Comment by jernfrost | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jernfrost | Hacker News Reader

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I have entertained the thought of working in Singapore. It appeals living somewhere with bette climate, cheap to go out eating, big city etc. I live in Oslo, Norway and have a certain fascination for Singapore, it coincidentally having almost the same GDP and population as Norway, but a completely different society.

I am not sure if anyone here could comment on some of concerns with working in Singapore.

1) What is work-life balance like? From Norway I am used to employees respecting that people have a life outside of work, needs of children and family, 5 week vacation etc.

2) What is management and company organizations like, are they very hierarchical or flat in a software company? Do they micromanage or give you a lot of trust to solve problems the best way you see fit?

3) How does health care work for expats. You get that yourself or does the company pay?

How easy is it to live there without a car? Like how well does public transport work, or how cheap/hard/easy is it to get transport services for moving, installing furniture etc.

In Norway it always cost a lot to pay somebody to help you with anything, so you are always forced to do a lot of stuff yourself. It is not without reason that IKEA originates from Scandinavia. I had the impression that in Singapore it might be much cheaper and easier to pay people for various services.

I just moved to Singapore from Australia, I suppose it really depends on the company. I was fortunate enough that the company adopts a `Western` work culture.

I work 9-6 with 1 hour of lunch. Very rarely people stay back more than 6:30 PM. Being a startup, it's flat hierarchy, but for the majority of the companies here they are based on deep hierarchy (which can be very frustrating to get things moving).

In regards with healthcare, the company pays for my cover but I had to pay out-of-pocket to cover my family members / dependents.

You'll be fine here without a car. The transport infrastructure is good, taxi is comparatively cheap, and Uber is quite established here.

Also it's very expensive here to buy and maintain a car:

- There's an ownership certificate(?) that you need to purchase via blind auction in order to own a car (runs in the $10,000s so I've heard)

- Cars are taxed pretty heavily here, so expect to pay 2-3x for what you pay in Europe

- Cars registration gets more expensive the older your car is

1) Don't expect 9-5 work if you are in anything remotely high-impact like software or sales.

2) Hard to specify since it varies on the kind of company/sector. PM me if you have something specific to check.

3) Company pays for basic coverage, no International and maternity for 99% cases (take my own estimate with a grain of salt). There are additional packages you can buy on top of company insurance.

Labour cost for services is fairly high in Singapore too, not as high as North Europe but about as much as, UK and Germany.

I've been to Singapore a couple of times, so I can answer about transportation.

You won't have a car in Singapore, unless you are filthy rich, car registrations cost in the tens of thousands of dollars range.

The public transport is world class, the metro is great. I guess that's one of the big benefits of having such a high population density.

Singapore currently has one of the highest standards of living in the world, so bargains are few.

It is nearly 100% ethnic Chinese, and Chinese prefer family-managed companies, so you would have some culture-shock.

There are some web and ISP companies there, so that's your best bet for a typical cosmopolitan workplace.

Condos are over $1 million each for residents, so housing is expensive.

Anyway, it sounds like you need to do more homework before moving there.

74% is a lot less than 100%.

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