Career 02 (Apr 10 - Apr 12)

[kennynah]

this above is just so sad.....and i hope it isn't prevalent among his cohort...

[millionairemind]

this above is just so sad.....and i hope it isn't prevalent among his cohort...

Not quite sure Y so "cham".... wonder if its got to do with personality???

I watched some of my cohorts fly high.. a couple of them are pretty high up in the pecking order whereas a few are still not getting too far ahead...

[Poles]

i think the higher academic qualification you have...the lesser opportunities you will have.....
when you got nothing, anything will be a bonus......Ah Q theory!

[kennynah]

bro poles...

let me share with you a true account...

there was a short period where a friend was unemployed...and he went to breadtalk unsolicitedly...applied to work in any of their retail outlets for any position they might have...

someone from the office interviewed him...and you guessed it..."you appear to be over qualified for any position we have at the retail level", he said... this peng you is a NUS grad and had many years of managerial and regional role experiences... his last drawn was well over S$10K pm...and he was willing to settle for even S$1K + job....

so, sometimes, it isn't that one mai cho kang....the employer not keen to mismatch qualification with job opening... which i can also understand...

i had this estate agent who told me, he had to hide his university certs and just show his "o" level before he could get re-employed....boh pian... must feed family, he said...

[Poles]

bro poles...

let me share with you a true account...

there was a short period where a friend was unemployed...and he went to breadtalk unsolicitedly...applied to work in any of their retail outlets for any position they might have...

someone from the office interviewed him...and you guessed it..."you appear to be over qualified for any position we have at the retail level", he said... this peng you is a NUS grad and had many years of managerial and regional role experiences... his last drawn was well over S$10K pm...and he was willing to settle for even S$1K + job....

so, sometimes, it isn't that one mai cho kang....the employer not keen to mismatch qualification with job opening... which i can also understand...

i had this estate agent who told me, he had to hide his university certs and just show his "o" level before he could get re-employed....boh pian... must feed family, he said...

at least your kawan can extend & contract......no 10k , 1k also can jalan....that's the spirit

[winston]

"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."

Fats Domino

[winston]

5 pages, link below

How to Get the Job You Want By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com Staff Writer

NEW YORK (CNBC) -- After 15 years in the hospice industry, Philip Kittle lost his job.

The first thing he and his wife, Lynette, did was to make a list of hospices in their area and send a resume and cover letter to each one -- regardless of whether the company was hiring.

Sound ridiculous to send resumes to companies not hiring?

Not for Philip Kittle. After six months, one of the first places he had sent a resume to called him in for an interview and offered him a job.

The only reason it took that long, Lynette recalls, is because the company was going through a leadership transition. She said the new CEO saw his resume and said, "Why haven't we interviewed this person?"

What's more -- two months after they hired him, they promoted him! "So it really does pay to submit resumes and cover letters -- even if there are no jobs listed," Lynette said.

Lynette said two things were crucial in their search: They never lowered their standards and applied for lesser jobs -- they always believed he was going to get a better job. And, they approached it as a team.

"We believe in staying positive. And I say 'we' because as a spouse, it's important how I view his abilities and the situation. My attitude and words can make or break him -- especially during the challenges of unemployment," she said.

It's important to focus on what you want -- especially when you are unemployed.
"The biggest mistake people make when looking for a job is the trial and error method," said Bill Dueease, president of the Coach Connection, a network of career coaches.

"People apply for jobs that appear in front of them," Dueease explained. "Eventually they get lucky enough to have a choice," he said.

That leads to a false sense of power: I have choices! People want to hire me!

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10997282 ... -want.html

[millionairemind]

Telecommuting is a good idea... but so far, it has not caught on in Singapore...

Flexi work arrangements help retain talent
By Lip Kwok Wai/Sharon See | Posted: 05 February 2011 2200 hrs

SINGAPORE: More and more companies are coming up with flexible work arrangements to retain workers.

At Changi General Hospital, such arrangements helped it to keep 80 workers last year.

43-year-old Dr Lee Shu Woan is a consultant at the A&E department at Changi General Hospital. She had considered quitting when she gave birth to her first child nine years ago.

But the hospital offered her a flexible work arrangement, where two people hold one job, allowing them to choose when they want to work.

"This allows me to take care of my family. At the same time, it gives me personal time for me to contribute to society and see my patients," said Dr Lee.

Credit card company American Express also has flexible working arrangements, allowing workers to choose if they want to work from home.

Khong Yew Cheong, director for controllership technical advisory group at American Express, works from home.

He said: "My work is regional in nature. Due to time differences, I also work with colleagues in New York, London as well as Asia Pacific. So in terms of taking calls in the night, I can do that and at the same time, I can work from home, as needed, and spend time with my children."

Simon Kahn, vice-president & country manager at American Express, said: "Happy employees produce low level of attrition, so we save on our hiring costs and training costs....(When) we work from home....we have the opportunity to save on commuting time and expenses."

- CNA/ir

[winston]

A recent graduate wrote to me and would like some advice on his career.

The following are some of my initial thoughts:-


Transferable Skills

Try to accumulate transferrable skills along the way. This would be skills that you can bring along with you, when you go from company to company. They include Presentation Skills, Negotiation Skills, General Management Skills, M&A Skills etc.

And an example of a Non-Transferable Skills would be "APL Programming Skills" which is necessary in one company but APL may not be used in another company.


Networking

Try to attend as many industry functions as possible to network. Some of people that you meet there may be helpful to your career later on.

I have had contacts who became bosses, clients, competitors and colleagues. And their role may reverse later eg. competitor becoming a client, colleague becoming competitor then client etc.

The main thing is is to have one more friend than one more enemy.


Books

I would recommend going down to the library and borrowing books like:-
1) One Minute Manager
2) How to Win Friends and Influence People
3) Million Dollar Habits
etc.

Hoped that the above is useful.

Take care,
Winston

[millionairemind]

This piece of news caught my attention... quite amazing that fresh grads are paid up to $13,000/month..

Mar 22, 2011
Class of 2010: More jobs, better starting pay for grads
By Jane Ng

Miss Ku Kairong, 25, from NTU's school of art, design and media, got a job as an art director with advertising agency TBWA before she graduated last May and will soon be joining another agency. -- ST PHOTO: RAJ NADARAJAN

WITH the economic recovery, the Class of 2010 from the three local universities is reporting higher employment rates and better starting salaries compared to graduates from the year before.

In particular, graduates from the Singapore Management University (SMU) last year had a record employment rate of 99.9 per cent and higher starting salaries across five of the university's degree programmes, surpassing the performance of graduates in 2009, when 96.8 per cent found employment.

At the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), about 90 per cent found jobs within six months.

These were among the findings of the Graduate Employment Survey just released by the Education Ministry.

The average monthly salary among SMU graduates in full-time jobs was $3,271, an improvement of 5.8 per cent over 2009's figure of $3,093 - it is also the highest for SMU graduates since its first cohort graduated in 2004.

In addition, the top 20 per cent of its graduates, usually those working in financial institutions, took home an average salary of $5,062. There were some among the 125 top-earners who were paid up to $13,000 a month.