Interview Experience in Singapore(Part Ⅰ)

Contents:

① Introductions

② Ways to Apply For a Job in Singapore

③ Preparation & Phone Interview

④ Face to Face( FTF ) Interviews

⑤ Summary

 

① Introductions

After a long-time fighting, I got two offers to be a web designer in Singapore and signed one of them. Now looking back, my finding a suitable job is not an easy thing. I took many interviews and each one drew me a lesson. Here, I just want to put them all down for my own memory. And it’d be better If that turns out to be useful to someone.

My current situation to find a job is as follows:

Name: ***

College: bachelor degree of a general university in China

Work experience:

4 years’ work experience in Chengdu, in which, 2 years as a 3D designer, the other two years as a web designer / UI designer

Have no multinational company (MNC) work experience or overseas work experience in my field, that’d be a big shortage for applying jobs in Singapore.

English Skills:

CET-6, but I think my oral English is not so good to survive me through tough interviews in a real English speaking country.

Visa status: DP

Job Objective: web designer / UI designer

 

② Ways to Apply For a Job in Singapore

Most people chose the following three methods to apply for a job:

1. Strait Times (a local newspaper, there’s a column full of all kinds of latest job ads, many people find it’s really useful. But to me, I prefer others that won’t cost me a penny, like the job sites I’ll refer to later. )

2. recruitment agencies( in Singapore, recruitment agencies really play an important role in one’s seeking for a job, you may not login in as a member to any large recruitment agencies, but it turns out many position you applied on job sites are posted by these agencies. To me, most of my applications are sent to these agencies, and they really bring me a lot chances. )

3. Job sites (As I’ve always find a job online, in China, I used 51job, ChinaHR, and they don’t cost me anything. So in Singapore, this’s also the method I depend on to find a job. Like monster, jobStreet, jobsDB, they are all famous job sites used by local people. But some people think they’re the slowest and most useless way to find a job. They said you’re quite lucky to have one interview after you’ve applied for more than 20 jobs online.)

 

③ Preparations & Phone Interview

An idiom goes that: chances favours the minds that are prepared. So I did many preparation in the job seeking process. They are as follows:

CV: you’d better have one page concise CV that can emphasize your advantages. But try to be precise and put some specific things that can prove. Then about the details (like projects), you can attach more pages after that, but also be specific and precise.

Online Application: you post your CVs on monster, jobStreet, jobsDB these kind of job sites. But if there’s an email or the company’s website. You’d better mail your CV with a short introduction to that mailbox too. Or you can also go to the company’s website, and apply the job in the specific section. AS some people think jobs posted on such job sites are mostly only ads for company publicity, and there’s little chance for you to get a reply. So in these ways you can really increase chances to be replied. HR always checks theirs mailbox, if they find your CV and think you’re the one. They’ll absolutely contact you.

Other Preparations: you’d better think about some common questions you may be asked in an interview and fully prepared your answers for them. For me, I prepared like:

· 50 COMMON INTERVIEW Q&A

· Common questions asked during an interview and how to answer them

· 11 Common Web Design Company Interview Questions

Because you know, for mandarin interview, you may not need these, you can totally convey your meanings to the interviewer. But for whole English speaking interview when you’re not a native speaker, you may not possibly fully show yourself to the interviewer.

Last but not least, no matter how fully you prepared, you should surely have the thing, that’s to say your abilities and technical skills are the most important things for the interviewer. So you should always keep studying. Both on your professional areas and your English ability, and for me, I also prepared these basic things:

· CSS Interview Questions and Answers

· JS Interview Questions and Answers

· 20 common HTML and CSS interview questions and answers

· Web Design: 20 Hottest Trends to Watch Out For in 2013

Phone interviews: in my job seeking process, I received phone calls from interviewers almost every day. But many end there. They may notice my shortage in English conversation, and further think I’ll have some communication problems in later job. That really ruined many of my interview chances. Then I found some way out as follows:

1. When you answer the phone, you should treat it as a serious FTF interview. Have some technics and behave professionally. You can start this way: hello, this is ***.

2. Think about yourself and fully prepared for some common phone interview Q&A. I prepared:

· Avoid These 9 Common Phone Interview Blunders

· Most Common Phone Interview Questions And Answers

3. Do not stammer or use excessive slang. Uh, um, and like are horrible fillers in speech. It is better to pause momentarily to collect thoughts than it is to explain that you were the, uh, like, uh head, uh cashier. And you should also not say so many words like: pardon? Could you repeat? Sorry? If you do so, the interviewer will be interrupted for many times. Then he’ll think you’ve some problems understanding him and you’re not the person he wanted as you’ll have this communication problems in later job too.

4. You don’t have to understand every word the interviewer said. Just catch key words and answer concisely. You can also turn on the automatic recorder of your phone, then you can listen again for not missing any important details.

To be continued……….

Next time, I’ll share some of my face to face interview experiences. And maybe some of you can benefit from it. Thanks!