Category Archives: Work Abroad Tips

Jobstreets recently revealed that according to their company’s data, there are about 500,000 college graduates every year and there are 170,000 local job openings listed on their website. Assuming these are all the jobs available in the Philippines, that means, if all those positions are filled up there will be about 320,000 graduates who will be unemployed. If you add another 320,000 for those new graduates who did not get a job last year and then add the employees who recently quit their job or lost their job due to company retrenchments, you get the picture how many people are competing for the local job openings.

There are a lot of competent Filipino workers but our local industry cannot currently accommodate all of them.

That is why I think that when you are beginning to plan your career, you should always be open to the possibility that you will end up working abroad.

Indemand Jobs Abroad

For those aspiring to work outside the country, you should always be on the lookout for the types of job that are constantly indemand. So that you can prepare and train yourself properly.

How do you get a feel of what jobs are constantly in demand?

Just check regularly the job listings of employment agencies like RRJM. If you check openings through out the year you will see that we are often looking for:

1. People who can work for Construction Firms like engineers, architects, quality assurance people, machine operators, vehicle drivers, etc.

2. Hotel and Resort workers like cooks, painters, cleaners, plumbers, electrician, etc.

3. Computer professionals like computer programmers, auditors, systems analysts, computer technicians, etc.

4. Marketing and Sales people

5. Financial Management people

6. Quality control people.

So if you are planning to work abroad, you should prepare yourself to get experience in one of these jobs because one to two years experience is required minimum in order to be considered by Manpower Agencies.

When looking for a job being confident with yourself is a big advantage. Employers would not want applicants who are lacking in confidence because they are looking for someone who can do the work and would need little supervision. You would not want to hire someone who is too worried to move and would often bug the manager on what they are supposed to do. Companies would like to hire people with leadership potential.

But sometimes applicants become too confident that it borders on being discourteous.

I recently came across an old article from Wall Street Journal. It was written in 2010 but it is still relevant today.

For job applicants please never make this mistakes. You maybe the best in your field but if your potential employer gets the impression that you are not pleasant to work with, they are not going to hire you.

Eight Mistakes that Job Applicants Make During Interview

A lot of people still become victims to illegal recruiters. Illegal recruiters mostly, like to exploit applicants who are in a real hurry or who are in great need to work abroad.  It is a sad fact but it is true. The reason for this maybe because when you are in a hurry, you would no longer check the background of the recruiter.

People who are not in a hurry can also become victims of illegal recruiters. When the recruiter has been recommended to you by a friend or a relative, you would no longer check the facts because you trust your friend or your relative.  Sadly, a lot of illegal recruitment cases that made it in the news, the applicants were victimized because it was their relative who recommended the recruiter.

As a rule, always perform background checks on your recruiters especially if you are meeting them for the first time.

How to Avoid Illegal Recruiters

1. Check if the recruiter is licensed by  POEA

Go to http://www.poea.gov.ph/cgi-bin/agSearch.asp. Type the name of the agency. If they appear in the search then they are a licensed recruitment agency. If they did not appear then you are probably dealing with an illegal recruiter. If you type RRJM in the search box, you will see the name of our company plus our addressed and our main contact person. We’ve been licensed since 2002. We will be ten years in the business this coming June.

This is probably the only check you need to make.  If the recruiter has no license from the POEA then they have no business trying to recruit workers from the Philippines.

2. Avoid recruiters who transact with you outside their offices or visits you directly at your home

All transactions must always be in the recruitment office and they must give you a receipt. If a recruitment agency representative insist in transacting with you outside their office, then you must perform background check.

a.  Again go to POEA website and check if they are a licensed agency.

b. If they are licensed, check the representative. Call their main office and check if they really work there (Of course, don’t get the address and telephone from the representative. They will probably give you a fake address if they are an illegal recruiter. Instead get it from the POEA or a phone directory).

I’m pretty sure that you will find out that they are not really an employee. But even if they are it is not a standard for recruitment agencies to transact at home or outside the office. So you better find yourself another agency.

3. Avoid direct hiring

I have a lot of friends who got employed abroad through direct hiring. But still this route is risky and this is often the scheme that Illegal recruiters use. The current POEA  rule is that foreign companies can only get Filipino workers if they place their job orders through a POEA Licensed recruitment agency. This rule is imposed to protect Filipino Overseas Workers from becoming a victim of human trafficking and illegal recruiters.

There a lot more legal recruitment companies than illegal ones. But it is those unscrupulous few that gives the whole industry a bad name.  We hope you follow the advises we have given here so that you can be more secure as you search for your perfect Job Abroad.

Goodluck!