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This is an interesting story told to me by an NUS tutor a couple of days ago.

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Around two months ago, I was on the interview panel for an MNC hiring for executive positions in their sales division. There were 20 candidates; 18 Singaporean, one PRC, one continental Indian. There were eight people on the panel, including myself and two others with no corporate affiliation to provide independent perspectives; we had all been specifically instructed to prefer the Singaporean candidates as far as possible. 

The Singaporean candidates went first. They were all punctually, well-dressed, good speakers and obviously bright. They handled themselves satisfactorily and fit what we were looking for. They all also stumbled on one particular question – they were each quizzed on a specific not-very-successful and hence not very well known product of the MNC’s. They were asked for their opinions regarding why it failed to impress.

Every single one of them struggled. They either had never heard of this product before, or had only vague knowledge. None passed this hurdle.

Then came the foreigners. They also handled themselves well throughout the interview, if a little less fluent in their speaking; the PRC talked too slowly and too little, the continental Indian too fast and too much. Not that much of a difference, just enough to be noticeable.

When we brought out the killer question that had beat the Singaporeans, both foreigners immediately rose to the task. Each had brought with him a thumb drive packed with information – spreadsheets, saved web pages, pie charts, graphs, even presentations – of the MNC’s products and marketing strategies going back five to ten years. I don’t even know how they got all that information, and the company insiders all confirmed it was original work – that is to say, not stolen and passed along by employees. In any case, the foreigners had even taken the initiative to include their own analyses and suggestions. That isn’t something that can be copy-pasted or copied.

The choice at the end of the entire interview process for all 20 candidates becomes obvious. You kid yourself if you believe that we ended up hiring the foreigners because they are cheaper or so the MNC can skimp on CPF or some anti-NS consideration. To an MNC like this one, that kind of money is peanuts. But staff who push so hard and so far to deliver the additional value, who prepare for such eventualities – who are so hungry and paranoid that they actually prepare for such an improbability – are invaluable. 

Eighteen to one to one advantage and the Singaporeans lost. Singapore had eighteen chances and got nothing. China had one, India had one, and they hit the target so hard they wrecked it for the next guy. 

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The tutor is herself North Indian, having studied and worked in the US before arriving in Singapore 20 years ago as an NUS tutor, and has done management consulting as well. That is to say, precisely the sort of person with perhaps the best-informed perspective regarding labour immigration on both micro and macro levels.

Piaroh-Cze:

The hidden danger behind not keeping score.

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