Transitioning (T): First of all, thanks Jen for allowing us to interview you online and can you provide us with some background information on yourself?
Jen (J): I am 37 years old. Have been working in the last 10 years. Major part of my experience has been in admin, event marketing and events operations. Tertiary educated.
T: What was your last occupation and you have told me that you were unemployed for 1 year, can you tell us more about this and also your job search experience?
J: My last occupation was as a Project Manager organizing industry events. After that, I tried looking for less stressful and more manageable jobs. It was also in my mind to switch to a different industry. My decision was to look for operational jobs within the hospitals. I applied for those but did not receive any response.
With many new hospitals opening within the last 2 years, demand for manpower is huge. In their ads, they have specified that people with experience in a healthcare setting will have an advantage.
And I thought that applying for admin position – which probably does not need to be so hospital-experience-intensive – would help me, but no.
I think it might be the case that with so many hospitals coming up in just a few years, and they are funded by the state, the funds may not be adequate enough at this point to employ Singaporeans who are more expensive than foreigners.
Of course, this is only my personal observation which may be wrong. But I do see many Filipinos working in hospitals. I also have VERY modest expectations and even then I think they would be higher than what the foreigners are asking for.
I could understand why I was not short-listed since I do not have experience in hospital operations and so I moderated my expectations to include executive-level admin and contract/temp work which maybe did not require such an intimate knowledge of hospital operations and also Business Development positions which I thought my previous marketing experience would help but no response too.
I did get one interview where the interviewer expressed concern that I would not be able to gel with the young team. Whether that was the main reason why I did not get the job, I’m not sure.
Since I did not get any response from the hospitals, I went back to my old industry. No luck there too.
One recruiter whom I spoke to said that I was competing with the new grads who just graduated. I don’t know if she was skilfully indicating that I was too old for the jobs I applied for (LOL). And jobs that I am interested in seem to want mostly diploma holders, maybe the education minister was right in limiting the number of uni grads afterall?
News report indicated that 70% new local uni grads are confident that their starting salary is a minimum $3000 and expect to be promoted within 2 years of starting a new job.
I am baffled that they can have such high expectations and yet recruitment agencies say that their expectations will probably be met by most employers (esp’ly the MNCs) since they have huge demand. REALLY? The demand should spread across the entire spectrum of the population who are seeking similar work, no?
Reports also say that there is a shortage of Singaporean workers in some industries. but when I apply for them, I either don’t get a reply or am rejected. Case in point – my WDA-sponsored Dip in Tourism seems useless. My sister who also posts jobs for her company agrees since in her experience, replies to her job postings are 80% foreigners.
And so with the combination of the above reasons and observations, I seem to be in a no-man’s land. Experience level is good for senior exec level but too old to be an exec, but not enough experience to be of management level. Too educated for lower level jobs even though I am willing to take them.
T: You have told me that you are currently jobless for one year, what did you do in order to survive? Did you also approach the CDC for assistance?
J: I took on a part-time job in a local tourist attraction. I did not approach CDC but I did attend recruitment drives organized by e2i for Marine Life Park (Resorts World Singapore), no luck there.
T: Did you attend any interviews during the past 12 months and why do you think you are unsuccessful so far?
J: I attended 4 interviews in the past 12 months.
Reasons for not being successful may stem from the following factors:-
a) I specify in detail why I have many jobs within a short period (contract from 5 – 17 months). But recruitment managers seem to only see the gaps in between full time jobs. Its not that I don’t want a permanent job. But looking for a permanent job that I can stay in for long needs time so while I put my hours in contract or temp jobs, it seems to send the wrong message out.
b) Perception that a late thirties executive could not perform as efficiently as someone in their twenties?
T: Tell us abit more about what you have learnt from your jobless experience and how it has impacted your family.
J: I have learnt to let go and hard as it is, to enjoy this period of unemployment. Knowing the hours that the average Singaporean works, I won’t have this luxury once I have a job. And so I embark on several personal projects and learnt new software skills and languages. I also have a fresh understanding of being persistent and living in the now.
I am VERY lucky that I don’t have much any family commitment now.
T: What do you think you could have done to shorten the unemployment period?
J: I don’t know! If I knew, I wouldn’t be in the situation that I am in now!
I think I need to be more aggressive in my efforts. I have applied to be a volunteer at a hospital since a hospital admin or operations is my target job. Hopefully through volunteering, I can learn of vacancies earlier and also get the people who supervise my volunteer work to be my references.
I also intend to visit the professional recruiters in their offices so that they can see and talk to me in person and not be limited by what is on a piece of paper!
I will also make and edit a short video and post it on youtube for employers to refer to instead of a paper resume.
T: Do you think that Singapore is now a more difficult place to make a living?
J: It is.
The business world has changed radically in the last 5 – 8 years. Workers now have to be equipped with a multitude of hard and soft skills to be able to navigate their career, not just those that they graduate from school with.
Also, many are working more hours for less money.
T: What do you think the government can do to alleviate the current employment situation?
J: I really can’t comment on this since I don’t know enough. But I would think they will do well to start a dialogue to address the dysfunctional employment, hiring and compensation practices.
The way I see it, there are gaps where needs of local industries are not filled and the efforts to address those needs are not followed up and coordinated resulting in haphazard hiring whereby hiring of locals are ignored in favor of low wages and quick solutions provided by the foreign workers.
Internal economic structuring must be done in tandem with where the country is heading now. Every sector crucial to success must be brought up to speed so we can move together. Speed and economic gains are not the end-all-be-all though.
Case in point: Even state-owned entities like the local tourist attraction that I work at pay SGD 1,400 for an exec but no Singaporean can work for that kind of money for long and so the attraction is either populated by students earning pocket money or Filipinos in full-time positions.
Only management level at AM or higher are occupied by Singaporeans and also certain exec positions if they have been with the company before liberal foreign worker policies came into play. Baffling when I know for a fact that the attraction (excluding 3 under the brand) earns at least 22 million a year. The number of staff and other expenditures could not possibly take up a huge chunk of that amount.
T: Many people have blame foreigners for competing jobs with us, what is your view on this?
J: Yes but it takes two hands to clap. We locals need to be more hungry than foreigners for success and carve out our niches. Singapore has too much of a cookie-cutter mentality.
T: Lastly, whats your advice for those who are still jobless and feeling down?
J: To let go and enjoy this period of unemployment. Do the things you never had the chance to, embark on personal projects and learn new skills.
Research the industry, anticipate changes and developments and see if new skills will make us more relevant and valuable.
It will happen. I sure hope so!
End of interview and thank you!
Editor’s Note: We have assigned Jen a career coach to assist her.
T: Many people have blame foreigners for competing jobs with us, what is your view on this?
This is very correct and the culprit for this is the PAP. Every Singaporean must vote out the PAP in order to survive.
Thank you for your valuable writing, it is really very useful. I hope for many more valuable posts from your great writing. assignmentsweb.
Thank you for your broad thinking. Your post is really helpful and valuable to the readers.
All hospitals in S’pore now prefer pinois — all the pinoi applicants have degrees in nursing or pharmacy. These pinois are all willing to work as hospital clerks and junior admin assistants with $1,300/mth salary. $1,300 salary is a fortune for them, as otherwise they will only get $300 as nurse back in filipines. And in filipines, these so-called uni grads are having 70% unemployment rate.
First stop for most of these foreigners are s’pore and middle east countries, as these countries have no restrictions and very low quality barriers to meet. They will then work in these countries for 2-3 years before applying for jobs in Australia, US, Canada and UK. From $1,300/mth salary in S’pore, they can get jump to $4,500 working in Australia.
The above are the modus operandi of foreigners, and Sinkie govt is abetting them in their scrounging for fortunes. In the meantime, it is you die your business for ordinary Sinkies.
MOH wants hospitals to state the treatments prices on their websites.
So why not MOH also requests the hospitals to state the salaries of the staff on the website too?
Even hungry may not give you a job in Singapore for locals. I know several jobless guys that are hungry but are still deny job opportunities. It is not only foreigners. The civil service dislike hiring guys for various reasons and older people are being discriminated.
Hungry also must know how to get opportunity. If you are really hungry then you will go all ways and means to look for job.
Talk very easy.
Hi sye,I agree with you. Even how hungry the person is…but there is no jobs opportunities at all. Everything’s talk is easy….
I agree with many of you people here that Singaporeans are being cast aside by our own employers. Time and time again, I have stressed that jobs given to foreigners are not because they are cheap but because employers have the perception that all foreigners can do a better job than Singaporeans. That is more apparent for older singaporeans in their 40′s and 50′s. That is the reason why so many PMETs of this age range are unemployed. Our government needs to do something more for this age group. They need to provide free relevant training for these people to get them hired. Most of the up-grading courses are totally irrelevant and geared towards lower income groups. Its no wonder many citizens are dissatisfied.
As Singapore aged, the senior citizens of Singapore will end up as the poorest group because they have no means of supporting themselves. CPF is definately not enough. This will happen sooner than what we can envision.
I was an overseas grad, stayed abroad for 5 years, but returned home to Singapore with full of hope. That was back in 1989. Now at 49 years of age, I am jobless. Even though I have many years of experience, and physically very fit, computer savvy, I am still being pass over for younger people and foreigners who asked for higher pay and compensation. It just makes me feel like a third class citizen in my own country. That is really sad.
It is sad indeed. She is not alone. It is a lesson learnt, I left my job overseas as I thought Singapore has improved on its wages. It was my oversight, I only knew I am old (but i am only on my early 30s!) when i get back, not even interviews. I am either too qualified or under qualified for mid executive level. It doesn’t matter to me if I have a degree, skill etc. It is very sad not able to feel this is home. Things will change, like what she said, let live the moment and things will change for better if we keep positive.
Jen has two possible options to consider. Though it may not give her immediate income but it could help to add value to her resume.
The local corporate events and entertainment sector is growing. Set up a sole proprietor events company, create a simple website and operate from home to offer your services to both direct clients and larger event planning companies some of whom do outsource some of these functions. Also network with the industry attend the events organised by SACEOS ( pl google) to get to know some of these operators.
Hopefully this could land you some work and if it does not you could use it in your resume to show that you continue to be engaged with the events industry. I know that Sphere’s Conferences ( subsidiary of SPH) is looking for a Project Manager
Good Luck !
Shan
You are my aspiration , I possess few blogs and often run out from to brand.