I'm a graduate of Business Administration in Financial Management but was more inclined to front line sales. I know I didn't fit to Accounting jobs (except secretarial or administrative) since I know what I've learned from school was not enough or should I also say, I have forgotten most of the applicable lessons for those related accounting jobs. After graduating. I successfully finished my OJT and got a job urgently. I was able to have two consecutive sales jobs not counting the OJT.
After leaving my last job on April 2014, I urgently went to search for jobs. I've got lot of job offers then. Unfortunately due to my laziness and stubbornness, I declined most of those job offers due to different reasons:
1* COST OF TIME AND TRAVEL. Some offers requires me to travel 2-3 hours trip to the main city where their main offices are. I thought of it as hassle since it would cost me a lot of money (fare) without the assurance of getting the job (I know I should take risks to learn, but I don't find it practical knowing that I only have small amount of money with me, and that I'm independent from my parents and I don't bother them to ask for money);
2* INCAPABLE OF RELOCATING. Again I feared taking risks again to attend job interviews. I had an experienced before when I had an interview and attended for it. Try to imagine, I had to travel 2-3 hours to the city just to get there. Knowing that I might have the job (I'm not totally expecting for the job itself, but hoping to be assigned in our area. SInce the job that I have applied for was to be based here in our province) but they shifted me to another job (which is quite actually better or more in favor to me) but unfortunately it will require me to relocate in that city. How can I do that? In the first place, I dont have enough back up money to sustain my living there, dont even have the money to pay for rent. If you would ask me where did my last pay go? For my walk in job search, producing resume hard copies, fares, food, daily necessities. My last pay aint that big actually.
From then I got bit more careful to choosing companies and jobs, I didn't wanted that to happen anymore. Imagine that job interview I attended cost me 25% of my last pay to get there.
3* NO MOTIVATIONAL SUPPORT FROM LOVED ONES. Admit it or not, everybody becomes disappointed, discouraged and depressed at some point of our lives. I came to be like that when my parents started nagging me for losing the job. Of course, I also have my ego. I know I should be moving out of this house by this age. But it's not that easy. Knowing our country Philippines offers not-so-good salary with minimum benefits. Everyone knows it. But I don't blame that situation. What pulls me down is that I don't get motivational support from my family members. I had to seek it from other people, like my boyfriend. But unfortunately, I was not also getting any motivational neither financial or any support from him.
4* RUNNING OUT OF MONEY. Yes. I don't have enough money to sustain my everyday necessities. As I've said I don't want to depend too much from my parents. Sheltering me to their house and feeding me thrice a day were too much to ask for another help, which is money. I don't even have any source of income. All I could do to help my parents is to do household chores for them in return for my stay.
5* CAN'T FIND MY CONFIDENCE ANYMORE AND SO MY KNOWLEDGE IS GONE ALSO? Due to the 4th reason, I feel that I dont have the guts anymore to face the world. My knowledge and applied skills from my previous jobs were gone also. Knowing those things bothers me a lot. I'm losing my will power and pushover now. I'm kinda feeling degraded.
6* MY SCHOOL REPUTATION. Unfortunately, I graduated in an institute where quality of education is low. I was competitive academically during my school years, but I just didnt feel that I was fed with enough knowledge. In addition to that our school was not reputable enough to have its students be trusted for good jobs. Since our companies in our province majorly trust graduates from those big universities. Most of the good jobs are granted to graduates from big schools. Yes. Unfortunately companies in this country really prefers graduates from famous schools, if there were companies who offers good jobs for grads of infamous schools like mine, they were only few you can count them with your fingers. Whenever I would think of my co-applicants coming from big schools. I'm kinda intimidated and feeling aback. In addition to that my school credentials were not available. I graduated last year (2013) and our school faculty told us we can get our credentials after a year. But hey, a year already elapsed. But my credentials are not yet available. I'm settled with my fees and everything. It's just that I dont have any idea what's happening inside their management. Up to now, I'm still regretful of attending that school. I never saw the consequences of choosing the school for a low tuition fee not knowing with low education quality.
I've been out of work for already 4 months. I can't seem to find myself motivated anymore. Don't get me wrong I'm not picky to jobs, it's just that I try to find something relative from my previous jobs or to my course. I want to make sense and excel in my chosen path. I guess the emotional damaged is too much and I find it hard to recover my confidence back. I dont know what to do now, I know 'I DID MY BEST' to find a job. But I guess my best were not enough yet. I can't find ways to motivate more of myself.
Please give me advice I'm becoming desperate now. And please as you advice me, give me the practical ones and I KNOW MY WRONGS ALREADY AND I ADMIT THEM. So you dont have to pinpoint them again to me. I just want wise and practical advice I can take for the rest of my life.
Please, people give me the best advice I could do. I will thank you for the rest of my life. And in return, I hate to flag this, since I should have just keep it surprise, but if someone's advice hit my heart and felt it was the right thing to do. I'll be saving as I got the job to send some 'Thank you' stuffs for him/her this coming Christmas. I would also let him/her know what I got and how his/her advice changed my life. I'm going to post the progress I will be making to show how his/her advice took me to where I want to be.
Please you can change a desperate life into worth living.
Thank you and I'm hoping to hear from you.
After leaving my last job on April 2014, I urgently went to search for jobs. I've got lot of job offers then. Unfortunately due to my laziness and stubbornness, I declined most of those job offers due to different reasons:
1* COST OF TIME AND TRAVEL. Some offers requires me to travel 2-3 hours trip to the main city where their main offices are. I thought of it as hassle since it would cost me a lot of money (fare) without the assurance of getting the job (I know I should take risks to learn, but I don't find it practical knowing that I only have small amount of money with me, and that I'm independent from my parents and I don't bother them to ask for money);
2* INCAPABLE OF RELOCATING. Again I feared taking risks again to attend job interviews. I had an experienced before when I had an interview and attended for it. Try to imagine, I had to travel 2-3 hours to the city just to get there. Knowing that I might have the job (I'm not totally expecting for the job itself, but hoping to be assigned in our area. SInce the job that I have applied for was to be based here in our province) but they shifted me to another job (which is quite actually better or more in favor to me) but unfortunately it will require me to relocate in that city. How can I do that? In the first place, I dont have enough back up money to sustain my living there, dont even have the money to pay for rent. If you would ask me where did my last pay go? For my walk in job search, producing resume hard copies, fares, food, daily necessities. My last pay aint that big actually.
From then I got bit more careful to choosing companies and jobs, I didn't wanted that to happen anymore. Imagine that job interview I attended cost me 25% of my last pay to get there.
3* NO MOTIVATIONAL SUPPORT FROM LOVED ONES. Admit it or not, everybody becomes disappointed, discouraged and depressed at some point of our lives. I came to be like that when my parents started nagging me for losing the job. Of course, I also have my ego. I know I should be moving out of this house by this age. But it's not that easy. Knowing our country Philippines offers not-so-good salary with minimum benefits. Everyone knows it. But I don't blame that situation. What pulls me down is that I don't get motivational support from my family members. I had to seek it from other people, like my boyfriend. But unfortunately, I was not also getting any motivational neither financial or any support from him.
4* RUNNING OUT OF MONEY. Yes. I don't have enough money to sustain my everyday necessities. As I've said I don't want to depend too much from my parents. Sheltering me to their house and feeding me thrice a day were too much to ask for another help, which is money. I don't even have any source of income. All I could do to help my parents is to do household chores for them in return for my stay.
5* CAN'T FIND MY CONFIDENCE ANYMORE AND SO MY KNOWLEDGE IS GONE ALSO? Due to the 4th reason, I feel that I dont have the guts anymore to face the world. My knowledge and applied skills from my previous jobs were gone also. Knowing those things bothers me a lot. I'm losing my will power and pushover now. I'm kinda feeling degraded.
6* MY SCHOOL REPUTATION. Unfortunately, I graduated in an institute where quality of education is low. I was competitive academically during my school years, but I just didnt feel that I was fed with enough knowledge. In addition to that our school was not reputable enough to have its students be trusted for good jobs. Since our companies in our province majorly trust graduates from those big universities. Most of the good jobs are granted to graduates from big schools. Yes. Unfortunately companies in this country really prefers graduates from famous schools, if there were companies who offers good jobs for grads of infamous schools like mine, they were only few you can count them with your fingers. Whenever I would think of my co-applicants coming from big schools. I'm kinda intimidated and feeling aback. In addition to that my school credentials were not available. I graduated last year (2013) and our school faculty told us we can get our credentials after a year. But hey, a year already elapsed. But my credentials are not yet available. I'm settled with my fees and everything. It's just that I dont have any idea what's happening inside their management. Up to now, I'm still regretful of attending that school. I never saw the consequences of choosing the school for a low tuition fee not knowing with low education quality.
I've been out of work for already 4 months. I can't seem to find myself motivated anymore. Don't get me wrong I'm not picky to jobs, it's just that I try to find something relative from my previous jobs or to my course. I want to make sense and excel in my chosen path. I guess the emotional damaged is too much and I find it hard to recover my confidence back. I dont know what to do now, I know 'I DID MY BEST' to find a job. But I guess my best were not enough yet. I can't find ways to motivate more of myself.
Please give me advice I'm becoming desperate now. And please as you advice me, give me the practical ones and I KNOW MY WRONGS ALREADY AND I ADMIT THEM. So you dont have to pinpoint them again to me. I just want wise and practical advice I can take for the rest of my life.
Please, people give me the best advice I could do. I will thank you for the rest of my life. And in return, I hate to flag this, since I should have just keep it surprise, but if someone's advice hit my heart and felt it was the right thing to do. I'll be saving as I got the job to send some 'Thank you' stuffs for him/her this coming Christmas. I would also let him/her know what I got and how his/her advice changed my life. I'm going to post the progress I will be making to show how his/her advice took me to where I want to be.
Please you can change a desperate life into worth living.
Thank you and I'm hoping to hear from you.
Hi Huggy Bear,
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading and commenting on my blog. I am sorry to read about your plight but I know it well as I once had two years' unemployment. Hopefully I am an example of things getting better.
Practical advice is difficult as I don't know the job market too well in your region but here goes:
- set yourself daily objectives, especially looking through online job boards
- set yourself weekly targets, for example mine was five applications per week (which was easier as I am in IT)
- but recognise that whatever target you set isn't always attainable - we all have bad luck weeks
- job hunting and applications should be harder than a full-time job: get up early, job hunt till late
- but take breaks. An hour for lunch and dinner. And take the weekends off.
- you must tailor your c.v. or resume and covering letter for every application you make
- these must be perfect. Read them out aloud (seriously, don't sub-vocalise, ALOUD).
- use hidden tables for your c.v. so that everything lines up nicely
- yes your applications must be perfect but forgive yourself when you later realise you have made a mistake.
- also forgive yourself for the occasional lapses in discipline during your search (as long as they are occasional)
- the Internet and other distractions are only for rewards or needy breaks after several hours of hunting. Having said that you must have other interests so keep up your food blog (in your spare time).
- no later than a day after sending an application phone them. You must. Most people won't so you will stand out.
- you have good English - I'm not being patronising, it's not perfect but it is good (I have interviewed people from your region) - and that is a skill you can exploit. Target US and British companies and other multi-nationals (because they will operate in English).
- back to your c.v (resume): most people are careless with these. Make yours stand-out. Everything must be nicely lined up (with those hidden tables). The wording must be crisp. Use textual embellishments sparingly. Don't use this exercise as an excuse not to apply to jobs. It may take weeks of research (on ideas etc.) during which you must still send out applications with your existing - but improving - c.v.
- attend business talks, networking events, Toastmasters etc. They probably won't get you an interview but it will help you develop your self-presentation and keep you relaxed amongst others. Oh, and they can be fun too.
- if you can then get some business cards made. You never know into whom you might bump. But if you do meet someone it is essential that you get their card.
- get on LinkedIn. Post full details and a photograph. I got one job after being found on that site.
- GET ON LINKEDIN
- if you can, go for job interviews if only just to get the experience
- remember that it is easier to get a job if you already have a job so that job advert you don't like may be worth going for
- also remember that the first thing that changes in a job is the job description. Often on the first day. This has happened to me so often.
- your people, organisational, project and leadership skills - along with metric tonnes of hard work - will take you much further than any schooling or initial employment position.
And finally, the harder you work the luckier you get so job hunt hard and good luck!