My friends ask me why I chose to work at an Indian IT firm. The pay isn’t as high as the western MNCs. In fact, its lower than the market rate prevalent in Singapore.
One reason I gave is that since Indian IT firms were supposedly such a threat to the industry, one could benefit from working in it to understand what is going on.
After 7 months of working here, I have come to the conclusion that we as Singaporeans need not be overly worried about the supposed all powerful twin threats of the rise of India and China. Sure, things will get more competitive, but the key thing to note is (like in this case) an Indian IT firm is just like any other firm - it has its strengths and it has its weaknesses.
We also should not worry about an influx of these foreign talents. The thing is, these people provide opportunities for Singaporeans. Take my industry for an example. The allowance of an influx of foreign IT personnel have allowed companies in the finance industry to plant their regional headquarters here. Singapore has qualities that attract these companies such as our legal, corporate and governmental infrastructure, but wages might have been a deal breaker. Also, we might not have had enough IT personnel for all the companies wanting to establish their regional IT headquarters here. Allowing the foreign talents to come in to fill the IT positions helps push the decision in Singapore’s favour.
What happens now is that there are positions in management that Singaporeans can go for. A good number of my peers have joined the IT departments of such companies that manage the projects done by companies like mine.
The thing is, we shouldn’t compete for positions at the bottom of the value chain. These foreign talents do allow Singaporeans to move up the value chain. Of course, there is also the argument about Singaporeans losing out on management positions going to other foreign talents.
I can’t comment on that because I don’t have personal experience with that. Anyway, one thing does come to mind - when does foreign talent become foreign labour. Like for my industry, would we consider the programmers from Indian foreign talent or foreign labour?
Anyway, this post started out with the intention of talking about the Cricket World Cup. It is a big thing, and because of the influx of foreign talent into Singapore, it is actually a big thing to a significant number of people in Singapore.
I remembered how during the Soccer World Cup, there were enterprising businesses that took advantage of that period by catering to fans. Maybe Singaporeans could look into how we can cater to the needs of these foreign talents too. I’m sure there are opportunities to do so and to actually do well.
For example, my colleague subscribed for the package which allows him to watch the matches live. I think the package costs more than $100. He told me that back in India, he might have spent more during this period, but since he is here, he is just going home to watch the games. I don’t know, but that sounds like an opportunity to cater to a need by providing him a better experience of watching the Cricket World Cup.
In any case, I guess I just wanted to say don’t be discouraged about this change in Singapore society, but look at it as opportunities waiting to be seized.
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