SINGAPORE: A jobseeker shared on Reddit that the “marketing executive” job he applied for turned out to be far more demanding than what the job title suggested, with the employer expecting him to take on multiple roles for a salary below S$3,500.
Posting on the r/askSingapore subreddit on Friday (Nov 7), he explained that the job description initially looked like a standard marketing role involving day-to-day campaign and branding work.
However, during the interview, the employer revealed that the position would also require him to handle sales outreach, manage social media accounts, assist with HR tasks, take on administrative duties, design graphics, coordinate events, create content, and manage CRM systems.
Essentially, several specialised roles were combined into one.
“These roles are all lumped under ‘marketing executive.’ Yes, you read it right, marketing executive,” the jobseeker wrote. “And it’s a one-man show, no marketing team for a supposed marketing role that consists of so many things.”
Despite the extensive scope of responsibilities, the employer reportedly said they “were not willing to offer at least S$3,500,” claiming that the amount was “too high” for someone who only had a diploma and three years of experience.
Furious about the whole interview experience, the jobseeker wrote at the end of the post, “What kind of mentality does the employer have to think that someone will accept this kind of role for this kind of pay?”
“S$3.5k for all those is insane.”
As much as this experience was exasperating, one Reddit user wrote that this is “sadly the norm in the creative industry.”
“It is why most creative people tend to be self-employed or freelance. Because for the amount of salary you’re paid and the work involved, you might as well DIY? Then your problems are yours to deal with, and your salary is yours to earn,” they added.
“And it’s not like a lot of the SMEs provide many benefits too. Even had companies tell me that if I’m hired, I need to use my own camera equipment. Lol.”
Another commented, “Marketing + Sales + Social Media Management + Graphic Design + Events Co-ord + Content Creator + CRM is very common to bao ka liao in a ‘marketing executive’ role. Very standard for SME.”
“You have maybe one corporate event a year to plan/coordinate and one social media post every week to do up. Honestly, not that hard. The HR/admin is a bit weird, though.”
Others, however, found it ridiculous that companies would give one person so many responsibilities and refuse to pay appropriately.
One shared, “I received a S$3.8k job offer for fresh grade engineer positions, and it’s already lowballing. S$3.5k for all those is insane.”
Another wrote, “To be honest, I won’t bother working for one-man shows. Most of them don’t have the capital to make it big; this one is super penny-pinching.”
In other news, a frustrated son turned to social media to vent after his father, who has not contributed a single cent to the family for the past 15 years, suddenly demanded a monthly maintenance payment.
Posting on the r/SingaporeR subreddit on Tuesday (Nov 4), the son revealed that his father was largely absent throughout their lives and had multiple extramarital affairs over the years. “My siblings and I don’t even have an emotional bond with him because he was never around. He doesn’t know what we studied or anything about us,” the son wrote.
