Welcome to Q2 of 2023!

Hope you’re having a great 2023 so far. (How did Q1 fly by like that?!) I’m back at work after a month of paternity leave - and getting back to the swing of things. April is looking to be very hectic - with IRL events, senior leadership team (SLT) visiting, performance review and new Q2 OKRs. How’s your April looking?

A big hello and welcome to our new subscribers Jacelyn, Samuel, Kay Yun and Wayne.

If you’ve been listening to my podcast, I will be taking a hiatus to work on “Season 3” - where I’m compiling a list of career questions and interviewing career ‘experts’. Details to come. What’s one career question you’ve been wanting but afraid to ask? Hit Reply and tell me. I’ll ask that on your behalf - with full anonymity.

Best,

John Lim

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Let jobs ‘come’ to you - by setting job alerts

One of the easiest ways to be aware of the opportunities / jobs market is through job alerts. I set up a couple based on key words:

• Job title, e.g. Business Development Director

• Company - your competitor / top companies in your industry, your dream company

• Industry e.g. e-commerce

Do remember to set filters to prevent spam / unwanted roles e.g. Full Time, Location: Singapore, frequency of notification etc.

True story: I set up “Shopify” on my Linkedin Job Alert and I would receive an email notification every night 10pm. I applied for 3 roles at Shopify from the Linkedin job alerts (not all at once) back in 2021 and I received a reply for the third one. The rest is history.

MyCareersFuture

Linkedin is what I use a lot and I recommend it. (if we’re not connected yet, here’s my profile.) What I also recommend is MyCareersFuture (MCF) (no, this is not a sponsored post by them). For 1.5 reasons:

#1 Main reason: Job alerts and postings on MCF include salary range - this helps you to:

• Quickly filter roles based on salary

• Check salary range for this role you are interviewing for (to prepare for the “What’s your salary expectation?” question)

• Check if you’re currently underpaid (or overpaid 🤭)

• ‘Kay-poh’ (to poke your nose into) your colleagues’ salaries

#0.5 reason: MCF is a job portal designed for Singaporeans and PRs (read more here), hence by proxy, jobs posted here are meant for the same audience. However, there are ways for companies to bypass this (putting a job posting on MCF is just evidence to show that the company is “trying” to attract Singaporeans and PRs, but doesn’t necessarily mean that they need or will accept Singaporeans/PRs for the role). Hence this reason is 0.5 instead of 1.

MOM Salary Guide

On the subject of salaries, check out MOM (Ministry of Manpower) Salary Guide. In my opinion, it’s a little limited e.g. does not indicate years of experience as compared to the The Straits Times Salary Guide 2022. However it is a little more current - last updated on 21 Oct 2022 - at time of writing.

Are you earning or learning? If not, maybe it’s time to consider moving on. More on that in the first edition of this newsletter.

Who is Show Zi Chew?

In other news, you may never have heard of Singaporean Show Zi Chew - until 23 March 2023 where the TikTok CEO testified before US Congress. The internet then kinda exploded with - clips of US Congressman asking if Tiktok accesses wifi and headlines like “TikTok CEO came off as 'evasive' in hearing, says GOP congressman” - depending on what you were watching / reading.

I have watched quite a number of highlights clips of the 5-hour long congressional hearing. I found the above 9-min clip rather fair and recommend it if you wanna get the gist of the highlights.

So who exactly is Show Zi Chew? Here’s a quick profile of the man who tried and is trying to prevent a US ban on TikTok.

From Podcast Episode 16: Side Hustles, Building Activewear Fashion brand Whakamana and Property Investing at 26 Years Old with Bethia Wee

Not everyone can easily and/or necessarily need to make drastic career changes immediately to get more fulfilment. You can start a side hustle or passion project while keeping your day job.

Episode 16 is about side hustles and hustling. Bethia Wee is the Sales Development Lead for small and medium businesses at Aspire. Before Aspire, Bethia spent 5.5 years at Fave Group across several roles. Bethia also started her own fashion brand Whakamana, which blends work-appropriate attire with activewear elements and materials.

Timestamps:
(11:24) Joining a startup
(19:24) How to gain confidence
(28:37) Starting work appropriate activewear fashion brand Whakamana
(33:02) Investing in property in early 20s
(38:51) How to think about money
(41:38) Failures and lessons
(45:02) Should you get a degree?
(50:14) How to start a side hustle

Use special promo code ONMYOWNTERMS on Whakamana (click on the link http://bit.ly/3jtwlSJ) for 10% off. Limited time offer.

Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. Watch on YouTube.

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DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in newsletter and podcast are solely my own and do not represent the opinions of past, current or future organizations that I was, am and will be part of.