Weekend jobs in Singapore are relatively easy to come by, and can make a valuable boost to your income or fit in with a busy lifestyle that has you committed to other things during the working week. Singapore is a 24/7 city, barely pausing for breath on even the most beloved of public holidays, and as such there is a constant demand for labor, particularly in the retail and entertainment sectors.
If you’re already working in Singapore, then it shouldn’t be too hard to find a second job to keep you busy over weekends. It’s often possible to find one within the company you’re working for, and that would be our first recommendation: it minimises your paperwork, keeps your taxation affairs simple, and shows that you’re keen for any managers or supervisors looking for people with promotion potential.
If you choose to go outside your current workplace for a weekend job in Singapore, then obviously being situated in Singapore is going to be imperative. Because of the casual nature of most weekend jobs, they will rarely advertise more than an ad in a local paper or shop window, which means that you’ll be limited to local jobs. Give up on trying to apply for these sorts of things outside Singapore; it simply won’t work – nobody wants to worry about visa application documents for a weekend job.
That said, the casual and part time job market in Singapore is surprisingly comprehensive, given what long hours most full time employees work. Working a second job in Singapore is something that many Singaporeans do, particularly students or people who work part-time as well as parenting or enjoying a flexible lifestyle. While the vast majority of jobs in Singapore are more your standard, 9-5 hours assignments, there are plenty of others that can be worked on evenings, over weekends, or at unusual hours. The trick is managing to get a job that will fit your lifestyle’s design and making sure that you can actually land it.
Singaporeans love shopping. This much is clear to anyone who visits one of the larger department stores, or even glances in shopfront windows while walking down a major street in Singapore. Because real estate is so expensive in Singapore, one of the world’s most central hubs, it is incredibly expensive for stores to rent shopfront sites. For this reason, as in many other metropolises, it behooves an employer to keep their stores open as much as possible to maximise potential revenue. After all, if you’re paying for a shopfront, it doesn’t make sense to have it closed when there are people around who could be buying things from you!
There are non-retail job opportunities to work on weekends, but these are less common. Most offices still stick to a straight Monday to Friday schedule. There are always exceptions. Call centres and financial institutions that deal internationally need to contend with different time zones and countries will often keep a skeleton staff on board to hand enquiries.
Finding Weekend Jobs in Singapore
The secret to finding weekend jobs in Singapore is to start with the end user – the employers – and work backwards. If you’re happy to work weekend shifts in retail and potentially give up some of your social opportunities, then it’s quite easy to figure out where job openings might come up – simply visit or ring stores that you’d like to work at on the weekend and see if anyone’s there. If so, see if they have any casual or weekend-only staff, and then go through the standard processes to apply for weekend jobs.
Call centre work and jobs that are 24/7 like security work are a little less competitive, because these are generally viewed as very menial, low-engagement tasks. If you can manage to handle the boredom and awkward hours, then applying for these sorts of positions is likely to get you a job relatively easily. For these more formal positions, as opposed to working in retail, there is often a formalised application process to go through, but most gatekeepers – receptionists, HR staff- will be more than happy to point you in the right direction and let you know about any upcoming vacancies. A warm, personable manner and polite enquiries has landed many a Singaporean an income-boosting weekend job!
You can always ask people who you interact with on weekends how they got their current position. Most people working weekend shifts are happy to chat about their work and what it’s like, giving you an idea of whether it’s suited to you or not. If you’re working another job, especially a full-time one, then you may want to be circumspect in how you go about mentioning this to potential employers.
It’s not common for someone to want to work 7 days a week. Most employers will assume this will lead to burn-out, sickness and higher rates of absenteeism.
It may very well do; you’re unlikely to be able to accurately gauge this until you actually put your hand in and see what happens. Make sure that you do everything you can to maintain your health and wellbeing while you’re adjusting to a lifestyle that includes multiple forms of employment, because it is easy to get stressed or otherwise damage your health.
We wish you all the very best in finding the best weekend job in Singapore for your particular situation.
