Unemployed at 42!
It's so hard to find a job when you're 42! Approaching 42, to be exact. Most companies prefer young, energetic, dynamic individuals to fill in their manpower requirements. But age has its advantages! For one, the experiences you have accumulated all those years surely count a lot. You are more confident. More savvy. More at ease with co-workers or customers. But wait, how did I get to be 42 (almost) and unemployed? Read on...
I started working when I was in elementary in my parents sari-sari store in Pala-pala. Remember the place before it was demolished in 2005? ;) Well, if I was not in school then, I was in the store. We sold rice, hog and chicken feed, household items, everyday items, and what-have-yous. There was even a time when my mother also had a vegetable talipapa in front of our store. But running the store and the talipapa simultaneously was too much for her, so she eventually gave up the talipapa and had my cousin Reuben run it (which my cousin turned into a sari-sari store, too!) to concentrate on the store. At 11 years old, I can already be left alone to manage the store. I already knew how to give change to a 500 peso bill ;) without a calculator! I can handle multiple customers already. I guess this background helped me land a job with SM Supermarket Bacolod when they first opened in Bacolod in 1994.
After working with SM Supermarket for close to 4 years, I moved to PHILSURIN, the private sector research and development initiative of the sugar industry. Here, I spent another 8 years of my life. Resigned in 2005 to work abroad, I landed in Abu Dhabi.
Why Abu Dhabi? In 2005, my younger sister Pinky and her husband were both working there. Also, my brother in law Ferdie who used to work there, painted a beautiful image of the UAE to me that clinched my decision. Besides, my older sister Inday (Ferdie's wife) used to work in Abu Dhabi, too, as a nurse. So I didn't ran out of references ;)
More on next issue. Have to pick up my son from school...
It's so hard to find a job when you're 42! Approaching 42, to be exact. Most companies prefer young, energetic, dynamic individuals to fill in their manpower requirements. But age has its advantages! For one, the experiences you have accumulated all those years surely count a lot. You are more confident. More savvy. More at ease with co-workers or customers. But wait, how did I get to be 42 (almost) and unemployed? Read on...
I started working when I was in elementary in my parents sari-sari store in Pala-pala. Remember the place before it was demolished in 2005? ;) Well, if I was not in school then, I was in the store. We sold rice, hog and chicken feed, household items, everyday items, and what-have-yous. There was even a time when my mother also had a vegetable talipapa in front of our store. But running the store and the talipapa simultaneously was too much for her, so she eventually gave up the talipapa and had my cousin Reuben run it (which my cousin turned into a sari-sari store, too!) to concentrate on the store. At 11 years old, I can already be left alone to manage the store. I already knew how to give change to a 500 peso bill ;) without a calculator! I can handle multiple customers already. I guess this background helped me land a job with SM Supermarket Bacolod when they first opened in Bacolod in 1994.
After working with SM Supermarket for close to 4 years, I moved to PHILSURIN, the private sector research and development initiative of the sugar industry. Here, I spent another 8 years of my life. Resigned in 2005 to work abroad, I landed in Abu Dhabi.
Why Abu Dhabi? In 2005, my younger sister Pinky and her husband were both working there. Also, my brother in law Ferdie who used to work there, painted a beautiful image of the UAE to me that clinched my decision. Besides, my older sister Inday (Ferdie's wife) used to work in Abu Dhabi, too, as a nurse. So I didn't ran out of references ;)
More on next issue. Have to pick up my son from school...
