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I must say that I missed writing for a purpose, for our country. But while were all are up in arms trying to roast this woman who, if you think about it, is only 17 pounds heavier than me due to all her makeup, let me give you my state of the “nation” job market report, MY WAY.

Back in Erap’s time, dear fellow Pinoys, we were bleeding plasma trying to eke out a living. Contrast that with today. What is the state of the nation?

Our teenagers now have the potential to earn even while still in school, thanks to outsourcing. While admittedly the trend for the Filipino diaspora is still pretty thick, more and more people like me opt to stay here and slug it out in the third-world jungle, trying to have our slice of comfort through the new nirvana of jobs: outsourcing.

There is no denying that the blog is the new medium of communication and news dissemination today. If you notice, that for our youth and even the yuppie set, life revolves around social networking and blogging. But do you know that your blogging and other Internet activities could have earning potential? Do you know, that if you had a Google PR of 1+, you could earn, through text link ads at least?

Our teenagers, though, are addicted to using the Internet as entertainment. Not as a way for them to expand their skills at the least, and be productive at its optimum. So is it any wonder why quite a lot of my college classmates, despite graduation having been two years behind us, still languish at home?

When I was still in college (Graduated March 25, 2007! Woohoo!) I knew the potential of the Internet, and I wanted to cash in on it. Heck, I was desperate to live off it. So through the time I decided to augment my allowance, I stuck through taking on tutorials, getting into a summer job in a call center, and then finally, finally, my break on the Internet came.

I started in an SEO company. Pay was meager and the deadlines were strict, but I didn’t mind working that way. I was only too happy and too ignorant to know my worth as a writer. The exposure was great, and the opportunity added to my portfolio and resumé, but I needed cold hard cash, and that gig didn’t hack it.

I applied to an academic paper mill, was hired, then pressed for exclusivity. When that happened, I thought I had hit paydirt, as far as working was concerned. But it wasn’t enough. While the pay certainly was wonderful, there was something not quite right with the arrangement.

I am the type of student who thrives on her own work. I take pride in creating my own projects, in never having cheated, as far as I can remember. I wasn’t able to stomach the fact that I was helping these lazy students renege on their responsibilities is something that I realized was abhorrent. I was also robbing them of valuable learning by taking on their schoolwork. Such sheer idiocy right?

So I resigned. But not entirely because of my so-called “values”. It was more like some of the webmasters finally drove me to the brink of insanity through their nagging.

At that time, my mother was scared that I will never be able to find an opportunity like that again. We Filipinos are so used to the dearth of jobs that when a career veer is on the horizon, we get blind-sided with anxiety. But I would like to debate that, so read on.

After a few weeks, I decided to get back on up and apply to other people so I could earn again. The DSL’s meter was ticking, and with it, I was sinking into debt. So I sent out my resumé and.. Whoa. Within a couple of hours, my main local boss hired me.

It became a pattern with my bosses: I would pass a resumé, and almost instantly, I’d be hired. What was my secret? Simple. Skills.

It is true that our unemployment situation is atrocious. But this is not due to a lack of jobs. It is due to a lack of skills on our youth’s end. Companies are looking for talent, but there are only a few who have it. So is it any wonder why, in a hundred call center applicants, sometimes only three are chosen?

Point your fingers to the DepEd, will ya? Where textbooks provide slapstick humor and even a daily dose of gruesome in the form of grammatical and factual errors, even the use of inappropriate language at times.

Job security will always be tied to financial security. At the expense of your right to be able to go to work in ripped jeans and slippers, you are assured of a near-lifetime contract and a constant income source.  But if you’re like me and some of my friends, you won’t be content working on Big Brother’s terms. That’s why we went freelance.

True, the months when I was starting as a freelancer, back in Iloilo were very hard for me, financially. It was not a function of the lucrativeness of the business. Rather, it was a function of my laziness, misplaced priorities, and atrocious spending habits.

But when I set foot in Manila, my career landscape changed. Not because I had to go get a day job; I still work at home. But I became more focused, more pragmatic, less emotional.

My career problems were not because there was a lack of jobs: it boiled down to my personal idiosyncrasies and the damaging habits that had eaten up my time and my productivity. This is also exactly what keeps the rest of our youth from functioning at our fullest.

This kind of career is pregnant with risks: some bosses have problems paying up, others have personality and management problems that run into conflict with your own personality quirks, you have your own personal learning and productivity hump to get over, and other issues that simply need to be addressed and dealt with one chunk at a time, or through serious and cold decision-making. But one thing is for sure: there is money in our world, and you only have to have skills to tap into it.

It just bugs me that we are a country  as rich in talent as ours has to put up with a majority of our fellowmen who only drag the economy down. I just wish they’d realize that hard work is sweet, and that it is pretty much enjoyable. I just wish we would all wake up, smell the non-Starbucks coffee and realize that we have all the job opportunities, it’s just that we don’t have the skills needed for them.

So where do we start fixing all these? Well, my next post might help.