# Is there any American expat in Singapore in an IT job?



## anushap (Feb 5, 2010)

Hi there,

I have started my job search in Singapore. I am an IT consultant earning very well in U.S. But I want to move to Singapore, hence I am looking for jobs with Expat benefits in Singapore so that I can live comfortably in Singapore ( family of 4 kids)
I am not a manager but a Very Senior Developer with 10 +years DB experience . 

The various Salary Surveys indicate that I can be paid between 80- 120 K in Singapore. But the jobs that I see are offering SGD 6000 pm max. I wonder if the salary surveys are even true. Any feed back on that ?

I am losing hope that I can find a high paying job for my qualification in Singapore.
(atleast even 100K SGD). What is your opinion on that?

Is there any American expat in Singapore in an IT job who is able to boost my morale ? A couple of such company names who give Expat benefits packages would be a good start for me to start my search again.
Hence my question
Is there any American expat in Singapore in an IT job getting Expat benefits who can help or guide me?


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## AmeriMongol (Feb 12, 2010)

I'm an ex-IT guy in Mongolia. I was offered to be a Computer Science teacher at a university offering masters degrees. The pay is low. I'm teaching English to Mongolian programmers temporarily. Teaching English pays 4.3 times as much, though in that case, neither were a full time job. In Asia there is a very high demand for native English speakers. 2009 was difficult. In January 2010 I was confronted by many opportunities. My wife is Mongolian. Even cousins have been willing to pay market rates in my apartment for English lessons several days a week. 

OK, some people I've known worked for a company in the US and took a position within the company in Asia, whether it was in China or Japan. Usually this position didn't last long long term and they came back. If an American just drops in Asia, there might be jobs locally--you might get lucky, but the bottom line is: do you speak the local language (i.e. Chinese, Mongolian, Thai, etc.)? If the answer is "No", then even if you have great IT skills, or can start your own business, you cannot work with most local IT people or make many deals at a store. If that's the case, the best thing is just teach English until you do master the local language. Some countries restrict foreigners from fully participating in business, esp. self-employment. If you have an in, such as a native spouse, then you're practically like a local citizen and can freely do stuff like register a business or buy property. You are living in a different place. You have certain advantages to complement the local economy: you have access to cheaper credit; you are a native English speaker; you have different insight. 

Asia is different. I don't know about Singapore, but in Mongolia the position of English teacher is kind of glorious; computer programmer is not thought as a glorious upper class job as Americans have been sold. Maybe that was true at some point in time, but here it's like the same level as a plumber. It does not pay that well, definitely a lot less than English teacher. Other opportunities are to work at the US Embassy. In Mongolia almost all the positions require Mongolian language. So, basically to work in the local economy, the best thing to do is persevere in learning the local language. In the local economy the most versatile people are those who speak the local language (Mongolian here) and English. There are new mining related jobs here only for local people. They MUST speak English well to get these jobs. In Asia learning languages, especially English, is the gateway to a new job. It is not like the US where people study skills to get a higher paying job. Overcoming the language barrier and being able to communicate is in demand and people somewhere are willing to pay money. Of course you will meet many friends who want to speak English but have little money, and they are good friends. They will appreciate being able to practice their English on you to the point that you have little incentive to speak the local language. Americans are usually not good at learning languages, especially Asians languages. Most Mongolians know 2-3 languages.

C'mon. In Asia how many parents want to send their kids to US colleges?


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