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Any job offer? ( Singapore?

Should I turn down an international job offer from Google to accept a local job in Singapore?

  • I recently graduated from the National University of Singapore and was a recipient of the MOE Tuition subsidy requiring me to work in Singapore for 3 years after graduation. I have been offered a Business Analyst position by Google in their Tokyo office. Accepting the offer would require me to relocate to Tokyo, thereby not allowing me to fulfill the bond obligations. My other option is to choose a more traditional job with an MNC (Fortune 50) in their Singapore office. Should I turn down the Google offer because of my bond obligations? (It was really hard getting in, plus pay and benefits are much better) Additional Info: Paying off/ Deferring the Tuition Bond is out of the question due to economic factors.

  • Answer:

    Since you stated that repaying the bond right now or rescheduling it is not economically feasible, let's examine the consequences of default.  Do your own due diligence, none of this should be treated as legal advice. If you're not a Singapore resident, the personal consequences of reneging on your bond should be fairly low, depending on where you're from, recovery will have considerable obstacles internationally - your guarantors will be the ones on the hook for the default.  If they are foreign nationals not based in Singapore, then the same would apply to them.  If you never return to Singapore, it's unlikely anything will come of it.  Being declared bankrupt in Singapore is unlikely to spread beyond its borders. If you are a Singaporean PR, but have no personal assets to speak of and take an overseas position for many years, you would probably be sued in Singapore and declared bankrupt if no settlement can be reached, or if you ignore the proceedings.  There is likely to be no practical consequence to this until you return to Singapore, as garnishing your wage internationally to pay off your loan is also fraught with obstacles.  Before you do return, you can then contact the Official Assignee's office and work out a repayment schedule, typically for a lower principal total.  The damage to your credit rating in Singapore will be considerable however, and you will find getting loans difficult for several years after you discharge the bankruptcy. In both scenarios, these are problems that are easily solved with money, now or in the future.  So if the Google position is your dream job that pays very well, and Tokyo is where you want to go, you should take it.  Your major risk, if you're returning to Singapore, is that you find Google is not to your liking (or vice versa) - returning before you earn enough to pay off your bond would not be a viable option. Zhun-Yong Ong also stated in the comments below that a Singapore PR could take up Singapore citizenship easily to nullify the bond requirements, which is also a good possible solution.

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Hi, Congratulations. It is a good problem to have. I don't have a suggestion on the decision but I do have a couple of suggestions on the process. W - Widen your options - Avoid "whether or not" decisions if possible. Are there any other options beyond Google and the "traditional top 50" MNC? Any chance to work at Google in Singapore? - Find someone who has solved your problem. It might help reaching out to folks in your network to see if there are others who've solved your problem (hopefully you'll do it without sounding pretentious :)) R -Reality test your assumptions - What long-term career do you want? If it isn't technology, Google may not be the be-all and end-all - really understand why you are doing this. - Have you spoken with folks in the Tokyo office? Are they happy? What about the folks in your traditional Fortune 50 firm? - Play devil's advocate to your own decision to see what sort of objections pop up A - Attain distance - Identify your 3 core priorities. For example, if one of your core priorities is commitment to family and if placing a banker's guarantee for your loan requires you to borrow heavily from your parents, this might count against that. Walking away from the obligation would be a no-no if a core priority was honesty. etc. - What would you advise your best friend to do? - Apply 10/10/10. What decision would you like 10 minutes from now? What do you think you would like to be doing 10 months? What about 10 years from now? P - Prepare to be wrong - Create a realistic preview of your life. For example, if you do decide to take a massive high interest loan, is that what you would want your next 3 years to look like? Tokyo is not cheap. - View the future as a spectrum of possibilities in both cases - what happens if you love the traditional fortune 50? what happens if you hate it? and same for Google Tokyo. -- I'll just add that there is no "right" decision here. It varies from person to person and depends a lot on why you are doing this along with your own tolerance for risk. Take time to think about it, follow a solid process before you make the decision, and then follow it through. And, if it helps at all, there are about 4 billion people on the planet who would kill to have a problem like this. All the best! (Hat tip to Messrs. Chip Heath and Dan Heath and their excellent book, "Decisive," for the above process)

Rohan Rajiv

I'd start with saying that you're in a great position to be in. You were offered an MOE grant, and now you have an internship offered from google. Whatever you choose, you have a great future ahead of you. Now I may be judging from the tone of the question, but most likely you really want to go for google. And I think that on an individual level, that's the most natural choice. You'll join the dream working environment of half the world (figuratively), rubbing shoulders with the smartest of people, working in another new country-new culture will open your eyes to new horizons. That means, the ideal choice for you would be to somehow procure a loan to buy out the bond. It might be a lot. However, I believe they only sponsor the tuition fee, and that upto a certain percentage (80% or so, right?). So you may already be covering some of that cost. If you get a job offered at Google, I believe the remuneration would be significantly higher than the other job that you mention (in all probability) so you'll be able to pay off the loan much quicker. I'd believe 3-5 years at max. Having said that, money is not the only thing that one should choose career lines for -cliché as it may sound, but you'll realize how true it is as you go further along your professional career. Part II - if all of that doesn't work out, you still have a wonderful option locally. Singapore is a great place to be, the job opportunities and work culture, along with the infrastructure is one of the best in the world and probably the best in Asia. Given your scholarship, I'd say that a single guy working in a top 50 MNC would have boat loads of money to travel around and so what you love :). so you can live and work here for 3 years and prepare ourself for further opportunities - it's great knowing where you'd want to be in 3 years. Most people don't have that luxury. If you're good enough for google today, there's no reason why you wouldn't be good enough for them 3 years down the line - if they're still good enough for you. Whatever you choose and whatever you do - do it with faith and complete professional ethics. You have a great future ahead of you. Godspeed!

Kunal Pareek

An offer from Google is something that you simply can't refuse. It's a no-brainer. Take it up! The bond is obviously a problem. You'll have to think of a way to work that out. The most straightforward option is to buy out the bond but it is also the most expensive option for you as a fresh graduate. Another option is that you could probably approach your university's office of student affairs or career centre and see what they can do about it. After all, if their student works for Google, it's prestigious for them! You can probably propose to moe that you'll treat it like a loan that you'll pay off with interest in installments while working and get your university to endorse this request. I don't know whether this works but I know someone who did something similar. He/she had served for 2 yrs and wanted to defer the bond. So the person approached the university's office of student affairs for help and somehow managed to defer the bond without paying a single penny as bankers guarantee. This involves rendering the initial bond agreement as null and void and re-signing the bond agreement with modified bond serving periods. or something along those lines. I can't reveal more details. You'll have to approach your university and find out. Wish you all the best ! Really hope you'll get to work in google. Would be a shame otherwise. Nevertheless, do the right thing! Do not simply leave Singapore without doing anything about the bond. :)

Subramanian Gurumurthy

Take a loan to pay off the tuition grant. If not, accept your fate. There is no way around. Been there done that.

Jiang Fung Wong

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