A man from China spent about SGD$14,000 to fly to Singapore, where he was supposed to start his new job as an algorithm engineer at Shopee, according to Lianhe Zaobao.
He landed in Singapore on 25 August and was supposed to start his job on 29 August, but he received a call from Shopee on the same day he landed in Singapore, telling him that they have retracted their job offer for him.
Speaking to Mothership, after Shopee revoked his job offer at the very last minute, the man and his wife are now staying at a hotel and applying for jobs and interviews.
Zaobao reported that the 28-year-old man, who comes from Shanghai, finished a doctoral programme at a Chinese university and he first received an offer from Shopee in September last year.
He was scheduled to begin his employment with the company on 29 August this year, with the delay being caused by the pandemic.
He said that he had received offers from other companies and ultimately chose Shopee.
He shared that he heard rumours about other people having their job offers rescinded by Shopee, so he called them to check about his own offer, and he was allegedly told that there was no problem with his job offer.
The man even received a welcome email from Shopee, with instructions for his onboarding into the company, one day before his flight to Singapore on 25 August.