I finally got a job offer after 5 long months

😭 My goodness, I finally received a job offer* after 5 long months of being unemployed 😭

I left my last job sometime late April and received a job offer and started working in October - so it’s been 5 months of anxiously searching for jobs.

Here’s my thoughts on the market right now:

1. IT’S AN INCREDIBLY ROUGH JOB MARKET RIGHT NOW

And I’m not the only one to say so, check out these Reddit posts if you don’t believe me:

a. Graduates of 2024, how is the job market looking? (1 month)

b. Is the current job market actually bad? (3 months ago)

c. Job seekers & recruiters, what’s your opinion on the job market now? (3 months ago)

d. Why is the job market so bad? (5 months ago)

e. Job Hunt in 2024 (6 months ago)

I’d know that the job market is bad seeing that I’m on LinkedIn so often - I’m on there every single day, every single hour, searching for jobs 🙈 Granted, this is limited to my industry.

On a day to day basis, I’d say that only 1-6 jobs are posted - 3-4 are by recruiters and 1-3 are posted by companies.

Most of them aren’t suited for my profile sadly.

For example, 4-6 of them want a candidate with >8 years of experience and I only have 3/4 years of experience or are in industries that I don’t have any experience or interest in.

The rest are in industries that I do have experience in but they’re so rare - maybe 3-4 every 2 weeks?

Out of the 3-4, 1 of them will involve some other extra skill that I don’t have - for example, being able to speak and write Chinese.

I remember being a fresh grad and trying out a job that required Chinese speaking skills - it was a complete disaster 😖 I told myself I’d never put myself in such a position again.

The lack of jobs meant that I applied for lesser and lesser jobs. Eventually, I had to look outside of Singapore and start applying to remote roles.

In total, I applied to some 150 jobs over the past 4+ months. This was extremely discouraging 🥲

2. TRY LOOKING OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Initially, I only applied to a very narrow niche area of my work and I only wanted jobs that paid me more than what I used to make (what a delulu right?) I talked about this in my first post (3 things I learnt being unemployed after 5+ months)

However, as time passed, I realised that my skill set didn’t demand the kind of pay I was looking for 🥹

I was able to negotiate for the salary I was making from my previous company because I had leverage - I was employed and making good money.

I decided to be more open-minded about things.

It’s okay to make less than what I made previously, it’s okay to take up a contract job, it’s okay to take up a freelance job - after all, something is better than nothing right? It’s better to get up on your two feet first 🥹

I started to search for jobs beyond Singapore that I could work remotely - there’s a worldwide option and remote option available on LinkedIn.

After searching for 2-3 months with these two changes, I finally received a job offer to work at a company that I never thought I’d work at - it’s European plus it’s fully remote 🤩 I can work anywhere in the world 🌎

I also managed to land a freelance job that pays me a pretty penny every hour. With both jobs, I now make almost the same (or even more depending on what jobs I take up!) as what I did before 😌

3. DON’T GIVE UP

It was awful applying to jobs and interviewing at so many companies (more than 10 companies) and being rejected.

I hated every moment of preparing for interviews and interviewing.

I actually thought about giving up… but I kept pressing on and I hope you can do the same.

I know it feels so permanent and like it’s forever but you’ll get there!!!!! Just like I did.

Check out my second post on Another three things I learnt being unemployed 👋