Friday, November 23, 2007

Part time or Freelance?

I've been working in Singapore for a number of years and been to a lot of interview.
According to some reports, it takes an average of six months for someone to find a new job in Singapore.

Other than asking the typical questions like "Tell me more about yourself?", "Tell me why you are suitable for this job?" and my favorite question or sometimes they will tell you straight in the face, "You will most likely be required to work OT(overtime) and we don't pay OT, you MIGHT be given off in lieu, whats your opinion on this?" or more subtly "What do you think of working OT?"

I get the usual oh you mainly did part time work, in our company we don't count part time work as experience.....

Even though my part time work is directly related to job I've applied for....

I realize that when you say "Part time" in Singapore it roughly translate into something like working at Mcdonald's or waiter/ess. Basically it means, you work when you are free and you dun need any specific skill set.

A better way to term yourself is to use the word "freelance" Apparently by using "freelance" it gives you that "WoW" factor, I've people telling me, "I heard freelancing is really hard in Singapore you muz be really good to freelance!"

And NO, I'm not trying to LIE....I'm juz trying to get credit for my experience and I dun really like it when people tell me oh you dun have experience cuz you did work part time so we can only give you entry/basic pay......

Hence by using the word "freelance", it seems like its giving me a slight edge :)

Cheers

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