complicated simplicity

I actually never wanted to blog this, but the recent recent MM Lee’s remarks to UPI and his talk about ‘talent’, I felt I had to weigh in my opinion as a ‘talent’.
By definition, I’m a ‘talent’. Let’s not create another Wee incident over anything here, but just take it. Obviously to save everyone the issues, no names and no companies will be mentioned. It’s just my 2 cents from an overseas "talent" point of view.

A few weeks ago, one of my professors suddenly decided that I should address him by his first name. Sure, nothing uncommon here in Europe. Then he dropped the bombshell: He wanted me to take on a research fellowship under him with the funding of an unnamed company, and he offered to pay off everything I owed. Wow? Sure, I told him I’ll think about it, and carried on with my lab work. He seemed really stunned at my nonchalance.

Simply because this was not the only offer I have received in the past year.

One of my lecturers who left, offered to take me on a full scholarship in his research group in another university where he moved to. I had to pay off my own bond, but that isn’t really an issue here. I would be paid, my PhD would be fully funded, with housing expenses included. That was last year.

A petrol-chemical company offered me a position as a Oil Derivatives trader, after I supposedly did quite well in their interviews and tests. I was offered the position of an associate. Sounds good? It gets better. 35 days of annual paid leave, 2 return air tickets to Singapore annually, a large housing allowance, and a car allowance. Right, more to come.

As a trained chemist, I was approached by an European pharmaceutical company to take on a placement at their Advanced Drug Research laboratory in Basel early this year. The pay? A significant 6-figure sum (Singapore dollars) annually, as a junior chemist. 28 days annual leave, and 2 return airfare to anywhere in the world, housing allowance and the usual. Apparently, I came ‘high recommended’ by someone. No idea who, but I appreciated the effort.

Of course, it’s not always about the money. But for a person like me who’s always been very mobile, there’s really no issue holding me back to Singapore. My family’s been quite international, so I guess everyone at home’s used to it. But ask anyone here who studies here, or in America. Ignoring everything else, if only considering the opportunities and renumeration, what would your choice be? Well, answer’s quite simple: Stay.

I’m not even going to talk about the pull factors of the global cities of London, New York and the likes. It’s simply that the environment back home is really unfavourable for graduates like me to return home. The labour policies which are drawing MNCs and regional companies to Singapore, are also the policies which are resulting in the brain drain.

Think about it: Cheaper, skilled labour lowers production costs and good quality work. An overseas graduate like me can easily find the same work overseas for easily double, or triple the pay. Sure we spend more, but the amount I save here in Britain gives me three times more spending power. Long work cycles, typically 14 days of annual leave, provides such companies with a continuous production cycle and minimal downtime in Singapore. If I work in Europe, I get a minimum of 21 days of annual leave, plus off-in-lieu when I work on weekends. A friend of mine consistently gets about 40 days off a year here in Europe.

Not talking about MNCs, even the SMCs don’t welcome overseas ‘talents’. Why spend more and hire and returning overseas graduate when you can spend less and hire the local graduate? Or maybe, "Why? cannot get into NUS, NTU ah? Why go overseas and study?" This was an exact quote a friend mentioned to me when she had an interview with a local company recently.

Add in the glitz of living in a metropolitan city of London, New York, Washington, or being able to say you live in the Silicon Valley. How about just taking a quick break and hop over into Paris via the Eurostar whenever you feel like it? How does that sound to you? Or hide away in the Swiss Alps for a quick Christmas or Easter for a fortnight?

Singapore must not expect Singaporeans to return home to work after their stint overseas if they do not produce a conducive environment for returning overseas graduates. We may be Singaporeans, but the fight for talent is worldwide, and there are many entities who believe in digging deep into their pockets in order to retain (or to attract) their stars. Money can be earned, yet stars comes rarely. Being home doesn’t mean there is a huge edge over the rest, it just means we’ll probably take you into consideration as well when we make our decisions. Brain drain is inevitable, and plugging the hole is a seriously tough job to do. I quote a friend of mine, "Show me the money, the opportunities, and give me my life, and I will consider going home." This comes from a successful senior chemist at Bayer who has been leading research teams and has his finger dipped into many patents.

Life is a bitch isn’t it?

My 2 cents worth, don’t quote me out of context. Feel free to comment, in a mature manner please.