The Southeast Asia SharePoint Conference is coming to Singapore in October, and I thought I'd do a short writeup for any visitors that have never been to Singapore before to give them an idea what to expect here, how to get around, etc.

Basics

• Singapore has a tropical climate. That means, all year long the temperature is around 28-32 degrees celsius, with a quite high humidity (once you exit the airport, you'll notice it!). However, indoors is usually quite cold, aircons keep the temperature at slightly more than 20 degrees. If you plan to stay inside a bit longer, bring something with long sleeves.
• The local currency is the Singapore Dollar. You can exchange money when you arrive at the airport (exchange rate is usually ok) or at your hotel (exchange rate is...well, not that good usually), or at local exchangers all over town (good rates, but might be a little bit difficult to find for tourists).
  Credit cards, such as VISA or Mastercard, are generally accepted in most places (usually minimum spending of $20).
• Singapore's timezone is GMT+8
• While Singapore is a multicultural country and many languages are used, the one connecting language that basically everyone speaks is English, thus you should have no problems at all communication with anyone (unless you have some problems understanding the local accent...).
  
• When you arrive at the airport, don't forget to grab a tourist map!
• Tap water is safe! I think Singapore's water is among the cleanest in the world, it's even safe enough for drinking without any worries.
• In many parts of the island you can get free wireless internet! If you're for example at McDonald's or Starbucks, look out for the wireless@sg network. To find out more, visit the wireless@sg website

 

How to get around

• The easiest way is to grab a taxi, of which there are plentiful! The total cost consists of a base price (usually starts at SGD2.80), a distance based fare, a "waiting time" fare, and of additional charges such as ERP ("Everyday Rob People".., no, wait, Electronic Road Payment, a toll charge that has to be paid at certain areas). There's no need to negotiate the price, all taxi drivers always use the meter.
   
• The cheaper option is to take a bus and/or the MRT (the local train/subway). If you plan to use either a few times, the best thing is to get an ez-link card, which is a small card with a few dollars of value. Each time you enter a MRT station/a bus, you tap your card, once you exit you do the same and the corresponding amount (depending on the distance you travelled) will be deducted. Rides will most of the time be less than $2. Single entry tickets can be purchased at each MRT station.
  A map of all MRT stations can be found here: http://www.smrt.com.sg/trains/network_map.asp
  
  
• Generally, if you want to know hot to get from A to B, visit www.gothere.sg 

 

What to eat / drink

The great thing about Singapore is that you can find all kinds of food here: Chinese (in lots of variations! Teochew, Cantonese, ...), Malay, Indian, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Western, ...
The cheapest option are hawker centres and food court, in both you'll find many stalls offering different kinds of food.  Price range from $2 - $8 per meal!  Of course you can also go to a restaurant, prices there usually start at around $15. Again, you've got a huge choice.
There is no need to tip in Singapore, if you eat at a restaurant it will be included in the final bill (it will either say so on the menu, or the prices are mentioned as $10++, where the ++ means plus additional GST (7%) plus additional service tax (10%)).

 

 

 Where to go/what to do

  If you have time, you can visit some of the popular tourist destinations here in Singapore. Two options would be Chinatown and Little India, both which reflect a bit the different origins of Singaporeans.
Another possibility is to go to the Marina Bay area and visit the Esplanade (concert hall/opera house/cultural building), the Merlion, and maybe even the Marina Bay Sands casino (including the sky park on top of the building!).
If you have the time, you can also go on a bus tour to visit several different attractions of Singapore (e.g. at http://www.ducktours.com.sg/tours.php)

 

If there's anything else you want to know, please do not hesitate to ask me or write a comment here.

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I rarely visit Singapore's busy shopping street, unless I have a reason to.

Waiting for my girlfriend before dinner, I decided to sit down and drink something, watching cars on one side and people on the other side passing by, reminding me of how busy, active, lively, and fast-paced Singapore is.

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It's been quite some time since my last postings. In the mean time, I've been busy with settling in my new job, planning my project here, and starting with the implementation.

In January and early March, I've been to Sydney for around 10 days each time. I had a very good time there, the colleagues there were very friendly and helpful, and I can say that it was a great start into the new job.

Last week, I was in Noida (next to New Delhi), India, for similar reasons: talk to the management team and get their requirements for my project. Again, I had some very productive meetings with very good feedback, and I'll now be busy with the next implementation.

 

On a separate note, my family will come over from Germany in May, and we'll all go on a short family holiday together to Phuket, looking forward to that.

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There's no need to mention the importance of a good network of contacts when it comes to looking for job opportunities. One of my student jobs I got through a friend (for his father's company), as he knew a bit about what I was doing as a part time job then, and they required someone to help them in that area.

Another job at SAP I got through my former flatmate. He did some Java programming there, and as he was going to Australia for an internship for a few months, they needed a replacement. I just came back from my internship in Singapore and was looking for a new student job, thus it was a perfect timing, and I took over from him.

These are cases where a network of people that I had close contact with in "real life" helped me. However, I also have two examples (my two most recent jobs) that show that it's also possible to find a job through one of the social networking websites. I'm sure that there are people who found a job through, for example, facebook or studiVZ, but the more important networks for these 'business-related' activities are LinkedIn and XING. LinkedIn has a lot more people on it, whereas the XING interface is a lot more usable in my opinion.

As for the job before my current one, I got it through XING. I contacted some people in Singapore through it, as I wanted to find an internship/thesis job here. One of the people I messaged replied saying that there might be an opportunity for me. As it turned out, I asked just at the right time, as they were looking for someone to help them with an IT project, and were considering hiring an intern for it.

As for my current job, which I started recently,  I was contacted by a headhunter through LinkedIn. As I always keep my profiles as much up-to-date as possible, the headhunter saw my SharePoint experience, and as it matched the requirements nearly 100%, he contacted me and asked if I was looking for a job (which I actually also was at that time).

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After nearly 2 years and 4 months with my current company, I will start working for another one here in Singapore from mid-January onwards.

I definitely learned a lot during my employment here at my current company, and gained a lot of experience in different fields. It was a great work environment, with great colleagues and a very interesting job scope.

My new job will be very similar to my the old one, but with some more responsibilities. I'm already very excited about the opportunities this brings with it, and I'm looking forward to applying my knowledge and experience which I gained during the past nearly 2.5 years in a new environment.

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