how is work culture and telephonic interviews of singapore companies

[kiran kumar]

HI,
How is the work culture I mean hectic work or cool.If I am unable to do work on time what they will do and how the singapore IT companies conduct telephonic interviews I mean what is the pattern of doing telephonic interviews? please give me other details about interviews conducted by singapore IT companies?

Thanks in advance.

[Ben Souther]

There are many, many IT companies in Singapore.
I don't thinks it's reasonable to ask about them as if they are all the same.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

And since we don't allow discussion about specific companies, let's generalize to phone interviews in general.

The purpose of a phone interview is to do a preliminary check to see if you are qualified/fit the position before bringing you in for an onsite interview. The thoroughness of the phone interview depends on the company and often how far away you are located from the company. (People give more detailed interviews if they have to fly you in.) General topics are technical skills, business skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills and experiences.

[Deepak Chopra]

Hi Rahul,

Currently i am working in Singapore and i have seen some ppl taking telephonic interviews, as per i know span of interview will be near around 30 to 45 min.
They will be asking you about Basic commands of Unix, Simple PL/SQL, Some Domain knowledge concept if you have work experience, JAVA ( if they will be asking more about JAVA, then they will ask about Exception Handling, IO, Threads), logging in JAVA, How much important logging is?, Quality procedures, most important your communication skills, your patience and How well you behave under pressure as in Singapore work culture is very very hectic.
They can also check how fast you can solve a particular query..! I mean your response time but with accuracy.

[Sai Surya]

I believe getting a job in Singapore is easy (I mean winning interview is very easy) however, you won the interview doesn't mean that you are done. Most of the time you need to work with tight schedules, minimal or no documentation even for the requirements and specifications. Singapore IT companies worship their clients and they obey whatever they say at any point of time. I remember a month ago I worked until 4 am to complete the change requests raised by customer a day before the delivery. We were two guys sat until 4 am and gave client a presentation on the changes the next day at sharp 8 am.

I requested for a day break to take rest at 9:30 am on the same day. My request was rejected by my manager in a hurting way. Singapore IT work culture is really tough and painful. The moral of the Singapore IT story is "Pay less salary and suck more work".

If you are planning to come to Singapore, be prepare mentally and physically to work 16 hours a day on average including Sat and Sun.

[Deepak Chopra]

Surya is absolutely correct...work culture is exactly like this in Singapore..!

[Manish Hatwalne]

Originally posted by Sai Surya:
I believe getting a job in Singapore is easy (I mean winning interview is very easy) however, you won the interview doesn't mean that you are done. Most of the time you need to work with tight schedules, minimal or no documentation even for the requirements and specifications. Singapore IT companies worship their clients and they obey whatever they say at any point of time. I remember a month ago I worked until 4 am to complete the change requests raised by customer a day before the delivery. We were two guys sat until 4 am and gave client a presentation on the changes the next day at sharp 8 am.

I requested for a day break to take rest at 9:30 am on the same day. My request was rejected by my manager in a hurting way. Singapore IT work culture is really tough and painful. The moral of the Singapore IT story is "Pay less salary and suck more work".

If you are planning to come to Singapore, be prepare mentally and physically to work 16 hours a day on average including Sat and Sun.

Is it that bad in Singapore?

- Manish

[Hendy Setyo Mulyo]

It depends on the company you work for. Not all company push you to work > 12 hours / day. But I admit that most of the companies in Singapore have a long working hours ( > 12 hours / day )

[Sai Surya]

Originally posted by Manish Hatwalne:


Is it that bad in Singapore?

- Manish

Yes it is! However, on the personnel front, Singapore gives you great lifestyle.

[Hendy Setyo Mulyo]

Originally posted by Sai Surya:


Yes it is! However, on the personnel front, Singapore gives you great lifestyle.

Hi Sai Surya,

If it is so bad in Singapore, what do you mean it gives you great lifestyle?

[Manish Hatwalne]

Originally posted by Sai Surya:


Yes it is! However, on the personnel front, Singapore gives you great lifestyle.

And given the inhuman work hours, when would you get any time to have a great lifestyle?

[Arjun Shastry]

I think they are talking about Singapore in general.Roads should be obviously cleaner,disciplined traffic,better food quality,no tip to traffic cops etc.If working enviornment is pleasant and people are cooperative,person can work longer hours.Thats my observation.
[ May 26, 2008: Message edited by: Arjun Shastry ]

[Sai Surya]

Originally posted by Manish Hatwalne:


And given the inhuman work hours, when would you get any time to have a great lifestyle?

I saw many differences in terms of life style. Let me tell you one of my experience. I recently received some of my tax documents from IRAS (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore) and I got confused on some calculations they made. I went to IRAS office and surprised to see the kind of service they provided me. I was adviced to take the ticket to meet an officer. I met the tax officer and she explained me the tax rules. She answered to my silly questions with lot of patience. I could clarify my doubts during that 45 minutes session.

Coming back to late hours, being lucky, sometimes people get a chance to hang around on weekends, so they used to plan for outings etc. Singapore is a heaven for shopping, food (you are lucky if you are a fan of seafood) and lot of weekend activities.

[Hendy Setyo Mulyo]

Originally posted by Sai Surya:


Coming back to late hours, being lucky, sometimes people get a chance to hang around on weekends, so they used to plan for outings etc. Singapore is a heaven for shopping, food (you are lucky if you are a fan of seafood) and lot of weekend activities.

If you really are lucky for not working in Saturday or Sunday :-).

[arulk pillai]

The purpose of a phone interview is to do a preliminary check to see if you are qualified/fit the position before bringing you in for an onsite interview.

Phone interviews are really useful and can save interviewers heaps of time. Some candidates are not really truthful in their resumes...............

[Deepak Chopra]

I THINK Singapore is the most cleanest city of the world, However it can not substitute India for me. I like to work in Singapore, because everything here is as per public comfort. There is no bribe system, government officers do their duty with full honesty. It is SAFE and SECURE.
Its not like you have to work 16 hours daily. It 2 or 3 times a week.Overall working hours for me is 70(approx) hours per week including Saturday and Sunday NORMALLY.
you will get to know about the lifestyle once you will come here...as its hard to explain here...!
I think for a Fresher, it is next to best to work in Singapore..as you will learn a lot..!

[Rambo Prasad]

Sunny and Sai,

Working for 16 hours sounds scary That is two times the normal working hours in India..I think in the long run health condition will go for a toss... What do you think about the saving potential in Singapore...Can people expect to save at least twice the amount they save in India...

Is firing with a short notice a common practice there..?
[ May 26, 2008: Message edited by: Rambo Prasad ]

[Sai Surya]

Originally posted by Rambo Prasad:
Sunny and Sai,

Working for 16 hours sounds scary That is two times the normal working hours in India..I think in the long run health condition will go for a toss... What do you think about the saving potential in Singapore...Can people expect to save at least twice the amount they save in India...

Is firing with a short notice a common practice there..?

[ May 26, 2008: Message edited by: Rambo Prasad ]

Working hours: So you need to relax well if you get a chance to maintain your health and work life balance. That's how people in IT work here. You can maintain 9-6 standard working hours if you are a manager.

Saving potential: If you are single, you can save much money. Of course, depends on life style.

Firing with short notice: Possible if a candidate not able to perform well. As I said initially, getting a job is easy, however one need to consistently prove everytime. Even if you do one mistake after 100 significant achievements, you can be fired for that one mistake.

[Deepak Chopra]

Sai..its seems like you are working for c***..!
[ May 29, 2008: Message edited by: Sunny Jain ]

[Sai Surya]

Originally posted by Sunny Jain:
Sai..its seems like you are working for citi..!

No way! I didn't join there because I knew about it, I am altogether in a different world of content management!

Sunny, please remove company name before our moderators do it for you.
[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: Sai Surya ]

[arulk pillai]

Working for 16 hours sounds scary That is two times the normal working hours in India..

I think this is counter productive. It is okay to do it every now and then but not as usual working hours.

[Pradeep bhatt]

I was staying in little India when I was in Singapore. I liked Singapore very much . Weather is good. Temperature around 27c. Rains sometime. Good transporation train and bus. Cabs are expensive. I was there for a business trip. Nobody stayed beyond 6 in that place though so only contractors will have to stay late I think.

Also visited Sentosa Island.

I forgot the name of restruant I used to visit for meals and breakfast.

[sanjeeb guru]

Hey , I am new to this forum. My name is sanjeeb and I am a fresh MCA from Orissa, India. I am very much interested to work in singapore as an IT professional. Can anyone help me in this regard.
Thanks