Catch up with Eric Sim in Hong Kong ☕
Eric visited HK last week and we had a quick meet up.
He told me something that stuck with me:
The job market in Singapore isn't looking good.
Especially for 2 groups of people:
👉 Fresh graduates
👉 Professionals in their 40s+ who got laid off or restructured and can't find a way back in
This story sounds painfully familiar to me.
Hong Kong went through the exact same thing 2 -3 years ago, when bank
restructuring was everywhere.
I shared with Eric that hedge funds and buy-side firms are picking up on my end.
But hiring budgets?
Still lower than before.
I have to rely on volume hiring just to earn the same commission as before. 📉
Then Eric said something worth remembering:
Prepare early for the unknown.
Because the truth is
We will never know if we can land another job after 40.
We will never know when we'll get fired or restructured.
What we CAN control is taking action every day to build our own magical stage. 🎭
A stage where WE control our income and freedom.
So start your side hustle early.
And be creative about it.
Let me give you two real examples:
📸 My lawyer friend built an Instagram account with 100k+ followers.
Brands pay her to shoot photos.
She gets paid HK$2-6k per post depending on the brand or restaurant
When she got laid off at 29 in 2024,
During Hong Kong's rock-bottom private practice market
Her Instagram deals covered her living expenses for an entire gap year.
💻 My CUHK fresh grad junior couldn't find a job because firms only wanted experienced hires.
So he sold video-editing skills on Fiverr until a startup finally hired him 9 months later.
And me?
I write on LinkedIn — which now brings me deal sponsorships on top of my day job. ✍️
I'll be 40 in fewer than 10 years.
And I think everyone should start building their stage NOW.
It's better to take control of your career than to leave it in someone else's hands. 🎯
I wanted to write posts to show real life examples as we have been surrounded by too many negative news.
I think it's time to stop reading negative news but to start taking actions on how to save ourselves, explore our career and passions and this drives me to write.
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Are you a fresh graduate, or approaching your 40s?
And what are you doing to create income beyond your job? 👇
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📌 PS: If you’re job hunting today, feel free to check out my guides on:
📊 Interview Preparation for Success
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