SINGAPORE: After a legal recruiter said on a recent podcast that companies are now choosing to hire “hungrier” workers from Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and are letting go of Singaporean workers, this caused no small amount of comments online.
The recruiter, who is also the founder of Aslant Legal, is a 42-year-old former lawyer named Shulin Lee. Ms Lee was a guest on an episode aired on April 30 of CNA’s Deep Dive Podcast titled “Why are younger workers leaving stable careers just a
SINGAPORE: After a legal recruiter said on a recent podcast that companies are now choosing to hire “hungrier” workers from Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and are letting go of Singaporean workers, this caused no small amount of comments online.
The recruiter, who is also the founder of Aslant Legal, is a 42-year-old former lawyer named Shulin Lee. Ms Lee was a guest on an episode aired on April 30 of CNA’s Deep Dive Podcast titled “Why are younger workers leaving stable careers just a few years in?”
A short clip from the episode was posted on social media and has been widely viewed and commented on.
In it, Ms Lee says, “For the young employees, you need to be a little bit more paranoid about what the future holds, because the companies that I now work with are letting go of Singaporeans in favour of hiring people in Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, not because they’re necessarily more skilled, but because they are a lot hungrier. And that hunger is now irreplaceable.
No amount of enrichment classes will make my children smarter than AI. I’m telling everyone to double down on their relationship-building skills. You have to go for a job interview, be able to look into someone’s eye, and carry a conversation.”
She added that many Gen Zs, those born between 1995 and 2012, are unable to carry on a conversation or explain what they do to a stranger, something Ms Lee said she finds terrifying.
Many who have commented on Ms Lee’s remarks have not held back in disagreeing with her, taking a particular exception to the issue of whether or not Singaporean workers are less “hungry” than those from other countries.
“Hungrier = Willing to accept low pay and longer hours. The old adage – ‘Will work for food’,” a Facebook user remarked drily.
“‘Hungrier’ in corporate language translates to ‘desperate’ in layman’s terms. If there’s a job offer in another country that pays me 3 or more times more for the same job here, I would also react with the same ‘hunger’ for that job,” chimed in another.
In the same vein, a YouTube user wrote, “I disagree with the statement ‘foreign workers are hungrier’. They are merely more incentivised to work due to the higher exchange rate. They can finance 2 bungalows back at home with a salary here. Don’t believe me? Depreciate SGD by 80% and see if foreign workers are hungry to work here.”
Another who said they agreed with the commenter added, “If they are hungrier, why are they not contributing and grinding in companies in their own countries?”
“Employers say they want hunger… yet when you show hunger, they want to put you in your place and obey, then accuse you of rocking the boat by proposing new ideas,” a commenter shared.
Another wrote, “This recruiter is pushing a toxic work culture on young people. Hunger is great, but once you lose steam, you are immediately discarded w/o a second thought.” /TISG
SINGAPORE: It’s no secret that many job seekers today have to submit well over a hundred applications to secure a role, but in a shocking Reddit post, a Singaporean marketing professional revealed that she has hit burnout after sending more than 800 applications over the past four months, only to land three interviews.
While some might assume her applications are being filtered out because of AI, she believes something else may be affecting her chances. She pointed in particular to the overlap b
SINGAPORE: It’s no secret that many job seekers today have to submit well over a hundred applications to secure a role, but in a shocking Reddit post, a Singaporean marketing professional revealed that she has hit burnout after sending more than 800 applications over the past four months, only to land three interviews.
While some might assume her applications are being filtered out because of AI, she believes something else may be affecting her chances. She pointed in particular to the overlap between her work experience and her studies.
“My full-time work overlaps almost entirely with my degree timeline,” she wrote. “I’ve been told that this could raise red flags for recruiters or ATS (Applicant Tracking System), potentially making it seem like I’m misrepresenting my experience or that my roles weren’t truly full-time.”
She explained that she pursued her bachelor’s degree from January 2023 to December 2025. During that time, she also held two full-time roles, the first from August 2022 to October 2023 and the second from December 2023 to October 2024.
She eventually left her second job to focus on her studies. “I stopped working from late 2024 through 2025 to focus entirely on completing my degree. Balancing full-time work and studies simultaneously led to significant burnout, so I made the decision to prioritise finishing my education properly,” she said.
Now, she finds herself in a difficult position. She wants to highlight both her academic qualifications and her professional experience, but is concerned that the overlap may be hurting her chances.
To deal with this, she’s considering making some tweaks to her resume. “[I’m thinking]of adding ‘part-time’ next to my degree, keeping the degree title unchanged, but including a bullet point explaining I worked full-time concurrently.”
She also plans to “mention this context briefly in her professional summary” to clear out any misunderstandings.
“My intention was always to position this as a strength,” she added. “I saw working full-time while studying as a sign of discipline and resilience, but I’m starting to wonder if it may be creating confusion instead.”
“Mass sending of applications is not going to yield good results.”
In the comments, an HR professional chimed in, saying that they weren’t surprised by the jobseeker’s application-to-interview ratio, as the “job market for marketing has been really competitive for the past 1–2 years.”
They went on to share a few suggestions on how she can improve her odds of getting an interview.
They said, “Seeing you have just 2-3 years of work experience, keep your resume to just 1 page. Feel free to send me your resume if you would like, or you can have AI review your resume (just omit sensitive data).”
“On your job scope, keep it in point form and don’t make it 2 lines per point and end up having a cluttered resume. Font size shouldn’t be too small. I received a size 6 font resume before, and I just brushed it off because the whole resume is just a cluttered mess. Good luck!”
Another user, who said they work as a recruiter, suggested that companies might be rejecting her applications because she spent a relatively short time in her first two roles.
They explained, “You might have painted yourself into a corner there. The first thing on my mind as a recruiter is will this ‘fler chut’ pattern happen again if we hire? The best you can do is exclude the second job or call it part-time. Just tell them you wanted to work the first job for a full year and tendered at the 1-year mark with a 30-day notice.”
A third user also cautioned her against sending out a huge number of generic job applications just to try her luck at landing an interview, saying this kind of approach, often called the ‘spray and pray’ method, rarely works and can actually hurt her chances instead of helping.
They explained, “I find it hard to imagine any adaptation of your application to show you understand each company and role you were applying to, since there were 800 applications. Mass sending of applications is not going to yield good results.”
They added, “Have you written to companies unsolicited? Go out to network. Go to events. Meet people and put yourself out there. Tell everyone you know you are looking for a job. If I were in your position… I would write unsolicited to companies or people I love to work for and offer my services. Tell them you are willing to accept any opportunity just because you really want to work for them.”
In other news, a commuter in her 20s has vented online after an elderly woman allegedly confronted her for sitting in a reserved seat and repeatedly insisted it was “for seniors only.”
Posting on the r/SMRTRabak forum on Friday (April 24), the commuter said she had just finished a shift that left her “physically and mentally” drained.
SINGAPORE: Watching a parent slowly lose their sense of purpose after being out of work for a long time is never easy. It’s heartbreaking, to say the least.
Recently, a Singaporean who seems to be running out of options turned to social media to ask how they might help their father get back on his feet and find work again.
In a post on the r/asksg forum, the writer shared that their father, who is turning 50 this year, has been unemployed for about two years and has had little success securing e
SINGAPORE: Watching a parent slowly lose their sense of purpose after being out of work for a long time is never easy. It’s heartbreaking, to say the least.
Recently, a Singaporean who seems to be running out of options turned to social media to ask how they might help their father get back on his feet and find work again.
In a post on the r/asksg forum, the writer shared that their father, who is turning 50 this year, has been unemployed for about two years and has had little success securing even interviews.
They suggested that his age, along with the current hiring climate, may be working against him despite his years of experience.
According to the post, the father previously held “generalist roles in the government sector” at the deputy director level, with a background spanning “operations, policy work, and managing teams and projects.”
Currently, the family is trying to explore what realistic paths are still available to him at this stage of his career.
“We’re trying to explore what options he might still have at this stage. Would roles like contract work, consulting, or moving to adjacent sectors be more realistic?” they asked
“He’s a bit hesitant about switching industries since he’s been in the public sector for a long time, but we’re open to ideas.”
In the comments, one Singaporean Redditor said, “Mid-career is rough now even for good people, man. I’ve seen ex-director-level folks do contract ops or project roles just to get back in. Look at temp contracts, government stat boards, or consulting gigs via agencies. Manage expectations on pay and level, too. Age bias is real, and hiring is slow; stuff that took a month now drags for a year. Job hunting now is just pain.”
Another user who said they got retrenched at ages 39 and 61 wrote: “There are opportunities out there. He needs to leverage his contacts, go through WSG, and find an appropriate headhunter/recruiter. Don’t stop looking. I am still working now as a C-level.”
A third commented, “From what I’ve been observing recently, it seems like the majority of the government jobs are being converted to a contractual basis rather than permanent full-time. Maybe you can ask your dad to try and find contract-based project management roles?”
A fourth added, “This is my personal suggestion—work as a consultant to some established SMEs. His skill sets of policy, operational and managing teams and projects could be deployed to manage SMEs that have reached a sizable size who are looking to formalise and modernise their organisation.”
In other news, a 29-year-old woman turned to Reddit to ask if she was “overreacting” for wanting a divorce after feeling that her marriage had slowly fallen apart.
Posting on the r/asksg forum on Sunday (Mar 19), she shared that she and her husband dated for three years and have been married for two.
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