BLOGStreet, from JobStreet.com

Be prepared to start from the bottom

The underlying lesson to learn from this story from JobStreet.com member Choo is that fresh graduates must be prepared to start from the bottom, especially when the economy is faced with a downturn. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Here is his story:

I had just graduated from university in mid-2002 and began my job hunt immediately after my last exam. As a major in banking and finance, I was actively looking for positions in the industry. There were limited positions available and before long, I realized I had to expand my job hunt beyond the industry I was looking for. Interviews were few and far in between.

To reduce the burden on my family, I took on a temporary assignment as a customer service officer with a statutory board. As an hourly rated employee, the monthly pay was half of what a fresh graduate would usually obtain. To keep expenses down, I made a conscious effort to have my meals at coffee shops and staff canteens instead of food courts or fast food restaurants. I also saved on transport by taking a 25-minute walk from my home to the workplace. I was a temporary worker in the day and a professional job hunter by night.

During this period, I was still attending interviews whenever there was an opportunity. However, there were no offers. It was even more demoralizing when I hear of peers who had successfully secured employment. Despite the fact that there were other fresh graduates in similar predicament, it was no consolation. I was constantly tinkering with my resume and cover letter to optimise the chances of an interview. Even though my performance in the statutory board was rated excellent, there were no permanent openings. After six months, the temporary assignment had also come to an end.

Click here to read Choo's tale.

Snippets: The small talk counts

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

Many interviewers like to make small talk with a prospective employee to get more of a feel of the temperament and personality that goes beyond responses an interviewer might have rehearsed. While you don’t want to attempt to be buddies with your interviewer, being able to participate in small talk is almost a talent by itself. Make a connection with the interviewer, and your chances immediately increase. If it’s possible for you to know what the interviewer does, you can include what you know in your small talk. For example, if your interviewer worked on a large campaign, ask him what it was like. You should avoid too trivial a subject and listen more than you speak.

Do check back on 10 Apr 2009 for more tips!

JobStreet.com runs Resume and Career Clinic and Talks in conjunction with launch of "Break Through Learning" series

JobStreet.com "Resume and Career Clinic" was a  big hit among the visitors. Armed with the resume's the crowd thronged the clinic to get the professional advice from the consultants. The "Hot Job corner was also viewed by many who wanted to get the glimpse of the latest job that was available. JobStreet.com also ran talks in three language's (Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin). The video on how to ace an interview also was viewed by the visitors. Many good points was raised in the video which would have benefited the jobseekers.

On site interview was done and eight candidates was given a short listed bringing them a step closer towards employment. Guess the talk and clinic helped a lot. Congrats to them. Catch you all on the next clinic.

 

Light at the end of the tunnel

One of our members, Low, went through some hard times when he was retrench in 1999. He tried to keep the bad news away from his wife while he went about to find a new job. Looking back on those trying days, Low said that it wasn't easy to pretend that he was still working.

I started my career in Jan 1980 as a technician and slowly moved up the corporate ladder, having a few job switches along the way. Eventually I became a manager in June 1991. I was very happy but before long, in March 1999, I was retrenched. I was told to pack and leave the company immediately. I have never tasted recession prior to this and I was totally lost and depressed.

Upon reaching home, I did not tell my wife and presumed my normal work routine the next workday. I woke up early, dressed up and left for "work". I sat at a fast food restaurant with a set of newspaper, browsing through the Straits Times Recruit section. Days passed by and I still could not find a job. I remembered looking forward to the weekend because there would be a "thicker" recruit section. However, I often found nothing suitable and was left disappointed and demoralised.

Another "work week" ahead was a scary thought.

One day, my hand phone rang and an old friend called and said he found out of my retrenchment.....

Click here to read his whole story.

Snippets: Look elegant and smart

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

The first impression always matters and the first glance that the interviewer steals on you most often immediately sets a grade for you at the back of their mind. Therefore, it is essential that you do not look too sophisticated or too casual, but keep your dressing simple, sharp but elegant. Dressing up looking like a professional will boost your confidence and ego. And don't forget to smell like a charm when you put on your favourite perfume or cologne. People are most attracted to nice smells.

Do check back on 30 Mar 2009 for more tips!

Managing your emotional health

Your emotions can get the better of you if you are not aware or not strong enough to meet them. During this period of economic slowdown, it's quite possible that many person will have conflicting emotions. How can you prepare yourself for the waves of emotions sweeping you? Here. one of our members, Gilbert Goh, tells us what he went through:

I count myself lucky to have survived two tough years of unemployment with mounting financial problems during the period after 9/11 right up to the SARS epidemic. My family had just returned from overseas as we were away for a year on study purposes. The situation was made worse when we decided to buy a private house burdened with a mortgage loan. It was one of my worst personal decisions.

Although my wife works, it was tough to make ends meet with only one income. We also had a young daughter to raise. I faced sleepless nights trying to meet the minimum income payments for all my credit facilities especially when the bank account dried up. There was an unforgettable day when my ATM bank account showed a balance of less than $20. The worst moments of my life came when I had to borrow cash from friends to tide over. This is when you realise who your true friends are and whether they will stand by you when you are almost down and out. To this day, I am thankful to the few who volunteered financial assistance to me during this trying period.

During that period, I hovered between desperation and panic. Naturally, the relationship with my wife was not at its best. We often argued over financial matters.

Click here to read Gilbert's full story.

Does personality influence your job?

Are you a playful puppy, a lion king or simply at peace with the world? Believe it or not, these are typical personality traits demonstrated by people everywhere. Whether you are extroverted or introverted, aggressive or submissive, you can be categorised.

Moreover, the types of job we do often have a lot to do with our personality. Some people got stuck in their career and failed to see the recurring pattern in their past jobs. If we track back to the reasons some of us had left our previous employers, the answer could be devastating. Why were you not happy then? What really triggered you to leave? Was salary the main reason? Research shows that many leave the organization because of bad managers. Not able to get along with your managers and colleagues over a prolonged period of time is stressful and a career buster! But blaming others is only an emotional escape that says you are not responsible and limit your choice of actions to take. In today's fast changing economy, it is important that we play a more active role in our career management and be aware how our unique personality has an impact on the type of job we choose.

So how do you do that? Here is Desmond's full article. It's only the first of three parts. We're still waiting for the next instalment but the first part is an interesting read by itself.

Snippets: Job hunting takes perseverance

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

Job hunting is a tedious process and job seekers should not expect that you will be offered a job - one with a delicious pay cheque and strategic office - the moment you get called for your first interview. You have to understand that you need to be continuously seeking for jobs before eventually landing one you truly can relate to. Keep your job applications flowing to as many other companies as you can but keep in mind to apply only those that deems you suitably qualified. In short, job hunting needs determination and a whole lot of perseverance.

Do check back on 20 Mar 2009 for more tips!

Bonuses and salary increments

How much bonus did employees receive this year? What about salary increments?

Recently, we asked members in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines about their employers rewarding them for their work in 2008. In line with the global downturn, it was not surprising that we found companies were becoming more cautious in their abilities or willingness to pay or reward their staff.

Bonus

In Malaysia, about 38 percent said that they were given their bonuses and the other 62 percent said that they were getting none. Of this 38 percent, half said that they had received one month from their employers. The other half were split equally between those that had received two months and those who were given at least three months.

In Singapore, a greater percentage of members said that they did not receive any bonus. Of those who did, about five percent said that they were paid at least three months. Another nine percent said their companies paid them two months while about 18 percent said their bonus was a month.

In the Philippines, the percentage of people who received bonuses was the highest among the three countries we surveyed. About 21 percent of the members were given three months of bonus or more, about four percent said they had two months from their companies while 18 percent reported that they received a month of bonus at the beginning of the year.

Salary increase

In Malaysia, only about 45 percent said that they had not received any salary increase this year. About 27 percent of the respondents indicated that they had received increments of 10% or more in their pay cheques. Another 21 percent said that they were receiving between 5-9% increase in their salaries this year, while seven percent of the job seekers said their salaries were increased by less than 5%.

In Singapore, about 74 percent of respondents reported that their salaries had not been adjusted or increased this year. Among those who received salary increases, about nine percent of respondents said that they received an adjustment of less than 5% and another six percent claimed that their salaries increased between 5-9%. However, about 11 percent of those polled said that they received a salary increase of at least 10%.

In the Philippines, almost 35 percent of respondents said that they had received a salary increase of 10% or more while the percentage of polled members who did not receive any increase stood at 51 percent. Of the members who received single-digit salary increases, about eight percent of them were given increases of between 5-9% and six percent received increases of less than 5%

Note: We carried out this survey in February 2009 and there were about 12,000 JobStreet.com members participating from across Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

Workshop - Managing Your Career During A Crisis

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Start out right!          
Know what’s hot and suitable for you.
Know how to WIN at interviews 
Make your RESUME stand out from the crowd!

Covering various crucial must-know aspects on securing the job that you WANT, we will help you identify or re-establish your own innate temperaments, learnt behaviours versus the requirements in specific job types or industries.

You will learn the basics of personality profiling and apply it to different aspects of your life - particularly in your new job search journey. We will take you through a day of Useful tips, Real-life examples, Hands-on practices & Share valuable insights into the current employment scene that will keep you updated and informed.                   

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