New Year, New Job

The first task for this new year, look for green pastures in the career world.

My current job in a MNC just isn't paying me enough for the amount of work I'm doing. With almost 2.5 years experience, I'm not reaping what I sow. Furthermore, there is no chance for an advancement and any promotion is OUT the window this year. Any salary increment and the annual company profit sharing has also been 'postponed' to the 3rd quarter of this year. Hiring of new employees and travel expenses have been frozen.

Come March this year, I'm probably going to assume an added role and responsibility without any increment in salary, but I'm already overworked even now. Take it this way, comparing with my counterpart in China, the amount of work I'm currently doing is equivalent to 3 engineer's work there.

Relieving people of jobs as a cost-saving measure is already under way, and thankfully for us, Asian regions are not affected because basically, we are akin to CHEAP LABOR! So, US and Europe are being hit first, but it's only a matter of time before the higher ups turn their attention to Asia. Yes folks, the economy hasn't officially gone to hell yet, and things are already taking a plunge. This is evident everywhere, with increasing unemployment, retrenchment and freezes, especially for bigger companies.

So, I'm not gonna wait any further. Initially, I was thinking of waiting till I get my profit sharing bonus in March before planning to leave. However, the current and future circumstances, AND the lack of any monetary advancement are lighting a bonfire on my ass to get moving ASAP. I plan to move back to Penang island or move to KL for work. Going overseas to Singapore, Australia or UK would be a good choice too. Of course, common sense to me dictates that I should secure a job first before throwing in the towel at my current workplace.

I plan to either get into a smaller company, which will less likely be drastically affected by the declining economic state, OR delve into logistics such as shipping, which I think entails good career and financial prospects.

So if any of you knows people who know people who are looking to hire a product engineer with a few years experience, OR looking to hire someone who's willing to learn something new, send me an email ya =)

Feel free to suggest other alternatives, since I wanna explore other career opportunities besides engineering.