Wow! Very flattering and humbling at the same time to see the thread still alive after all these years.
I had a tumultous 2009, to say the least and disappeared to consolidate, recompose and recuperate. I fell victim to the recession and was retrenched at the end of 2008. It was the first time in my life I was ever retrenched and it felt horrible. In fact, it was kind of surreal when it happened. To cut a long story short, I mentally prepared myself to be out for at least a year. However, what I didn't realise then was I didn't completely understand the implication of being out of a job for a year. Today, I still hear of people who are still out of a job for a year and with the benefit of hindsight, I think being out for too long (i.e. 6 months or more) would make it even tougher to re-enter, even if you are willing to lower your expectations considerably. It has been an employers' market for the past 1 year and they have proven to be very choosy about who they hire.
Fortunately, I found a comparable job within 3 months from retrenchment but with less responsibilities and lower pay obviously. However, it's still a job which I am experienced at and enjoy doing. What's more important is that the job keeps me in the game and as the proverbial saying goes, as long as you are not out, you still stand a chance!
The market has certainly picked up again and the market has been hiring strongly. It's as if the recession never happened!
Hope to contribute to this forum again soon and learn from others here. Cheers!
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