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Old 09-09-2011, 03:53 PM
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Originally Posted by aimless74 View Post
hi ALL,

anyone age 37 male experience mid life crisis ? eg out of job etc?
care to share experience how do u overcome this?
i feel that i am sinking into depression due to the pressure of finding a job and supporting familiy and job market are just not so promising.

regards

just some sharing which I hope could be of use in your next steps.
I graduated in 93 with a science degree. Pretty useless degree unless you want to be a teacher. nonetheless, at that point Singapore was facing shortage of semiconductor engineers and IT people. All my friends went to either teaching, semiconductor engineers, or switch to IT. I didn't know what I wanted but was sure I did not want to pick those three sectors above. I tried different jobs from BD job in some ulu manufacturing company in Jurong, Senior Officer in statutory board helping SMEs in assistance programmes, etc. Along the way, I did a distance learning MBA. When I was 29 I realized that VC/PE was an interesting sector, and paid my way to attend a module in MBA program to learn as much as I can in this area. When I was 30, I took an entry level job in an investment firm looking at private equity in Asia. I had 8000 SGD in savings as was paid 3200SGD/month. in 2005, I took another MBA (with firm's partial sponsorship) at IMD and switched to another firm in HK after graduation. I am now based in China (over 42 now) and looking to work for another 3 years before taking things slow and retire. Lessons I learnt:

a) it is okay to be lost, if you don't know what you want to do next, you need to at least know what you do NOT want to do.
b) if you get it right, 5-10 good years can set you to retirement if you hit on the right job or prospects.
c) don't use your friends as benchmark or models, find your own path and try to focus on what you really want (even if you find out through trial and error).
d) not every one can be an entrepreneur to start businesses, but you can learn from them and have an entrepreneurial approach/mindset to your career. ie take risks, make small bets, invest in yourself, learn new things, keep thinking forward on what's next, who will hire you, which market is best for you etc.
e) there is always something positive in every situation.

all the best!

CK
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