Young, jobless and struggling with constant low wages and self esteem

[h=1]YOUNG, JOBLESS AND STRUGGLING WITH CONSTANT LOW WAGES AND SELF ESTEEM[/h]
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23 Aug 2014 - 10:05am





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Dear Gilbert

I believe we have met before back in 2012 and I admire you and your volunteer colleagues’ attempts to help fellow Singaporeans get back on track in the workforce by assisting to alleviate their financial and unemployment crunches when our own government fails to help us.

I’m in my mid-twenties and currently feeling down and struggling to find a job.

I haven’t got a stable job for months now since the start of 2014.

I was terminated from my most recent job as an admin assistant in a small baking studio back in late June after only starting to work there for just seven days due to unsatisfactory performance such as inability to cope with the administrative work and was left to my own devices when I asked for help during my probation there.

I had a tough time adapting to tasks such as using Google documents and was shocked that on the third day of my tenure there, my superiors did not tell me that a job interview for the role of admin assistant would take place on that day and asked me to mind my tasks instead.

An interviewee turned up then and I wasn’t informed beforehand about it?

That’s when I started to sense something fishy there. My senses tell me I wouldn’t last long there.

My mistake was that I took up Office Skills and Business Administration in ITE after my secondary school graduation, because at that point of time, due to peer pressure around me then and the fact that it was in hot demand due to the then-upcoming integrated resorts, Formula 1 races, YOG and what-not; only to realize years later that doing anything clerical admin isn’t going to lead me to anywhere.

Had my first termination back in April 2012 from a data entry job, then worked as a contract temp for ICA HQ for a year and 4 months (which led to unhappiness,under-appreciation and sometimes vocal discord amongst colleagues and supervisor) doing simple back-end admin tasks such as filing up immigration-related application forms into their case files, scan barcodes and send to uniformed officers and data entry officers.

During my time in ICA, favoritism towards people with diplomas, degrees and above and those with family/spousal/sibling ties within ICA and other stat boards was very common to the point that it did bruise my ego and self-esteem.

Whatever I learnt in ITE was underutilized or not utilized at all at work. I was underpaid too, my gross salary would be around $1.1-1.2k. I would bring back around $700-900 as basic pay.
There were no fringe benefits as a temp and some people said to me that ICA is trying to exploit me.

Seeing colleagues and old friends in other industries get promoted and are paid higher left me jealous and livid.

Always doing back-end admin stuff and then suddenly exposed to facing clients and talking to customers on the phone or email also affected the way I communicate effectively with people at work later on.
I let my ICA contract expire in late Oct 2013 and then worked at Isetan HQ as Clerical Assistant from mid-Nov to New Year’s Eve last year, then as a Postal Officer at SingPost Ayer Rajah Delivery Base from this March to mid-April, with the latter left me overworked and burned out as the working place that I was posted to was too far from home in Toa Payoh and located in a remote industrial estate at one-north, Buona Vista area.
I think I’ve been out of job for 6 months now.

Job-search wise, I did consider thinking of switching to other industries such as Early Childhood Education and Healthcare (positions like Patient Services Officer, Receptionist) sectors, only to realize they aren’t meant for me and it baffles me that even for Infant Care Educarer position, you need to have at least a WDA cert or diploma, or a HMI cert for just even a Patient Services Officer.

I did attend job fairs by e2i, expos, search online portals such as JobsDB and Jobscentral and even seek help from recruitment agencies, CDC and Mendaki SENSE for help but they can’t help much with my job search process.
Chances of me getting a successful interview and long-term securing of a job are slim to none.

My interviewing skills are awful as I get nervous and hesitate a lot by stuttering and be at lost for words.

Even friends that I used to have distanced themselves away from me when they know about my current predicament, thinking that my problems would be disturbing their peace.
Also I don’t have any loyal character references to refer to in resumes.

Back in late May this year, a private IT institution named Lithan Hall Academy, located at Paya Lebar Lifelong Learning Institute, called me up out of the blue, inviting me to their talk and eventually I signed up for their Express IT in IT Networking Systems course which lasts for 5 months through night classes on certain weeknights and is WDA-approved.

The thought of switching to IT crossed my mind; in fact I did think of taking up IT after my O levels in either ITE or Poly or both and beyond.

The only subjects that I look forward to in my school days were learning MS Office and a bit of Dreamweaver, apart from English, Mother Tongue and History classes despite not acing the subjects that well. I thought, why not take up, maybe I’ll find my true passion in here.




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They have frequent recruitment drives from various IT outsource firms but so far no firm has ever got back to me for subsequent interviews and signing contracts.

I’m also at a great disadvantage since I’m still brand-new to switching to this IT sector, employers are more likely to hire people with vast IT working experience and those with diploma/degree and above in IT/Computer Sciences.

Socializing-wise, I was told that I’m starting to open up to people once again though still facing shyness ever since I started taking up these IT classes on June 30.

My closest friend that I haven’t talked in months says that it’s okay to feel this way – I should try see this as an chance to start over a clean slate and leave behind all the pain I endured then and now.

She was the only one who sees the resilience, strength and courage in me when I’m blinded with my woes.

I still face sadness over isolation from people whom I used to regard as friends, only to find that none of them stick with me through the dirt.

I’m thinking if a part-time job outside of IT will at least restore my personal fund level for the moment and to also foot the bills, bring food to the table and give some money to parents out of filial piety and goodwill.

But I don’t know what sort of part-time job will do during this time.

Attached is my sample cover letter and resume. If you can kindly point out my errors in them, please do so.
Best Regards
Radiah
*Article first apeared on Transitioning.org, a support site for the unemployed.

Be strong. ITE is well recognized now and its alumni well received by employers.

The Prime Minister chose his rally venue at ITE this year.

Come on, chin up. You can do it.

It is no longer It's The End. It is now It's The Elites.

Instead of looking for a job, he should be creating jobs.

Leongsam said:

Instead of looking for a job, he should be creating jobs.

Click to expand...

Some people are just not resourceful enough and don't know where to start looking.

dont worry,just ask this guy to come to sbf,within a month he will be used to the everyday routine of cursing the PAP for all the misfortune in his life,waking up at 3pm in the afternoon in his shitstained underwear,his breath smelling like beer and piss,week old stubble on his face,looking at pictures of escorts on sammyboy and jacking off and laughing himself stupid at the sammyboy love triangle wars of god knows how many clones.

Once supply exceeds demand employers are spoilt for choice and the interviews become less structured. The young ones start to lose confidence. I like to see this Govt to make it mandate to place new entrants. Anwar did it when he was Finance Minister. Unemployment drop to zero.

Sad to see someone as young as this struggle and have to write to Gilbert. Then when you go to the Airport to check in, all foreigners and these are the jobs that should go to these ITE grads.

Leongsam said:

Instead of looking for a job, he should be creating jobs.

Click to expand...

The key word to it all to survive, is "re-inventing"...throughout my working life, I stayed ahead of curve doing that & learning..for everyday is a learning experience & learning things that are outside the scope of my work; so that, one day...I need that to survive.

Just because he graduated with It's The End...office skills etc... he limits himself to that only....this is the great product of our education system at present....

feel sorry for him/her.....i feel like this is a problem that plague many of us in the y generation,emotional problems,personality problems,problems fitting into the working environment with other people(or the army environment)......social anxiety issues and low esteem problems......and the feeling of being neglected and abandoned by the world.....a huge burden to bear when ur young and trying to find a way thru the world......to top it off,being undereducated and underqualified leaves u with very little options and choices in this country and fighting with hordes of foreigners ur ......instead of helpin youths reach their full potential and enjoy the best prime years of their lives like australia does......the youth in singapore is reduced to mere subsistence and scrambling to look for ways for survival........

fuck this stupid country!!!!!and fuck these stupid balless sinkies!!!!!instead of looking out for our fellow men and our own citizens and looking after the weak and the frail,fucking sinkies are either living in their own world or too fucking coward and balless to do anything!!!!!too balless to stand ur ground,too balless to tell foreigners to fuck off.....we not even talking about racism and xenophobia here we are talking about mere survival!!!!!!

when i become rich billionaire im off to save the palestines.....sinkies deserve no help,this pathetic ass country deserves to burn in hell!!!!"God" does not help the balless and the cowards who dare not help themselves!!!!!!Hong kies deserve to live and sinkies should be wiped off the face of this earth.

my family business has been looking for young sinkie male hires for years, and no takers so far. the starting pay for low grade work requiring little skills except being able to drive a truck and handy with a trolley and hand truck is $1800. he has to pack, unpack light boxes in the warehouse, deliver crates and boxes to retail stores and customer warehouses. all that work is done by noon in the warehouse, and delivery is done in the late morning to afternoon. when delivery is complete, rest of the day is up to him. very flexible work schedule. no aircon in warehouse. if he has a poly diploma, starting pay is $2000 and he can work in the aircon office half the time but must help with warehouse in the morning. if he is a grad, starting pay is as high as $3000. he will be involved in sales and marketing and junior management. we make it a point to hire locals first, but the response is poor as so far all local applicants find the location too hard to get to, and starting hours in the morning at 7am too early.

Someone with low self esteem and is nervous during interviews should start his own business instead. It will boost his self esteem no end when he's the interviewer instead of the interviewee.

not everyone can be like you

singveld said:

not everyone can be like you

Click to expand...

Nobody knows what they can or cannot do unless they have given it a go. I'm willing to bet a million he has not taken the first step towards being self employed.

you think the wankers in this forum, half of them cannot start a business on their own, probably have down's syndrome. The rest have pap - play it safe culture in their head.

She got fired from a data entry job. Does that not tell us something?

my heart bleeds for you........ you know who is ultimately resp for your plight?

Scrooball (clone) said:

She got fired from a data entry job. Does that ICnot tell us something?

Click to expand...

ICA is gov......... so it is likely that the job was hijacked and given to cheaper FT....

Leongsam said:

Instead of looking for a job, he should be creating jobs.

Click to expand...

you mean blow jobs?

you wanna hire him and ask him to throw in anal as well?

They like to publish success stories from ITE. But they never highlight that for every success, there are more than 50 that didn't make it but must still must accumulate 200k for a flat, 43k for medisave, eat, pay utilities.... and return their 200k flat at the end as they are not going to be able to have much left for retirement. I may sound negative, but that is what I personally witness, the present lives of a couple of my distant relatives.

who did they vote for?