Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Job-hunting in the Philippine setting

To job-hunt is easy but being "hunted" for a job isn't!:)

If we have thousands of graduates each year and available job opportunities are only half the population of those graduates, where do we put the rest? Granted that one call center company is in search for call center agents. And that out of 100 applicants only 40 pass for the final screening while only 15 are finally hired, what luck awaits then for the ones not accepted? (surely they've already lined up to their sweat and money to get passport and visa to find their luck in foreign lands). sigh!:o

The sad thing is that we only have very few graduates who acquire linguistic competence able to answer an English speaker interviewer with fluency. However, this is the reality when you are a job-seeker in the Philippine context.

Some say that being hired for a good job esp. in the Philippine setting is just a matter of luck, while some claim that it's a matter of having good scholastic record plus determination and guts. Hence, in some instance, if you are not accepted because you don't have "padreno, kapit, or under the table" connection, you will go home hoping that you were not raised or born in this kind of country. (haha!) That's what some say that job-seeking nowadays is about "it's whom you know and not what you know". tsk!tsk!

However, I still would want to correct those wrong notions about job-hunting in the Philippines. 'Will give you short tips on how to deal a job interview in my next post.:)

6 comments:

Bloom said...

nalilito ako! hahaha. akala ko magkaiba si cliffnotes chaka si nyl. isa lang pala. nyway, linked you already! :)

Keith said...

I appreciate the thoughts, but I wonder of the conclusions... Many people, especially those in countries like the Philippines, try to make ends meet by running, however meager, trheir own business, where they could work for themselves for the often as low as 150 Php a day many folk are paid.

I know there seems some comfort in having a job, but that security is illusory at best.

With a decent education, one should find a way to think outside the box, so they are not the ones working off the dismal (but true) numbers you just shared.

Still, for job hunters, the tenacious ones always find something, even in a poor economy.

Nyl said...

bloom,

thanks for the add...even if I confused you about my identity.haha!

keith,

That's a very good reflection you made..I respect that in however ways you respond to it like the way you conclude things.

Filipinos really work with such tenacity, regardless of the job description only to survive. That's how we are honed by experience being in a third-world country. However sometimes we thought we have less when we actually just aim for too much that are even just for luxury, if i may say.

Unknown said...

Uita-te cum ar fi secÅĢiunea B (bnch de hainaz) este tress trece!

Unknown said...

A request, pease dont bother about those hainaz. I think we should not be worried about them. Leave them on their own.

Anonymous said...

this is right in the Philippines it is a matter of who u know not what you know. Plus their very high standards requirements - pleasing personality if you are a data encoder will the computer get pleased by your looks? hahaha.

I remember when I first apply in a call center job in 5 days there were 2,500 applicants who took the initial interview and written exam and only 75 of us left for training.