Singaporean jobseeker says she applied for over 30 retail roles, only to be ghosted or rejected

SINGAPORE: After being repeatedly ignored or let down by potential employers, a jobseeker took to Reddit to ask why “it is so hard to find a job in Singapore.”

In a post on the r/askSingapore forum, the woman shared that she had sent out more than 30 applications on FastJobs, focusing solely on retail positions. While some recruiters did respond via WhatsApp to request her resume, she said most of them never followed up.

“Only 1 recruiter called me for an interview and rejected me from the job,” she wrote. “Another recruiter rubbed salt into my wound today by telling me to go for a face-to-face interview only to cancel the interview before I could arrive at their office.”

“Go for F&B jobs if you can’t find any.”

In the comments, several Singaporeans chimed in with their own experiences and advice. One individual said that delays in getting a response are pretty normal.

“Usually it takes more than 2 weeks for them to call you, that’s what happened for my father,” they explained. “He called many companies too, but only after he got one of the jobs did all the other companies call him to interview.”

Another suggested trying other job platforms, writing, “Have you tried JobStreet? I have been contacted fairly frequently by recruiters in JobStreet.”

Others encouraged her to broaden her options and not just focus on retail. One said, “Go for F&B jobs if you can’t find any. Most of my classmates work in ice cream parlours or boba shops (we are from F&B, so we all have Level 1 at least), but your hirers would provide you with your Level 1 if they’re nice.”

In other news, a Singaporean employee recently shared on social media that her company has been letting staff go without hiring proper replacements, all under the pretext of “restructuring.” She said this has left the remaining staff struggling to cope with the workload.

“All they like to talk about is money, money, money, bring in more money, but when the money comes in, there is barely anyone that has the capacity to do the work,” she wrote on r/askSingapore on Friday (July 4). “Team morale is very low and I can foresee people leaving. Even I want to leave.”

Read more: ‘Barely anyone left to do the work’: Employee says company is using ‘restructuring’ as a cover to cut staff without replacements

Featured image by freepik (for illustration purposes only)