S'poreans urge Career Ladder Guy to feature everyday people after he's spotted with 'influencers'
The Career Ladder Guy's interviews with Singapore influencers and content creators for his viral series have left some netizens here cold, with some calling the interviews "staged" and "boring".
Max Klymenko is known for his street interviews where he guesses people's jobs within two minutes, exploring careers that people might consider niche or unusual.
During his visit to Singapore, he was seen interviewing content creator and streamer supercatkei, entrepreneur Rayston Heem, small business owner @dchtoons, and Grab CEO Anthony Tan.
TikToker suggests showcasing more niche jobs
While many were pleasantly surprised to see Klymenko in Singapore, TikToker @loyloyy had a different opinion.
While he liked seeing more niche jobs in previous episodes, he did not see the same variety in Klymenko's Singapore interviews. "I'm not sure why everything I've been seeing, people who are going up on the ladder, are just influencers or people who are already big in the media scene."
Acknowledging that these opportunities provide exposure for content creators, he said: "I don't really want to see influencers going up the ladder just to gain clout."
He added that he would have preferred to see a third-generation hawker or a "random fishmonger" featured.
His post had garnered over 84,400 views and 5,000 likes at press time.
Another TikToker posted a video expressing shock at an individual interviewed for the series.
Klymenko later addressed the criticism in a comment on @loyloyy's video, clarifying that most of his guests are normal people, not influencers.
"We posted one episode from Singapore - the guy makes stickers and is not an influencer. Another one with a streamer, Denise, eating durian. The reason why you see people recording BTS with influencer is because they are popular so 1. People post it, 2. It gets views," he said.
"Vast majority of people on the ladder are 'normal' people. Nothing against influencers tho we'll have them on too! But this idea that the career ladder is 'just celebrities' isn't true AT ALL if you watch every episode. Hope you like the Singaporean content."
Netizens divided
Some netizens agreed with loyloyy, as one user commented: "I was actually willing to miss work to try to find the career ladder guy because I have a really interesting job but seeing that it's all the influencers in SG I just don't really wanna do it anymore."
Others said that seeing influencers on the ladder was "disappointing", "boring", and "staged". One added that it "doesn't give a good look to Singapore".
Several suggested that the location and timing of the interviews naturally attract similar profiles. Others noted that only selected interviews were posted, while others said they had witnessed people with niche jobs on the ladder.
"He did say in one video the people he shows on his videos are only 20 per cent of the people who actually go on the ladder," one user pointed out.
Stomp has reached out to Max Klymenko for comment.
