S'pore job ad for Buddhist nun with monthly salary of S$5,000 to S$11,000 raises eyebrows

A certain job posting on the MyCareersFuture portal has raised eyebrows because of the unique nature of the job.

Specifically, it is a posting for the job of a Buddhist nun by an organisation called the Ling Jiou Shan Buddhist Society.

Monthly salary of S$5,000 to S$11,000

According to the job posting, the position is permanent, full-time and requires 10 years of experience.

The salary range was also given as S$5,000 to S$11,000.

In addition, the job scope entails planning and leading religious programmes for members, delivering spiritual classes, offering mentorship to trainees, planning the religious education curriculum and conducting meditation sessions, among other responsibilities.

The address of the organisation/workplace was listed as 217 Geylang Road.

According to the Registry of Societies by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ling Jiou Shan Buddhist Society was registered on Nov. 22, 2017.

It also appears to originate from Taiwan.

Applications have since closed for the job, however, with a total of 10 applications received.

Society is not a member of the Singapore Buddhist Federation

In response to media queries, the president of the Singapore Buddhist Federation was quoted by 8World News as saying that generally, monks/nuns do not receive a fixed monthly salary but rely on the support of donations and believers instead.

The president added that while he was aware of the society and knows that they are from Taiwan, he had no contact with them as it was not a member of the Singapore Buddhist Federation.

As for the job ad itself, the president noted that the society might not be hiring locals. He noted that it requires 10 years of experience.

He was further quoted as saying, "I can't guess the reason for the high salary, maybe it's because they need to apply for a work permit."

Meanwhile, the recruiting company, JobSite, said in response to 8World News that there was a misunderstanding with the society in question and that the company had not actually been hired to help them publish advertisements.

JobSite also said that the society had since removed the advertisements.

While the advertisement can still be found on the MyCareersFuture website, it does not appear in job searches.

Mothership has reached out to the Singapore Buddhist Federation and JobSite for more information on the matter.

Top image via Transly Translation Agency and MyCareersFuture website