Losing your job anywhere is disorienting, but imagine being laid off when you work in a foreign country. Not only is your source of income, and perhaps a good part of your identity, suddenly yanked away, but often you lose your right to remain in the country.While this is obviously a story which hits close to home, the first thought which sprang to my mind was: why on earth is the NYT featuring a Singaporean who seems to have been laid off in Singapore in an article entitled Abruptly, Expatriate Bankers Are Cut Loose?
But more seriously, for those of you who've been asking, I'm coping. It's difficult to not get bogged down by the lack of prospects and opportunities in the job market. It's all well and good being a young, dedicated candidate who has a considerable amount of experience, is willing to work her ass off and loves to learn and challenge herself, but it's tough given that there seem to be two kinds of employers out there:
- The ones who've implemented hiring freezes and/or intend to cut more people
- The ones who want to see each and every candidate across a whole range of sectors so as to get one who fits their needs perfectly at the best possible price.
No. 2 is, of course, perfectly natural. However, it also means that a typical hiring process gets stretched out by months. After all, given the lack of business opportunities out there, employers do have more time to figure things out, much to the detriment of those of us who'd like to get back into the job market before summer.
I'm trying my best to expand my network because I'm well aware that a large majority of people who get jobs get them through their personal contacts, but given the ratio of people looking for jobs to the ratio of people who may know of opportunities, I'm not sure this is a tool which will bear fruit in the near future.
I know I may sometimes sound overly negative, but I prefer to see it as being realistic. I am doing my best to be positive, but... yeah. It can be trying at times.
No comments:
Post a Comment