CareersCompass by MyCareersFuture Podcast

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a strategic priority across Singapore’s economy, as highlighted by the Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Budget 2026 as a core driver of national missions.
He also announced that efforts to equip white-collar professionals with AI skills will begin with lawyers and accountants—two knowledge-intensive professions under growing manpower strain.
This was followed by the Ministry of Law issuing a guide to using generative AI in Singapore’s legal sector.
We spoke to Frederick Tay, director at Joyce A. Tan & Partners LLC, to find out how AI is beginning to be included in workflows in the legal sector, what skills are now required, and what does this mean for job redesign for those in the legal industry, and legal- adjacent sectors.
If you're interested the current state of AI-integration when it comes to hiring, and reskilling and upskilling for those in the legal sector, listen to this podcast!
Key highlights to listen to
(1:35) How and why the government is looking at the legal industry when it comes to early AI integration
(7:13) It's all about the clients: their considerations when it come to AI and what local lawyers need to learn
(11:01) How AI integration is happening in law, and how are Singaporean firms evolving, and what skills are needed
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For years, many senior workers have felt caught between two options: continuing in a full-time role that may no longer be sustainable or retiring earlier than they would like.
In Singapore, this decision is often shaped by practical realities. Rising living costs, conversations around CPF adequacy, and the desire to remain financially independent mean that many seniors want — or need — to continue working for longer.
But that all-or-nothing choice is changing.
As Singapore’s workforce ages, more support is being put in place to help senior workers stay employed in ways that are healthier, more flexible, and more meaningful.
At the centre of this shift is the new Part-Time Re-employment Grant (PTRG), which encourages employers to create part-time roles and age-inclusive workplaces for senior workers aged 60 and above.
Keeping in the spirit of the times, you’ll be hearing from CareersCompass’ AI colleagues, Aiden and Aileen, on understanding the following:
What is the PTRG and what does it offer?
How does it help senior workers work more flexibly?
How can senior workers find out if their employer is on the PTRG?
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Figuring out what the next right move for your career is only half the battle — the other half is to stay the course, and keep focused on doing the hard work, either by reskilling and upskilling, or by looking at the next job or industry to switch to that will serve your personal and longer-term career goals best.
But staying motivated can be a challenge, and while we have friends and family to be our personal life-cheerleaders, who’s in your corner when it comes to your career?
That’s where a good career coach can help, and to meet those, you might want to check out personalised career programmes for Singaporeans such as Polaris.
It’s a suite of personalised career guidance programmes delivered by SWDA and its appointed providers, Ingeus and AKG.
It is designed for those who are:
Exploring career opportunities;
Seeking clarity before making crucial career decisions;
Looking to move up in their career; and
Contemplating honing their expertise in a specific role.
In this episode, SWDA Principal Manager Kelvin Tan shares how his career coach Joey helped him figure out what the next stage of his career needs to be, especially when factoring the volatility of the job market now, as well as the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as a crucial work skill.
Key highlights to listen to
(1:00) How many sessions did Polaris take, and what did they do?
(2:22) Defining the next career steps is crucial 
(3:20) When you need someone to check in, a career coach matters
Ready to take charge of your career? Polaris is tailored exclusively for you and designed to match your unique aspirations and ambitions. Sign up today!

Don't get tongue-tied trying to answer tough job interview questions. Listen to some good interview answers in this podcast episode!
We’ve all been there — thinking we made a good impression so far during the interview when we’re suddenly faced with a question that throws us off completely. Don’t fret; we examine 5 common questions at interviews and how we can answer them successfully.
Key highlights to listen to
(2:24) How best to describe yourself
(8:35) Why hiring companies ask hard questions, and how to deal with them
Need job search help? Book a free session with our career advisors today.

In this episode, we speak with Ken Ong, Managing Director at Morgan McKinley, about salary and hiring trends in Singapore's financial services and insurance sectors.
He shares why financial services and insurance jobs are seeing wage growth despite concerns on profitability, the rise of interim/contract roles in the industry, and a growing demand for data and AI-related skills.
Ken also reveals how employers are favoring conservative hiring, regional mandates, and multi-skilled candidates.
There's also further advice for job seekers on setting salary expectations and for employers on structuring contracts and regional roles to attract talent.
Key highlights to listen to
(1:28) Why a strong Singapore dollar is helping our financial services and industry
(3:19) The hiring and salary trajectory for the financial services and insurance industry for the rest of 2026 and ahead 
(6:26) Has there been a rise in interim and contract roles in the sector?
(8:33) What wage expectations should those in the industry have?
(9:26) Advice for Singapore employers calibrating their hiring and salary
Over 100,000 jobs await. Discover your perfect role on MyCareersFuture today.

You spent hours perfecting your resume. You ran it through AI tools, aligned it with the job description… and hit submit.
Then… nothing.
No response. No feedback. Just silence.
In this day and age, this isn’t unusual. Job hunting hasn’t just become more competitive. It’s become harder to understand. Because the same tools helping you apply are also changing how you’re being filtered and assessed — often, even before a recruiter sees your name.
AI is now managing high volumes of applicants to screen resumes, match skills, and even run early-stage interviews!
Recruiters are now shifting their focus from how well something is written to how clearly it communicates real experience: what you did, how you did it, and what changed as a result — makes a candidate easier to evaluate.
This episode will be in our Listen and Learn format, which covers a selection of popular career-linked articles on our website.
Keeping in the spirit of the times, you’ll be hearing from CareerCompass’ AI colleagues, Aiden and Aileen, on understanding how in a hiring process shaped by algorithms, the goal isn’t to outsmart the system, but rather, understand how it works and where you still have control!
Key Highlights to Listen to
(1:06) What can you do when everyone is augmenting their resumes with the same AI?
(6:01) The limitations of AI when it comes to employment
(9:54) The goal isn't to sound perfect on paper, but...
Need job search help? Book a free session with our career advisors today.

The established wisdom for most Singaporean workers who are looking for a pay bump is to change jobs, with a market report from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in 2025 showing that six out of ten job switchers experienced real income increases.
But according to a report by Fortune in 2026, economists have started noticing that this tactic is beginning to show decreased effectiveness.
ADP, a U.S. research institute, revealed in its recent Employee Motivation and Commitment Index that the low-hire, low-fire trajectory in 2025 also resulted in year-on-year pay growth for American job hoppers, which slowed to 6.4% in January 2026 from 6.6% in December 2025.
On the other hand, for job stayers, pay growth remained stable at 4.5%, consistent with medium-term trends.
Factoring in year-on-year changes in base salary and bonuses, it was also revealed that the gap between job stayers and hoppers has been shrinking.
As of January 2026, the gap was just 1.9%, the closest it has been since November 2020!
This episode will be in our Listen and Learn format, which covers a selection of popular career-linked articles on our website.
Keeping in the spirit of the times, you’ll be hearing from CareerCompass’ AI colleagues, Aiden and Aileen, on whether job hopping for better wages is still a viable career planning strategy!
Key Highlights to Listen to
(1:06) The pros and cons of changing jobs for a pay raise in a nutshell
(3:01) More money is great, but what are the variables to factor in?
(4:49) A quick strategy on weighing up the pros and cons
Ready to take charge of your career? Polaris is tailored exclusively for you and designed to match your unique aspirations and ambitions. Sign up today!

Find out more about SWDA's programmes and services to help you in your career:www.swda.gov.sg
Read about the latest career tips and advice | Apply for Jobs | Register for events here:https://go.gov.sg/podcast-careerscompassbymcf 
Find out more about SWDA's programmes and services to help you in your career:www.swda.gov.sg
Read about the latest career tips and advice | Apply for Jobs | Register for events here:https://go.gov.sg/podcast-careerscompassbymcf 
At the previous Career Health Summit (CHS), jointly organised by Workforce Singapore ( now known as Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) from 1 July 2026) and the Singapore Business Federation on July 2025, Gabriel Lim, Acronis’ head and director for government relations and partnerships development, shared how the company developed a Career Health Cycle for its employees.
In addition, through Workforce Singapore’s Career Conversations Guidebook, Gabriel’s team learned to use the VIPS framework—mapping each employee’s Values, Interests, Personality, and Skills.
This simple tool enabled managers to tailor their approach: offering work-life balance discussions for senior employees while focusing on growth opportunities and learning for younger, ambitious team members.
In this podcast, Gabriel also elaborates on the following:•    As Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng said during his opening speech at the CHS, starting employees and workers on the path towards better career health can sometimes be as challenging as asking patients to build better diet and fitness habits for health outcomes. What challenges did Acronis face in terms of reshaping employee perspective and culture, and what strategies have worked?•    What is Acronis’ unique culture and methodology towards the career health of its employees?•    Acronis has built Growth and Reward programmes for its employees. Gabriel explains how they work to build career health for Acronis employees.
Listen and learn more in this podcast!
Key Highlights to Listen to
(1:13) How to take a pro-active approach to engage employees about their career with your company
(2:30) Changing workplace mentalities and habits: what works
(4:50) How to build programmes in your company for different workers and different career health needs
Ready to take charge of your career? Polaris is tailored exclusively for you and designed to match your unique aspirations and ambitions. Sign up today!

Many workers still subscribe to the old school notion that career progression should be a straight climb — with no detours, gaps, or pivots.
But according to Wilfrid Foo, Managing Director for Direct Motor Interests at Jardine Cycle & Carriage, such notions of career progression are increasingly outmoded.
The idea that you start at the bottom and eventually rise to the top after years in the same company or industry no longer reflects how careers actually unfold.
He believes that the new models of career development is less about tenure and more about impact.
Rather than a straight climb upward, careers now look more like a game of snakes and ladders — with momentum that shifts, stalls, and surges at different points. This 'M-shaped' trajectory, with its peaks and dips, is becoming the new normal.
Wilfrid, speaking at an EthosBeathChapman event on career transitions, building transferable skills, and adapting to change, also shared more from his myriad of career experiences, having taken on many different roles, “even within one company,” as he put it!
Key Highlights to Listen to
(2:02) What to do if you’re a deep introvert managing career changes
(3:21) Tenure vs impact: What will really get you ahead in the career game
(5:01) Why understanding the financial aspects of your company matters
(7:05) The right way to shake things up in a new role
Ready to take charge of your career? Polaris is tailored exclusively for you and designed to match your unique aspirations and ambitions. Sign up today!

One of the challenges of considering labour as an asset, not a cost, comes down to how accounting works. The basic  principles of accounting that companies must follow require them to treat labour as a cost..
According to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), an asset must meet specific criteria:
It must be a resource controlled or owned by the company.
It must be able to generate future economic benefits.
Its value must be capable of being measured reliably.
Employees are not owned, can leave at any time, and their contribution to future revenue is not reliably quantifiable in monetary terms on the balance sheet.
As such, on income statements, labour is recorded as wages or a salary expense, regarded as a service consumed during the accounting period to generate revenue, and costs that reduce net income in the period they occur.
But what if this very mindset is limiting the growth a company can make?
And what results can ensue if your company flips the script and starts looking at employees as assets, not costs?
Ask Liaw Chun Huang, the chief financial officer at KTC Civil Engineering & Construction, known for projects like Marina Bay Sands and Tampines Central Station.
He shared at Workforce Singapore’s (WSG) Career Health Summit on this topic, the strategic value of skills-based hiring, and the critical role of training and continuous upskilling in maintaining competitiveness and profitability.
And if you can’t shake off the bottom-line focused voice in your head, here’s something that will get your attention- Chun Huan revealed that the staff-focused initiatives at KTC allowed them to enjoy an incredibly low staff turnover-rate of 1.3%!
This was pretty remarkable as the average staff turnover rate in Singapore was approximately 18-19% annually as of late 2025, reflecting a rising trend compared to 2024 at 16.7%.
Listen to this podcast to learn more from him on the secrets of attracting and retaining the best talent in the Singapore workforce!
Key highlights to listen to
(1:10) Why should capital investment in machinery outweigh workers that also generate revenue?
(3:11) What can your organisation do more to retain and attract top talent
(3:56) How working with WSG helped KTC to build a structured approach for better staff retention
Over 100,000 jobs await. Discover your perfect role on MyCareersFuture today.