How to Find a Job in Singapore as a Filipino: Every Site, the Real Process, and Why It Is Hard
The full list of job sites that work, the honest comparison between flying here to look and applying from home, and the rules that decide whether an employer can hire you at all.
Every week a kababayan posts the same question in a Facebook group: how do I get a job in Singapore? The answers that follow are a mess of agency links, half-remembered rules, and one guy insisting you can fly in on a tourist stamp and walk out with a job. Some of that is true. Most of it will cost you money or a ban.
Here is the whole picture: where the jobs are posted, what happens after you apply, whether flying here helps, and the rules that decide if a Singapore employer can hire you at all.
Where the jobs actually get posted
Start with the sites Singapore employers use, not the ones that rank well on Google.
MyCareersFuture (mycareersfuture.gov.sg) is the government job board and the one that matters most. Employers with 10 or more staff must advertise a role here for at least 14 straight days before they can apply for an Employment Pass or S Pass for a foreigner. Every role open to a foreign hire passes through this board first. You can browse and apply from anywhere.
JobStreet by SEEK (jobstreet.com.sg) carries the widest mid-level volume and is familiar to any Filipino who job-hunted at home. Set your location filter to Singapore, not the Philippines.
LinkedIn is where Singapore recruiters hunt, not just where jobs are listed. A complete profile with a Singapore-facing headline gets you found. Recruiters here message candidates directly, and many roles never leave LinkedIn.
Indeed Singapore (sg.indeed.com) aggregates from company sites and boards, so it catches listings the others miss.
Glints (glints.com/sg) covers startups, SMEs, and younger companies across Southeast Asia. Strong for marketing, sales, design, and operations.
foundit (formerly Monster Singapore) still carries volume in engineering, IT, and healthcare.
eFinancialCareers is the specialist board for banking and finance roles, the sector with the highest salary floors.
NodeFlair and Tech in Asia Jobs list software, data, and product roles with salary data attached.
FastJobs and GrabJobs lean toward service, retail, F&B, and shift work. Read these carefully, because many of the roles pay below the level that supports a work pass for a foreigner.
Company career pages deserve a slot in your routine. Hospitals, hotels, airlines, banks, and the big electronics and semiconductor firms post to their own sites first.
MOM-licensed employment agencies. Agencies can help, and some are excellent. Check the licence before you talk terms: MOM publishes a directory of licensed employment agencies at mom.gov.sg. If an agent is not on that list, walk away.
DMW-licensed agencies in the Philippines. For most Filipinos, the legal route runs through a recruitment agency licensed by the Department of Migrant Workers. Verify the licence on dmw.gov.ph before you hand over a single peso or document.
Why it is hard to be hired as a foreigner
You are not imagining the wall. Singapore built it on purpose, and it stands on four pillars.
The local-first rule. The Fair Consideration Framework requires employers to advertise on MyCareersFuture and consider Singaporeans fairly before applying to hire you. Skip it and the company lands on a watchlist and loses its work-pass privileges. So your resume competes against every local applicant for 14 days before the employer can even think about a pass.
The salary floor. An Employment Pass in 2026 requires at least S$5,600 a month, and S$6,200 in financial services. The floor rises with age, so an experienced candidate must be paid more, not less. An S Pass requires at least S$3,300 a month now, climbing to S$3,600 for new applications from 1 January 2027. If the role pays below the floor, no pass exists for you, no matter how good you are.
COMPASS. EP applications are scored on a points system that rewards salary, qualifications, and how few nationals of your country the company already employs. A firm packed with one nationality scores worse on every new application from that nationality. Company diversity is out of your hands, and it can sink an application that looks perfect on paper.
Quota and levy. S Pass holders can make up at most 10 percent of a services company's workforce, and the employer pays a S$650 monthly levy on top of your salary. Hiring you costs more than hiring a local, and the company may have no quota left. That is often the real reason a promising interview goes quiet.
Read the wall this way: the employer must want you enough to advertise, pay above the floor, absorb the levy, and clear the paperwork. Your job is to be worth that trouble.
Applying from the Philippines vs flying here to look
The honest comparison, without the fantasy.
Applying online from home is the route almost every successful hire takes. You apply, interview by video, receive an offer, and the employer applies for your pass while you are still in Manila or Cebu. When MOM approves, you get an In-Principle Approval letter, and that letter is what you fly on. You pay nothing to enter Singapore for a job that already exists.
Coming here on a visit pass is legal, and Filipinos get 30 days visa-free. You may attend interviews. You may not work, not for a day, not for cash, not "just to try." A visit pass does not convert into a work pass because you asked nicely, and you cannot apply for a work pass yourself. Only an employer can apply for one, and the process takes weeks after the 14-day advertising period.
What being here buys you is face time. Some hiring managers prefer an in-person interview, and being in the country signals you are serious. What it costs you is real: flights, a room at Lucky Plaza prices, 30 days on the clock, and no legal way to earn while you wait. Overstay and you carry a black mark that follows every future application.
The sensible version: run your search online, and fly in only when you already have two or three interviews booked in the same week. Come for scheduled interviews, not to hunt.
The process, step by step
1. Get the offer. The employer selects you and issues an employment contract with a salary that clears the pass floor for your age and sector.
2. The employer advertises and applies. They post to MyCareersFuture for 14 days, then submit the EP or S Pass application to MOM. Processing runs from about 10 days to several weeks.
3. In-Principle Approval. If MOM approves, the employer receives an IPA letter for you. This is your green light to travel.
4. Clear the Philippine side. The DMW must have your employment contract verified before you can be documented as an OFW. Contract verification runs through the Migrant Workers Office in Singapore or a DMW-licensed agency. Direct hiring is banned by default, with narrow exemptions the MWO can grant. Skip this step and you are an undocumented worker with no OWWA cover, no DMW backing, and no help when a contract turns bad.
5. Get your exit clearance. The paper OEC is gone. Filipinos now travel on the free digital OFW Travel Pass, which immigration checks before you leave.
6. Arrive and get your card. Enter on the IPA, complete your medical check, and your employer registers you for your work pass card.
What to do this month
Build a Singapore-format resume with two pages, clear job titles, and numbers that show what you delivered. Set up MyCareersFuture, JobStreet, and LinkedIn alerts for your role and check them daily, since the 14-day window is short. Target companies large enough to hold quota and pay above the floor. Verify every agency licence on the MOM and DMW sites before you pay anyone, and remember: a legitimate Singapore employer does not ask you to pay for your own work pass.
Then keep the offer honest. Have the contract verified, get your OFW Travel Pass, and land with your papers straight. The kababayan who arrives documented can knock on the Embassy's door when something breaks. The one who arrives on a shortcut has nowhere to go.
