Ex-Meta, Shopee staff not tempted by Singapore banks
Banks in Singapore are keen to hire technologists who were laid off from tech firms such as Meta and Shopee in the final months of 2022. But not many of them want to move into banking, according to senior recruiters who attended a recent eFinancialCareers round table.
Meta reportedly cut at least 50 people in Singapore last month, while e-commerce firm Shopee has laid off about 7,000 people in six months, including at its Singapore headquarters. Some of those affected at both firms were technologists.
“The sell-side lost a lot of talent to tech players and it’s now licking its lips that they might want to come back following these layoffs. But the tech firms paid big money to attract them, so these people are expecting the same pay to return to banking,” said a Singapore tech recruiter, who like his round table counterparts asked not to be named in this article.
“There’s an expectation gap – about 15% to 20% – between what candidates are looking for and what banks are paying. In 2023, someone will have to budge,” he added.
Meanwhile, candidates will remain in control of the job market in technology in Singapore financial services next year – especially in jobs such as digital transformation, data analytics, cyber security, and site reliability engineering.
But from the highs of the first half of 2022, recruiters have noticed a minor fall in demand for tech candidates from financial institutions, which is likely to continue into the new year.
“Tech hiring is getting back to a slightly less crazy state,” said a round table delegate based in Singapore. “The tech job market will be hot next year, just a little more up and down than we’ve got used to recently, given economic headwinds,” added another.
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
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