I was an unemployed for quite sometimes. It actually years of unemployment, and currently I’m working where my job suits my academic qualification and experiences and on top of that it pays with the standard industrial rate. At first, I want to write in Malay, however it’s very difficult for me to comprehend my thought in Malay as I’m more comfortable writing and speaking in English. Hope it won’t be a problem as I really want to shared my experiences to all of you, especially for those people out there who are currently jobless. I totally understand how that feel. Sometimes it can be a very lonely journey.
Before I shared my experiences with all of you, I would love to tell a bit about myself. It’s very difficult to get a job as a female for my field of studies. Even when we scored really well when we did our degree, but industries tend to hired male. When I did my degree, I heard some senior said, even the male always get 2 pointer and female usually score really well, but reality in heavy industry they will hired those male even they are 2 pointers. Honestly, at that time I don’t believe it, but when I graduated, reality hits me, almost every male in my course get a job in our field despite 2 pointers, and most of female doesn’t get a job in our field. Disclaimer: This is not true for all fields, but it’s definitely true for certain industries especially if its related with technical and most of the job is in the heavyweight industries.
At one point, I think I was depressed because I was unable to get a job. I did apply hundreds of jobs but I was never truly honest to myself about the opportunities in my field. Hence, I continue my Master because I’m unable to get a job. When I did my Masters, most of lecturers will be very optimistic about our path and career, but there only 1 lecturer who actually frank with me that there hardly any job in my field. At that point, I start to really think, and be honest, and I just realize it’s true. I’m in a course with limited opportunities, and gender discrimination in my fields is really obvious, and if I continue my pHD, I need to compete with hundreds of pHD that probably currently jobless too.
As someone who jobless for a very long time, I think I should share my experiences on how I changes my life for few weeks and land me an opportunity.
My first tips, I did SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strength, weakness, opportunities and threat. First, you need to be honest on what is your strength and what is your weakness. List it down, and focus on strengthen your strength and try to learn how to tackle your weakness. This is a very important step, it’s very crucial to know yourself so that you know what is your selling point. Getting a job is like doing sale, instead of selling a product, you are actually selling yourself. If you want to sell a product, you need to know every detail about your product, hence why it’s very important to do SWOT analysis, as you able to know yourself better and it will help you to shine from the rest. Second step is to understand about the opportunities of your career and the threat. Be honest. I was not honest about reality of my field, but after I did some sort of research, and start to accept the threat, I start to seek for new opportunities relevant to who I am and my past experiences.
Secondly, learn as much as you can. When you are jobless, you have so much time, just grab this opportunity to learn as much as you can. We have free MOOC (massive open online course) such as EDX and Coursera, reliable Youtube courses, and website. The internet is massive and full with knowledge. However, please search a reliable source of knowledge. What kinds of things you will learn is based on the SWOT analysis. For example, I start to admit on how limited is the industries, and I start to learn and enhance my skill and my strength. As everyone is unique individual, I can’t tell you what exactly should you learn, but you should determine yourself once you done the SWOT analysis.
Third tips, “know your worth, know your value”. Get the right mind set that you are worthy. Never be overconfident, and never value yourself lower. Be honest to yourself. When you are jobless, not everyone will give you positive support, most of people will tend to be negative, but do ignore it and try to get the right mind set. It’s very difficult and tough but please trust yourself. Some people will give advised for you to settle for less, like working in a menial job. I would advise you differently, know your true worth, and be confident. Back to the SWOT analysis, when you know your true value, you will be more confidence, you will be likely to be hired as people actually can see your worth.
Fourth, prepared yourself. Do prepared yourself as an employee. When I did my SWOT analysis. I realize my weakness is during the interview. I went to a group interviews, and even I’m the only one who can answer everything correctly, I don’t understand why they would prefer someone else. Then I just learn that I don’t have the skill on how to excel in the interview despite my answer was correct. My problem was despite I can answer everything correctly, I don’t put myself as worthy, I was desperate. Ask yourself, do you love a beggar or desperate person, no, people would shun it! If you don’t find yourself worthy, people can see it. Don’t be arrogant or proud but be confidence and stand to your worth. Learn the interview skills, and learn how to negotiate salary. I use Jobstreet salary guide to know how much the salary worth in that positions and use it as a guideline to know the standard industrial rate.
Lastly and the most important things, trust Allah. Job is like any other gift, it’s not a right, or a privilege. It’s a gift. Ask Allah to provide a halal job and put baraqah in it. A lot of people think, it’s the last thing you do after you have tried. To me you need to trust Allah and put full reliance to Him at the very beginning. Even I put tips in the last paragraph. I have a reason to do so and you will know why.
When I did my SWOT analysis, and be true to myself. I start to learn something that I love and I have huge interest in it. After sometime, I see an advertisement where they require people who have the knowledge in the field that I just learn. Please note, that is just few weeks things since I start to learn about this new knowledge. The field is very new to me and Alhamdulillah I got the job.
I do think that when I start this journey by putting my full reliance to Allah. Allah is the one who lead me and guide me to this new knowledge. In this hard time, just have full reliance to Allah and make effort, there are various way to make effort, but never stop putting an effort. I was a person who send hundreds of applications but it doesn’t succeed. A prominent scientist, Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I tried others way and Alhamdulillah it’s working.
This is just my experiences, and I just want to shared my journey where I was able to succeed from jobless and be an employee with these tips. My English is also far from perfect, and I’m apologize if people not comfortable with it, but the objectives is to convey my message to other jobless people out there that you are worthy. Remember that all the knowledge you gain in the universities is a treasure. Never think that education is useless because you are jobless. Trust Allah and work hard and ask Allah to put baraqah in a form of job. InsyaaAllah…
– Amara
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