Every Monday · Malaysia & SEA
FieldNotes
Tech moves. Talent signals. Hiring implications. A weekly market-backed read for founders, CTOs and hiring teams building in this region.
Tech moves. Talent signals. Hiring implications. A weekly market-backed read for founders, CTOs and hiring teams building in this region.
Digital banks are no longer a launch story. They are live and competing for real customer behaviour. The question now is who is actually built to grow one — and banking talent is being re-priced accordingly.
Uber cut 23% of its People and Places division. The pool looks bigger but the signal-to-noise ratio is worse. The engineers worth hiring are not waiting on job boards — and tools can manage pipelines, but they cannot read the market.
Malaysia's Employment Pass thresholds have doubled. Singapore has more candidates but not enough right-fit talent. The squeeze is real — and hiring across the region is becoming more deliberate, not less.
AI infrastructure spending is still accelerating. The market is not cooling — it is becoming more selective. The shift is from more people to more leverage per person. Infra-heavy talent will stay competitive and expensive.
Need to understand where your role sits in the market? Speak to COW Consult for talent calibration and curated market mapping.
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