A brutally frank assessment of conditions for Indian interns at Kent Ridge Digital Labs, Singapore during Summer 1998. I like to think that this article reached the KRDL chiefs and was the reason for the next batch going to Singapore getting double our salary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 15:29:21 +0530 (IST) From: Deepak Bandyopadhyay To: Devdatt Dubhashi Subject: KRDL Singapore Dear sir, I am not forwarding this information to btech96 as it might potentially kill off interest in going to Singapore ; I will send it later to prospective applicants or selected students if it is OK with you. My experience of KRDL as an internship opportunity -------------------------------------------------- On the positive side, the projects are challenging, the members of the Visual Media Group are very friendly & helpful, you can work in the labs overnight if you want to, have access to all the convenience of a modern office building, and the atmosphere is of cooperation & open communication between the employees. Singapore is also a great place to live in (but note the caveats I will raise later). On the downside, the salary at $550 was subsistence level (and I mean, *really* hand-to-mouth) and they don't compensate you for anything (airfare/acco/food). People knew this at the outset, so the kind of people who went there last year were really interested in the kind of work being done there and/or in seeing a foreign country, whatever the cost. Once there, the daily expenses mounted, and for all but one of us the modest amount of dollars brought from India soon dwindled (I was lucky to have anticipated the crunch & taken a large amount). KRDL's HR section which paid our stipends was far from the lab building and the payment was a highly bureaucratic process, and was made after one month of our joining (when we were "running on empty" :) So my recommendation is that we get tough & ask for consideration for a higher salary for the interns, and see their reaction. We were being paid a stipend equal to that of students from NUS/NTU who intern for any common local company, and for that also there are several levels ($500-$1000 per month) on which we were at the lowest level. They should recognize that if they want to place a premium on IITians & their "unique" skills & have them fly all the way down to work there, they should pay them substantially more than local interns. Otherwise, they should hire local interns ! The second grouse I had was with the kind of visa issued to us (a "Work Permit" which is given to workers with salaries below $1000 per month). The formalities involved in getting this delayed our departure from here by almost 3 weeks and almost derailed our training period requirements. It also stopped us from leaving Singapore to visit Malaysia/Thailand (workers on work permit have to have the permission of their employer, who in our case doesn't grant approval w/o tonnes of red tape). I would fight for a higher salary as a mode of solving this problem (there may be another way - check on http://www.expatsingapore.com for details of visas). Also the students may have a tough time publishing papers even on some path-breaking stuff they may have done, as it's all proprietary to KRDL & meant to contribute to ongoing projects. Ratul/Manish (csu95138/126) may give you further input on this as they have tried (unsuccessfully) to get their stuff published. My perception of Singapore as a place ------------------------------------- Staying:- NUS/NTU hostels are the greatest. You'll get most of the facilities you may need (except a fridge for the beer :) in the neighbourhood of your room. But the campuses are vast and places to eat are far apart. I didn't stay in an apartment, but they mostly cost more than hostel rooms (a higher salary would make a quantum jump in your standard of living, as the furnished apartments are upto the standard in western countries). Anyway it is the responsibility of KRDL to arrange acco, you only have to approve it. Transport:- Transport system is very high-tech, & it is convenient to get from point A to point B using the buses & the MRT system (but unless you get apartments on NUS campus you'll spend 30-60 minutes commuting). The system is flexible (using one fare card for buses & MRT) and comfortable (mostly air-conditioned). It is in fact very economical by their standards, but for us on our measly salaries, it still pinched, which partly explains the large number of night-outs we put in :) btw, motorbikes/cars etc. cost the moon to hire (on our salary :) "Girls"/interaction/friends:- Forget it. The Singaporean Chinese are the biggest xenophobes on Earth. The language barrier may have something to do with it. Also, their perception of Indians is as servants, gardeners & construction workers, and the Indian professional is someone their collective psyche is still getting used to. There are countless young Chinese/Malay/Indian couples everywhere, and I can count on my fingers the number of mixed-race couples I saw. Your best bet is to seek out Indian friends on your campus (if you are putting up in the hostel). Food:- Any pucca vegetarian who goes there is going to have a *miserable* time. The concept is alien to them. They don't have veg flavoured noodles ; no veggie burgers at McDonalds ; you can never be sure that some non veg is NOT there in the concoction being served to you at a hawker centre... the list goes on. A veggie will have very litle choice in where/what to eat & may have to survive on fries/biscuits/etc. on some days. Just ask Sachin Bansal for further comments on this. The plight of non-vegetarians who can tolerate nothing but desi food is only slightly better. On the other hand, for a pure (non-veg) foodie like me : look no further, for you have reached Paradise :) Entertainment:- Exists, but costly. Theatres/game parlours/amusement parks come in this category. Most of the tourist attractions seem stuffily boring for typical students ("kya yaar yahan to kucch dekhne ko hi nahin hai"), and the artificiality of these attractions is striking. The notable exception is Sentosa Island, and especially the Fantasy Island water park & the beach there. This is really worth the money you fork out for a ticket. Shopping:- Do factor in this while planning expenses. The general perception was that department stores are monotonous (selling the same goods), sometimes overpriced, and generally overrated. But its worth taking a look. Also, most things that you may want to buy from abroad are readily available. Misc Tips:- Oh yes, travel really light, don't shop for heavy stuff, don't always trust weighing scales (think every bag will weigh 2 kgs heavier at the aiport than when you weigh it). The weight rules, especially for handbags, are D-R-A-C-O-N-I-A-N. I think I've covered most of the possible doubts people may have (and written a miniature "Unofficial Singapore Guide" in the process.) Bye, Deepak. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEEPAK BANDYOPADHYAY debug@poboxes.com ; csu95118@cse.iitd.ernet.in Address: W-159 G.K.-II, New Delhi-110048, INDIA. Phone: 91-11-644-4651 Home page: http://members.tripod.com/~deepakb "Real programmers don't admit their mistakes; they turn them into features."