<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Shopping? Dining out? He's looking for job instead
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Mr Ng, who was retrenched in May last year, has not shopped for the past year. He has lowered his expected salary to better his chances of landing a job. -- PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
=> Heard that engineers are already lowly paid in Peesai. Yet the BEST PAID gov still wanna depress their pay further? *shake head*
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Shopping and dining out have become luxuries for former product development engineer Ng Siow Siong.
The 41-year-old bachelor was retrenched in May last year when the semiconductor company he was working for restructured its operations. Today - more than a year later - he is still looking for a job.
=> NS for Sporns, jobs for? How many of his FTrash colleagues are retained? And care to confirm if his position has been offered to some FTrash?
For Mr Ng, recession is not just a word or news that he reads about. It is bitter reality.
He is living off his savings and supporting his elderly parents.
'For people who are not affected by the crisis, it is easy for them to say there is no recession going on. But for those like me who were retrenched, it feels like our world has come tumbling down,' he said.
Mr Ng has not shopped for the past one year, and he limits dining out to cheap meals at foodcourts.
'Luckily I'm not the type who shops very much,' he said.
When he was retrenched, he received $30,000 in benefits. He also had about $50,000 in savings.
He does not have many financial obligations, apart from $1,000 in monthly household expenses. The four-room Pasir Ris flat the family owns has been fully paid for.
However, he worries that his savings will not last very long.
To better his chances of getting a job, Mr Ng lowered his expected salary to about half his last drawn pay of $3,500. He said this is 'normal' for retrenched workers like himself who are desperately seeking new jobs.
While waiting to get a job, he is also studying for his Master of Business Administration on a part-time basis. He has a degree in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University.
Although he has more than 13 years of experience in the semiconductor line, he would rather not go back to that industry. He is eyeing administration jobs in the health-care and education industries.
'I liked my previous job very much. But when I was retrenched, it felt like everything was taken away from me,' he said.
'It will be very difficult for me to go back to the same industry. I'd prefer a more recession-proof job now.'
U think every Tom, Dick and Hairy can be minister ah? *chey*Nur Dianah Suhaimi
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Mr Ng, who was retrenched in May last year, has not shopped for the past year. He has lowered his expected salary to better his chances of landing a job. -- PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
=> Heard that engineers are already lowly paid in Peesai. Yet the BEST PAID gov still wanna depress their pay further? *shake head*
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Shopping and dining out have become luxuries for former product development engineer Ng Siow Siong.
The 41-year-old bachelor was retrenched in May last year when the semiconductor company he was working for restructured its operations. Today - more than a year later - he is still looking for a job.
=> NS for Sporns, jobs for? How many of his FTrash colleagues are retained? And care to confirm if his position has been offered to some FTrash?
For Mr Ng, recession is not just a word or news that he reads about. It is bitter reality.
He is living off his savings and supporting his elderly parents.
'For people who are not affected by the crisis, it is easy for them to say there is no recession going on. But for those like me who were retrenched, it feels like our world has come tumbling down,' he said.
Mr Ng has not shopped for the past one year, and he limits dining out to cheap meals at foodcourts.
'Luckily I'm not the type who shops very much,' he said.
When he was retrenched, he received $30,000 in benefits. He also had about $50,000 in savings.
He does not have many financial obligations, apart from $1,000 in monthly household expenses. The four-room Pasir Ris flat the family owns has been fully paid for.
However, he worries that his savings will not last very long.
To better his chances of getting a job, Mr Ng lowered his expected salary to about half his last drawn pay of $3,500. He said this is 'normal' for retrenched workers like himself who are desperately seeking new jobs.
While waiting to get a job, he is also studying for his Master of Business Administration on a part-time basis. He has a degree in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University.
Although he has more than 13 years of experience in the semiconductor line, he would rather not go back to that industry. He is eyeing administration jobs in the health-care and education industries.
'I liked my previous job very much. But when I was retrenched, it felt like everything was taken away from me,' he said.
'It will be very difficult for me to go back to the same industry. I'd prefer a more recession-proof job now.'
U think every Tom, Dick and Hairy can be minister ah? *chey*Nur Dianah Suhaimi
