27-year-old Singaporean security officer earning $1400. Kena replaced by FTrash!

[makapaaa]

<TABLE class=forumline cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=row1 vAlign=top align=left width=150>67Secs



Joined: 07 Sep 2010
Posts: 594

</TD><TD class=row1 vAlign=top width="100%" height=28><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 10:50 am Post subject: ☆ 27-year-old Singaporean security officer earning $1400</TD><TD vAlign=top noWrap> </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>Dear Sir,

My name is Abdullah, 27 years old and currently working as a security officer earning around $1400. Before this, I was working as a Restaurant Manager in a F & B outlet.

I’ve been working in the F & B industry since I’m 16 years old. My first job is a part timer working in Long John Silver’s – I was promoted to Floor Manager and then to Assistant Manager.

I have to stall my career due to N.S. Upon leaving N.S, I rejoined the company and worked for a long while before deciding to further my education.

I took up Diploma In Hotel Management, thinking that it was a good prospect to go into. But halfway through my course, I have to drop out due to financial reasons.

My father who was my main sponsor for the course got retrenched and was jobless.

I managed to get an interview with Secret Recipe and work with them for a good year before office politics took over and I was then replaced by a foreigner…

So began my journey looking into for jobs in all the wrong places. For the very first time, I experienced difficulty in searching for work even in the F & B industry which many Singaporeans shun. Now it is flooded with foreigners…

On one occasion that I went for an interview with ‘Starbucks’, I was dismayed that I was competing for a “trainee manager” job with many foreign talents who have degrees and masters to offer.

I remembered vividly how the interviewing officer retorted: “Give me one good reason to employ you - a local – who demands $2000 basic pay when I have loads of foreigners with masters and degrees wanting the same job for less?”

My reply was simply this: ” I have loads of experience in running an operation on a day to day basis. If my pay is really an issue, it can still be negotiated. I chose $2100 because its the median pay, as given by MOM. I don’t mind working for a few hundred dollars less BUT it must be reasonable.”

To which he replied that the foreigners too have experience overseas – which is much better than local experience. And again he stressed, for a person with that kind of qualification, asking the same pay as a local worker, dollar for dollar its much better in value. This sadly happened to many of the job interviews that I went to.

I was then job hunting for nearly a year without any success so I went to the CDC pleading for help. The best they could offer is recommending me jobs such as security officer, cleaning supervisor and general worker.

Beggars can’t be choosers I guess, so I decided to join the security industry. Thinking that this is good prospect and at that point of time the government was “professionalising” the industry, I decided to give it a go.

To my dismay, the basic salary is very low – only $600+ for some companies, but after adding in allowances and overtime, it reaches the very most at $1400.

You are talking about working 12 hours daily on a 6-day basis from 10am – 11pm and you can’t get pass beyond $1400 a month. Sometimes, I have to volunteer for 24-hour work shift so that I could earn enough to pay for all my bills!

And the “professionalising” that was so hyped about was only the implementation of a “SIRD” licence card - the low wagse and long working hours have not changed much. I worked for 2 security companies to date and was unhappy with the work conditions.

I cant see myself working like this till I grow old and weary.

I believe I’m still young and still have a lot to offer. I’m interested in info-comm. I even sourced around for upgrading courses that I can keep improving myself.

And as you know, private education is oh so very expensive. But Mendaki gave me a ray of hope.

They say that I can apply for their subsidy, provided I’m employed for 3 months prior to the course. It’s impossible for me to further my education with the kind of job that I have, because the courses mostly start at 7pm, and most of the time, at 7pm I’m still at work.

With that in mind, I tried looking for a 9-5 job with a minimum salary of $1400 as stipulated by the terms and conditions given by Mendaki Sense.

Here’s where I’m stuck - I can’t seem to find any employers that is willing to take me in as I don’t have any working experience in info-com.

I’m really really at a loss for what to do – I’m planning to get married in a couple of years’ time, but I can’t allow myself to have any long term commitments when my bread and butter issue is still very unstable.

Please sir, I really really don’t know what to do. I’m at my wits end. Any advice/coaching pertaining to this matter will be very much appreciated.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[cooleo]

He writes fairly well for a Mat. Maybe he can work in some admin exec job.

 

[groinroot]

No prize for guessing for whom he voted in the 2011 GE!

There is a $1/- budget store in Serangoon Central and I have witnessed how a female pinoy supervisor bullying a local employer. It appears these pinoys, when in authority, will try to get rid of locals and try to bring in their own kind. If this trend does not stop, PAP will be in deep water.

 

[scroobal]

Imagine, a native young Singaporeans all of 27 years of age having done National Service and wondering what happened to his country, his future and his destiny. Bear in mind he was applying for a job in Starbucks and not some NASA type job. Singaporeans must be most mild and accepting nationality in the world, compliant, fearful of state, law abiding in the face of great difficulty.

The Malays have to ask themselves what the fuck their own MPs are doing? If I was Masagoes and Yaacob, I would resign for having failed their own community.

 

[wikiphile]

Imagine, a native young Singaporeans all of 27 years of age having done National Service and wondering what happened to his country, his future and his destiny. Bear in mind he was applying for a job in Starbucks and not some NASA type job. Singaporeans must be most mild and accepting nationality in the world, compliant, fearful of state, law abiding in the face of great difficulty.

The Malays have to ask themselves what the fuck their own MPs are doing? If I was Masagoes and Yaacob, I would resign for having failed their own community.

I did quite foresaw this earlier when the foreigners started coming in and begun displacing Singaporeans working in blue collar jobs. The Malay workforce is worrying despite all the positive spin PAP churns out. Many of them in their 20s-30s have at best completed secondary education or with ITCs/NTCs. Some of them have no paper qualifications whatsoever having dropped out of school in their teens and so on. Globalisation has struck a lot of Singaporeans very badly, if the highly qualified and educated Singaporeans Chinese already faces intense competition from foreigners for PMET jobs, then what about those undereducated Malay youths competing with cheaper foreigners? I am not going to give this a positive spin, the problem has already manifested itself and it WILL exacerbate!

 

[Lucian Darth]

Many fr middle & low income groups are stuck with this type of problem. The gov kept saying upgrade ur skills, maintain competitiveness, which in return will secure employment. Total bs!!! This guy is the classic example of the problem these ppl r facing. It is either no money to take or no time to take ( coz got take a pay cut to compete with FT for employment, then ended up got to take 2 jobs to make ends meet.)
I sometimes wonders if these policies are intended to exterminate the middle & low income group? So that they starve to death and can't even have offspring. Then with only the upper class elites surviving, continue to run the country and whip the FT's arses as if they are slaves. Well, just a thought.

 

[cleareyes]

I find this set of writing style very familiar, its as the same or similar to those you can find in TR. The display style and arrangement is extremely similar and the subject itself.....same manner.

and because of that, I have doubts if this letter is really from the person named.

 

[Lucian Darth]

I find this set of writing style very familiar, its as the same or similar to those you can find in TR. The display style and arrangement is extremely similar and the subject itself.....same manner.

and because of that, I have doubts if this letter is really from the person named.

I dun mind even if the person is fictional.
The point here is, the situation is real, there are many out there who are stuck with situation like that. It is a reflection of the plight of the many middle and lower income group. I believe to highlight the issue is the purpose of this thread.

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

No prize for guessing for whom he voted in the 2011 GE!

There is a $1/- budget store in Serangoon Central and I have witnessed how a female pinoy supervisor bullying a local employer. It appears these pinoys, when in authority, will try to get rid of locals and try to bring in their own kind. If this trend does not stop, PAP will be in deep water.

WRONG.....................it's S'poreans that will get in serious trouble not the PAP........................

with civil servants and their families and those from stat boards + ever-increasing hordes of new foreign citizens voting PAP, they're perfectly safe !

 

[makapaaa]

No prize for guessing for whom he voted in the 2011 GE!

There is a $1/- budget store in Serangoon Central and I have witnessed how a female pinoy supervisor bullying a local employer. It appears these pinoys, when in authority, will try to get rid of locals and try to bring in their own kind. If this trend does not stop, PAP will be in deep water.

Why should the FAP be in deep water? Aren't they happy with such an outcome?

 

[NT-Farcist]

What's the point of pushing home ownership policy when people have problem putting food on table everyday.

This gentleman should acquire a skill that can earn money. Academic qualifications/certs are of no value to him now. Learn a skill. E.g. cook, mechanic, hair stylist, taxi driver, plumber, etc. Do not ask govt for help. You are still young.
Your MP can only write letter for you, or give you food coupon. They will not solve your problems. The solution is in your own hands.

Since this gentleman has F&B experience, it's better to open his own hawker stall than to compete with FT for jobs. Who knows you may sell the best curry puff in Singapore?

 

[Cruxx]

Supply and demand. I suggest he get into Indonesian cuisine instead. A significant proportion of Singapore's richest residents are Indonesians after all.

 

[ivebert]

Trash replaced by trash

What's the big deal?

 

[Papsmearer]

I did quite foresaw this earlier when the foreigners started coming in and begun displacing Singaporeans working in blue collar jobs. The Malay workforce is worrying despite all the positive spin PAP churns out. Many of them in their 20s-30s have at best completed secondary education or with ITCs/NTCs. Some of them have no paper qualifications whatsoever having dropped out of school in their teens and so on. Globalisation has struck a lot of Singaporeans very badly, if the highly qualified and educated Singaporeans Chinese already faces intense competition from foreigners for PMET jobs, then what about those undereducated Malay youths competing with cheaper foreigners? I am not going to give this a positive spin, the problem has already manifested itself and it WILL exacerbate!

Globalization has nothing to do with this at all. Its govt. policies. U don't see other countries get flooded with FTs, to the tune of one third of their population. Globalization is just the excuse the PAP use to bring in all these FTs. Only idiots believe this.

 

[Papsmearer]

What's the point of pushing home ownership policy when people have problem putting food on table everyday.

This gentleman should acquire a skill that can earn money. Academic qualifications/certs are of no value to him now. Learn a skill. E.g. cook, mechanic, hair stylist, taxi driver, plumber, etc. Do not ask govt for help. You are still young.
Your MP can only write letter for you, or give you food coupon. They will not solve your problems. The solution is in your own hands.

Since this gentleman has F&B experience, it's better to open his own hawker stall than to compete with FT for jobs. Who knows you may sell the best curry puff in Singapore?

People like u are fucking retards or illiterate. This chap is living from paycheck to paycheck, he is probably in debt too. Where would he get the money to open a hawker stall? Academic certs may be of no value, but every employer is asking for higher and higher academic certs. U don't show them one, how are u going to ghet employed? And why shouldn't he ask his govt. for help? This is what govt.s are supposed to do, they are supposed to create jobs for their won citizens, not citizens of other countries.

 

[scroobal]

Bro, you completely lost the plot. Singaporeans are losing jobs across the work spectrum because it is cheaper to employ a foreigner. That has nothing to do with qualifications. Here is an example - my friend runs a middle sized business and his accountant who was with him for 11 years and drawing $7K was due for maternity leave and wanted to to take additional 3 months. He was looking for a temp and found that he could get an Indian accountant for $2K. A foreigner with a degree is allowed to apply for 6 mths visa to look for a job. This is the only country that has a liberal open door policy. People are getting retrenched all the time. First it was those in late 40s and now it even those who are not even 30 years of age.


In 2000, elderly cleaners who are Singaporeans can collect between $800 and $1000 a month. Not anymore. Even if they agree to work for $600, it still goes to an FT.

Why you think the PAP lost voteshare in 2 consecutive elections and lost an entire GRC with 2 cabinet ministers to boot. I can ensure you it has nothing do with forest fires in Indonesia.

Did you read his letter. He cannot compete with cheaper pinoys and other foreigners.

What's the point of pushing home ownership policy when people have problem putting food on table everyday.

This gentleman should acquire a skill that can earn money. Academic qualifications/certs are of no value to him now. Learn a skill. E.g. cook, mechanic, hair stylist, taxi driver, plumber, etc. Do not ask govt for help. You are still young.
Your MP can only write letter for you, or give you food coupon. They will not solve your problems. The solution is in your own hands.

Since this gentleman has F&B experience, it's better to open his own hawker stall than to compete with FT for jobs. Who knows you may sell the best curry puff in Singapore?

 

[GeylangCheongster]

Employers love PRCs because they are damn hardworking - at least for the first two years when their balls are still squeeze by agent and they have loan to pay back home

 

[halsey02]

What's the point of pushing home ownership policy when people have problem putting food on table everyday.

This gentleman should acquire a skill that can earn money. Academic qualifications/certs are of no value to him now. Learn a skill. E.g. cook, mechanic, hair stylist, taxi driver, plumber, etc. Do not ask govt for help. You are still young.
Your MP can only write letter for you, or give you food coupon. They will not solve your problems. The solution is in your own hands.

Since this gentleman has F&B experience, it's better to open his own hawker stall than to compete with FT for jobs. Who knows you may sell the best curry puff in Singapore?

Your right on this, the MP's etc., are just a 'punch & judy' show; unless you are well connected with them or should we say, "guangxi", hoping to get some crumbs from the Master's table is akin to "Oliver, asking "can I have some more gruel"?

It used to be for people what are discussing to go into the food trade, which was once what they are good at. Unfortunately, the 'whites' have effectively killed all local entrepreneurship, unless, one have money, once again connection ( volunteer RC CC etc), one cannot even make a honest day living, hawking curry puffs off the corridors of HDB flats like the old days, never mind getting a hawker's licence to run a stall or open a food joint.

I had encountered bringing in FT & ensuring that only their kind are employed when I was out looking for work for a brief period in 1992. At that time, I was doing a career switch & UPGRADING myself, I went looking for simple jobs like data processing to get some income & put food on the table, plus feed a government at the same time. I found out that this line of work was dominated by a large number of Kek Lengs from India, whose husbands are working here & they get their wives to work part time plus the fact that the hiring people were their own kind. Not only were there kek lengs, it was also saturated with Pinoys.

Fast forward to the years 200's nothing had changed, now the problem is worse, we have FT of any country on this earth filling up jobs that SINgaporeans could fill. For example, a certain F&B group running their supermarkets & convenience stores have filled them with Pinoys. This is just one example, it is not diffcult to find out more by visiting any shopping malls. These positions were usually filled with people of "you guess the race", now they are muscled out of jobs which once was available to them & others.

Unless we have an enshrined " SINgaporean First" policy in HR, we the citizens will be having a difficult time, putting food on the table, paying for our roof over our head. All the we are listening to you, is a bull shit!

 

[MightyMouse]

Just read today's ChinaDaily's article about mixed marriages in China.

The first line says: "There are now about 600,000 foreigners working and living in China, a number not including those visiting for less than three months."

How can China, with such a big economy with billions and billions of Foreign Direct Investments and tens of thousand foreign owned enterprises only have 600K foreigners (including their family members) working there? Why do we need so many FTs to keep our economy chugging along. Is the government looking at the interest of the local population or that of the FTs?

 

[ivebert]

Employers love PRCs because they are damn hardworking - at least for the first two years when their balls are still squeeze by agent and they have loan to pay back home

Are you saying that Sinkies local trash are not hardworking?