also engaged in team building, went to Sentosa to rent a log cabin, barbecued there at night, sat on the wooden floor and counted the stars, and it was at that time that I learned from the Malay girl Sue that the Malays in Singapore could marry four wives, of course, provided that their financial situation was full.
This was my first company in Singapore, and then I changed jobs in the city, there was no company shuttle, I had to take the subway and bus by myself. Working in the urban financial district, although it looks tall, but because of the lack of land, the work room is very small, a small grid, colleagues are not so casual as before, and there is an indefinite time after work, the boss is absolutely impossible to leave before leaving work, and the pressure is greater. In addition, there are not many options for lunch, unlike industrial areas, where there is a variety of delicacies and freshly squeezed juices.
Working in Singapore, the overall feeling of the pace is faster than in China, but the workload will generally be less than in China, and then because most of them are private companies, different bosses have very different personalities, so it depends on their luck. Of course, if you go to work with the mentality of traveling to Singapore, the mood will be much easier.
(The picture and text comes from Singapore Eye APP netizen JianMa, originally published in the WeChat public account "Kairong Nanyang", the original title "What kind of experience is it to be a white-collar worker in Singapore?") "Thanks to the author for authorizing Singapore Eye reprint)
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