A Little Trick To Improving Your Resume

I was recently involved in a headhunting program organized by the local (Singapore) authorities to conduct interviews with a group of PMETs (Professional, Managers, Engineers & Technicians) last Thursday, 30th April 2009. 

As I was discussing with one of this senior manager that was being retrenched recently on how can he improves on his resume, we came up with this interesting idea of putting down a list of reference books that he have read, or currently reading it, to be included inside your resume as a means to build rapport with the hiring manager.

Though this little trick may not give you significant improvement in getting yourself into an interview, but I guess there's no harm putting it down to give the hiring manager a slight nudge to consider meeting up with you.

If you ever encounter success through such means, feel free to drop me a email or comment to give other jobseekers a feel of this little trick!

To Your Success,

Allan Heng

Key Success In Getting A Job After Retrenchment

This is a recent article that was written by myself...

In every recession, where retrenchment are a common news, how can the retrenched workers find job in the shortest possible time, and ensure a better employability in the long term. Switching industry maybe the solution to it, but how to ensure a successful penetration into a new industry depends on changing your mindset...

The key success to get a new job after being retrenched is to first change your mindset. Whenever a recession comes, retrenchment seems to be the major corrective actions that many corporates will adopt to keep themselves afloat. This is especially evident in the manufacturing sectors where many managers, engineers and technicians have been made redundant due to low production activities. However, despite most industries were badly affected and resort to pay cut, retrenchment as a cost cutting measure, some other industries will be actively hiring. So switching into a new industry may be the way to ensure you are able to bring the dole back home. And to achieve that, the most importantly factor is to have a shift in the mindset. 

The followings are some basic steps in shifting mindset and getting yourself a new job: 

1. Accept reality, and quickly get out of the depression Most people will feel traumatized when the retrenchment news is broken to them. While some simply break down and cry, others may choose to act as if nothing happens. Whatever your reaction is, make sure you spend sufficient time to accept the reality. This will help you to get out of that depression and move forward to take back control of your life. 

2. Write down all your transferable skillsets. When you've written down all your valuable skillsets that you think is of value, spending sometime to think of the times when you're displaying these skillsets to overcome various obstacles. Feel the emotion, the confidence, the adrenaline rushing up to you, making you almost invincible. Amplify this feeling 10 times, 100 times to make yourself feel like you can overcome all odds. This stage is for you to gain back control and confidence, so that you can start taking charge of your life and move to where you want to go. 

3. Research emerging industries and seek out which one requires your skillsets Talk to people, read the news to find out which industry is actively hiring. The newspaper and job portals will give you a good indication of it. List down which of your valuable skillsets these industries requires. Talk to the industry “insiders” or recruitment agencies on the market standard of compensation and career prospects. Choose the one industry that most require your skillsets.  

4. Set a realistic expectation of salary and job title Moving into a new industry means you're not only competing with experience “insiders”, but also fresh graduates who may have a edge over you in terms of much lower salary and relevant academic knowledge. So set your expectations lower in terms of job title and salary. The salary should be slightly lower than the market standard, and sufficient for you to survive. Remember, the idea is to penetrate into the market to gain the experiences for the long term. 

5. Take massive actions Start taking massive actions by submitting your resumes, talking to people who knows people in the chosen industry. At this stage, if you didn't prepare yourself with the necessary research and preparations mentioned above, you may start to get frustrated and lose your drive and confidence, which is something that is important when presenting yourself to the prospective employer. 

I wish you every success in getting a new job!  

To Your Success,

Allan Heng

Consider Contract and Temporary Jobs as a Long Term Job Seeking Strategy

More companies are continuing to reduce their staff to ensure lean operations and survivability. Singaproe Airlines have recently announced a wage freeze for its management, a shorter work month for the senior management team. And UMC (Singapore-Pasir Ris Plant) has also recently layed off 20% of its Taiwanese engineers, and these engineers will leave the company by mid-April 09.

Most manufacturing companies have been cutting costs through laying off workers, reducing wages and shorter working week. Those who have been laid off have been finding difficulties getting a job with their past working manufacturing experience. Well, the lucky ones will have sufficient severance pay package to tie them through a more than 6 months. But ultimately, it'll still deplete its reserve if no new job has been found.

So what can these jobseekers do to get through this current crisis?

Permanent jobs may not be secure as well. More and more companies have started to consider contract and temporary staffs just to augment its existing lean permanent team while the management team adopt a wait and see attitude to have a clearer vision of the far horizon. Taking up contract and temporary jobs may not neccessary be a bad thing. You're still building up your working experience, something that you'll still be able to leverage on when the economy starts to recover. And working on contracts and temporary jobs allows you to maintain certain level of momentum in your working life, allowing you to have some active income to sustain your financial needs. And most importantly, contract and temporary jobs gives your opportunities to work in various companies, exposing yourself to different cultures, and increasing your mid to long term employability.

Companies are more willing to offer contract and temporary staff a permanent position when there is a place, or when the economy recovers as they have already know you, and worked with you for a brief period.

If you use contract and temporary employment as a strategy for long term employability, your chances of getting it will definitely be greatly increased. Remember the waves have already crushed down on us. While we're fighting hard to get our heads out of the water, we'll also need to swim to position to be ready for the next big wave.

I wish you all the best!

To Your Success,
Allan Heng

A Tough 2009, But Great Opportunities Awaits

What an exciting year of 2008! It was truly a roller coaster ride where most of us exprienced the HIGHS in the early part of the year follow by the LOWS since the mid till end of the year. Well, the truth is most economists is also looking at 2009 a bad year where the impact of recession will be felt by most countries, especially in the Asia countries. More retrenchments may take place as corporates are seeking ways to cut down expenses.

But for jobseekers, this can be a good opportunity for you to switch to a job that can either help you gain extra experiences, or leverage on your current experiences.

In fact, some companies are seeking to recruit top talents, people who can help drive their companies through this tough turbulent times. (See this post from Business Times dtd 25th Dec 08 "We Will Hire Top talents & Avoid Mass Firing")

So for jobseekers, this is the right time for your to re-strategize your cover letters and resumes, get ready your best suits for interviews and get yourself a big bang for the start of 2009!

I wish you every success, and a great Happy New Year! We're going to have a great year ahead!

To Your Success,

Allan Heng

Read more about Writing a Good Resume, and How To Ace In Interviews.