Anyone jobless for a long time before?

Is the focus group discussion good money? How to join?

Then just have to be selective and apply only for those jobs ard ur level of exp n seniority.

Significantly narrower market I know, but I guess nobody said it's gonna be a walk in the park.

I m in similar situation. What makes it worse is my area a bit niche.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi

I thought i share my expeience here. Age 36 and male. Out of job for a whopping 18 months and today still searching for a full time job.

Graduated with an engineering degree and work in a US manufacturing plant in 2003 before economic crisis forced it to close down in 2005. Then move on to another european MNC as a trainee where i got involved in various facet of work such as HR, engineering, logistics and key account in 2007. I spent 2006 completing my masters.

Then came the call to serve in a large ministry as part of their policy team in 2009 which i thought would be relatively more stable but that was a drastic mistake. In the 2nd year of my work, I was threaten daily to terminate my contract just because some one think i was not a right fit for the job. And while foreigners protect themselves as you have seen in other pte ltd, this is one where the locals 'kill' one another. Finally after the general elections where almost all the ministries changed their minister, i was finally forced out by expiry of contract.

The irony is: With experience in local, US and european companies as well as being involved in regional work made me even more difficult to find work. Recruiters would cite my limited experience in engineering as well as HR as a stumbling block and my experiences in the civil service do not apply to pte sector.

I cannot apply to other ministries as all information are shared within the common system. How I know? cos i had a brief involvement in recruitment in the minitry. Did u know that when you apply a job in careers.gov.sg, every recruiter can see all your past applications. Is it any wonder why a stat board may suddently ask you if you are applying for any other jobs at the moment? They know.

How i survive? I rely on odd jobs to keep me alive, not forgetting some debts that had to be paid. I took up part time jobs advertised in gumtree, focus group discussions and took on as many mystery shopping assignments as i could. I even went for astrology reading such as zi wei dou shu and vedic astrology which coincientally reveals that I am at the lowest point of my life and made worse by loss of job.

If this is part of destiny i would have to accept, but it had not been easy. The wise words of dont quit without a job still hold true and I would urge everyone to follow that.

Until today, recruiters comment that my age hold a barrier as companies are not willing to consider entry position despite my experience meeting the requirements and my age is certainly not enough for the senior positions. It is real roadblock and I am really at the corss-roads of my life.

18 months jobless is painfully long. Some more for a 36 yr old. I hope you have sufficient savings / investments to tide you over. Have you considered switching to nursing? I read that Singapore is in dire need of nurses. It is a recession proof vocation given our ageing population?

I would like to share a real life story, but in this day and age, no one would find it believable. A fren of mine after having worked in the hotel industry for many years, decided to call it quits because he just could not stand taking orders from younger bosses. This is a problem many people will face in this fast changing world. Many workers will find themselves reporting to younger bosses in their lifetime. Unless we humble ourselves to accept this, we would be placing unnecessary stress on ourselves and on the relationship with the bosses giving them reasons to boot us out.

Sorry for the digression, back to this fren. He was at that time, in his late 30s. After quitting, he vowed not to work for anyone. So what did he do? He went into the karang guni business. He started small. With a small second hand lorry, he went collecting old newspapers, cardboards, discarded stuff and appliances for resale.

Fast forward to today, 20+ years later, he is still at it. Now with a slightly bigger lorry and with 2 frens as part timers. He also saved enough to start a "mama" shop in the HDB block. He sometimes takes on house moving tasks.

Together with with his wife's income as a financial planner/advisor, he is supporting a family of 9, including his 80+ year old mother.

He is an inspiration if anything else of what the human spirit is capable of. Set a goal and stick to it with determination.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

18 months jobless is painfully long. Some more for a 36 yr old. I hope you have sufficient savings / investments to tide you over. Have you considered switching to nursing? I read that Singapore is in dire need of nurses. It is a recession proof vocation given our ageing population?

I would like to share a real life story, but in this day and age, no one would find it believable. A fren of mine after having worked in the hotel industry for many years, decided to call it quits because he just could not stand taking orders from younger bosses. This is a problem many people will face in this fast changing world. Many workers will find themselves reporting to younger bosses in their lifetime. Unless we humble ourselves to accept this, we would be placing unnecessary stress on ourselves and on the relationship with the bosses giving them reasons to boot us out.

Sorry for the digression, back to this fren. He was at that time, in his late 30s. After quitting, he vowed not to work for anyone. So what did he do? He went into the karang guni business. He started small. With a small second hand lorry, he went collecting old newspapers, cardboards, discarded stuff and appliances for resale.

Fast forward to today, 20+ years later, he is still at it. Now with a slightly bigger lorry and with 2 frens as part timers. He also saved enough to start a "mama" shop in the HDB block. He sometimes takes on house moving tasks.

Together with with his wife's income as a financial planner/advisor, he is supporting a family of 9, including his 80+ year old mother.

He is an inspiration if anything else of what the human spirit is capable of. Set a goal and stick to it with determination.

It's not inspiring. I don't want to be like him.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It's not inspiring. I don't want to be like him.

You said it brother

u gotta be kidding me!

that friend of yours take 20+ years to set up a HDB mama shop at nearly 60 years old and this is suppose to be inspiring?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

18 months jobless is painfully long. Some more for a 36 yr old. I hope you have sufficient savings / investments to tide you over. Have you considered switching to nursing? I read that Singapore is in dire need of nurses. It is a recession proof vocation given our ageing population?

I would like to share a real life story, but in this day and age, no one would find it believable. A fren of mine after having worked in the hotel industry for many years, decided to call it quits because he just could not stand taking orders from younger bosses. This is a problem many people will face in this fast changing world. Many workers will find themselves reporting to younger bosses in their lifetime. Unless we humble ourselves to accept this, we would be placing unnecessary stress on ourselves and on the relationship with the bosses giving them reasons to boot us out.

Sorry for the digression, back to this fren. He was at that time, in his late 30s. After quitting, he vowed not to work for anyone. So what did he do? He went into the karang guni business. He started small. With a small second hand lorry, he went collecting old newspapers, cardboards, discarded stuff and appliances for resale.

Fast forward to today, 20+ years later, he is still at it. Now with a slightly bigger lorry and with 2 frens as part timers. He also saved enough to start a "mama" shop in the HDB block. He sometimes takes on house moving tasks.

Together with with his wife's income as a financial planner/advisor, he is supporting a family of 9, including his 80+ year old mother.

He is an inspiration if anything else of what the human spirit is capable of. Set a goal and stick to it with determination.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is the focus group discussion good money? How to join?

Google focus group discussion and you shld be able to find. Look in gumtree singapore. Sometimes they advertised. The lowest i got paid was $30 and the highest was $150.

Mystery shopping also helps. That can also be googled. The lowest pay i got was $8/assignment in a fast food and highest was $250/assignment for a bank. I did pretty well that the research company sponsored me an air ticket to bangkok to mystery shopped a few shops in downtown as well as in the departure hall of bangkok airport. The beauty of this is that you can do it in a timing you are comfortable. but the difficulty is the lengthy report you had to write.

Fast food mystery shopping is easy but the payout is low. But then again u get to eat for free. So that helps to pay for my meals when i am jobless.

Mystery shopping cannot substitute a full job income but it can supplement if you can accumulate anything between 20-25 assignments a month. That works out to be anything between $300-$600 extra depending on the payout.

The best payout is still clinical trials if you are willing to be a lab rat. They pay 4 digits for investigational medicine and require you to stay-in for observation which will feel like confinement back in NS days but with the freedom to surf net, watch tv and make phone calls.

High risk = high payout. Ask yourself if you are willing to be a rat lab for an experimental drug for HIV. Think of that before you think of the money.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

u gotta be kidding me!

that friend of yours take 20+ years to set up a HDB mama shop at nearly 60 years old and this is suppose to be inspiring?

You dudes are only looking from $$$ angle. There is the human spirit, the resilience and the tenacity to stay true to what one sets out to do.

An extreme example would be the RSN chap who lost his limbs in the nasty accident on board his ship. Nobody would want to be in his position, but he is an inspiration nonetheless for his grit and positive spirit.

Back to the karang guni chap, how many of you would have given up, whine about your predicament already, but not this guy. He stayed true to his set goal of not working for anyone. Not only that, he continued living his life, have a family and even expanded his little business.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You dudes are only looking from $$$ angle. There is the human spirit, the resilience and the tenacity to stay true to what one sets out to do.

An extreme example would be the RSN chap who lost his limbs in the nasty accident on board his ship. Nobody would want to be in his position, but he is an inspiration nonetheless for his grit and positive spirit.

Back to the karang guni chap, how many of you would have given up, whine about your predicament already, but not this guy. He stayed true to his set goal of not working for anyone. Not only that, he continued living his life, have a family and even expanded his little business.

Using big words like "inspiration" or "positive human spirit" to cover up poor achievement is just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Fact is your karang guni friend quit in a huff over a stupid reason like he cannot stand having somone younger than him as boss.

He then went out to start his own karang guni business, went totally nowhere for 20+ years and in the end start a mama shop below HDB at 60 years old, probably much worse off than if he had stayed in employment until retirement.

To compare this kind of screw up due to his poor judgement and folly with the RSN guy who has suffered such great misfortune and yet picks himself up immediately upon discharge from hospital is a complete insult to the bravery and reslience demonstrated by the RSN guy.