TFT shares success stories of Pinoys who took the courage in taking a leap. Don’t let your second chance pass you by.
DUBAI: Filipinos go to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) searching of jobs that pay more than in their home country. But realizing that their college diplomas don’t always offer what they want, they do the next best thing: a career jump.
A straw poll conducted by The Filipino Times revealed that most overseas Filipinos in the UAE have no regrets abandoning their chosen profession and take a chance for a more economically gainful one. Other people, on the hand, have taken the jump with a mindset that it’s only for the time being — secure a visa and save enough then apply again for that dream job.
A host of factors lead to a career shift, the TFT poll showed – from contract termination to the desire for greener pastures in lieu of the employment situation in the Philippines. Visit visa expiration is also attributed to be among reasons why some overseas Filipinos disregard their college degree for a job that will pay the bills.
Said Labor Attaché Ophelia Almenario of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi: “Kung matatapos na ang visit visa at ayaw umuwi sa Pilipinas, tatanggpin kahit hindi linya. (If the visit visa is set to expire and they don’t want to go home, they will take any job even if it is not in their line of work).”
Almenario said the UAE government should be applauded for overhauling the country’s labor laws early on this year, which lift the six-month labour ban on employees switching jobs if the work permit and employment are terminated in mutual agreement. She was referring to sweeping reforms issued by the UAE Ministry of Labor (MoL) on Sept. 27, 2015, which are embodied in MoL Decrees 764, 765 and 766.
The new laws allow for a more flexible work environment and greater protection for foreign workers.
Vagelyn Tumbaga Federico, who was then working as a legal officer in a government agency, said she went to Dubai in 2005 hoping to get at least a secretarial job. “There was just no opportunity for growth back home. The salary was not that big. A secretarial job was what’s available for me (in the UAE) at the time,” she said.
“Sometimes you cannot demand certain positions even if you have the educational background. The qualifications are different,” Federico explained. Federico finished college majoring in political science and pursued a law degree.
Today, she is a Human Resource director of a five-star hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road. She is also president of the 500-member-strong Fil-HR, an organization of Filipino human resource practitioners in the UAE.
Not unique to UAE
Labor officials said career shifts are not unique to the UAE.
Dr. Galicano “Gally” V. Del Mundo, dean of the Lyceum of the Philippines – Batangas’ College of Business Administration, has stated in a paper he had written about OFWs in Australia that all it takes for an overseas Filipino to get a job in the Land Down Under is “willingness to accept any job not along his academic orientation.”
“Every Filipino college graduate may land a job as long as they do not choose the kind of work available,” Del Mundo said. “A Filipino jobseeker can always try any kind of jobs, setting aside his educational attainment, as long as he is willing to accept any job that are not along his academic orientation,” he added.
For her part, Almenario said career shift among Filipinos is widespread in the UAE primarily because jobseekers go to the country thinking there were plenty of choices for them. “Akala naman kasi nila sa atin ang daling kumuha ng trabaho dito. Madali nga, kaya lang yung trabaho di angkop sa tinapos sa kolehiyo. (Back home, they think it’s easy to get a job here. It is but the job does not usually befits the diploma),” she said.
Labor Attaché Ofelia Domingo of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Dubai said changing a career especially among younger generation is an advantage as it enhances their competitiveness. “The new world of work requires that a worker must possess several skills for him to be employable.
A worker should be a generalist at the same time a specialist to thrive in the labor market,” she said.
Career shift is a phenomenon
Landing on a career, that is totally unrelated to your profession, isn’t necessarily the end of the world. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York study estimated that only 27% of college graduates had a job that was closely related to their major.
At the end of the day, it’s a question of whether we are happy or not. People usually think that if they find that great job, or win that next promotion, lose those ten pounds… then happiness will follow.
But according to an extensive research of Shawn Achor, awardwinning author of The Happy Secret to Better Work and other recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology, happiness fuels success, not the other way around.
So whatever that job is, when we are positive, our brains become more engaged, motivated, and productive. So stay happy and positive and career success won’t be too far from your reach.
Most-in demand jobs for Filipinos in the UAE (by sector)
- F & B and Retail
- Medical
- Tourism
- Construction
- Architecture
- Design engineering
- Media & marketing
- Telecommunication
- Cargo shipping
- Energy
- Information Technology
Source: Various (not necessarily in this order)
