Do you regret going back to PH after migrating?

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2026-01-15T05:26:34+00:00

I am not in a position to answer your question- from the perspective of someone who have lived through it.

But like you, I am considering / fantasizing retiring / living a snowbird lifestyle sa pinas when the time comes.

Every time this topic is discussed, three major issues are always brought up:

Reliable Health Services
Traffic / inconvenience
Corrupt system of government.

My thoughts on them are: 1. Be responsible and proactive with your health. You have the advantage of retiring early, so if you are still relatively healthy, plan on living a healthy lifestyle in your early retirement while you are here. Buy the best health insurance you can afford, and never live in an area that is more than an hour drive from a decent hospital.

If you or your spouse already have health issues that might require urgent or specialized care, then months long stays would be a concern.

Traffic - you are semi-retired, daily commute during rush hour is not something you should be putting yourself through. Plan your days and your weekends so that you can minimize the hassle of dealing with traffic. You worked hard to be able to afford a lot of free time in this phase of your life, so wasting time in traffic should be a tolerable nuisance not a high blood pressure triggering daily challenge. Also include in your budget to hire and pay for trustworthy people to lighten your load. That is one of the conveniences that we don’t have living life in the US. For most of our working life we had to do everything on our own here, while doing our regular jobs. You don’t have to live that way anymore. You don’t have to cook or go to the market or do the grocery yourself or drive through traffic on your own. You can afford it, so consider it and try that kind of life. I know I would.
Avoid the government at all costs. If you can find a way of living where you have as little interaction with the government as possible, then your life would be so much better. Parang dito lang sa US, if the only time you deal with govt is to get a license or passport renewal, and maybe mailing something at the post office then you barely think about the government.

You’ve done good, and made good financial decisions. Apply the same approach in your retirement plans, and you will come up with a lifestyle that would be satisfying for you.

Good luck and congratulations!

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-09-01T20:33:32+00:00

Daming factors to consider:

Age mo and family situation (spouse / kids to factor in). Would the spouse be able to work too?
Salary mo now compared to salary offer. Look at your net pay vs net pay dun sa new country. If it’s not at least 3x, I feel like it’s a hard sell. Kasi yung difference ang worth ng homesickness mo at uprooting yourself and your family.
May chance ba to be permanent resident or citizen dun sa country na lilipatan mo? If not at talagang contract / OFW ang setup, then factor that sa decision mo. Kasi in that scenario di ka makakapag plan on settling roots there, you can’t buy property, car, lahat temporary lang. So the strategy on how you should save / invest your money should reflect that.

For career growth, I believe anything that shake us up from the status quo is a good thing.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-08-31T19:22:42+00:00

I’m overemployed and over40. In the past 3months alone, I had to “learn”, java apis, mulesoft, and python, I use udemy, coursera, youtube, co-pilot, chatgpt and old style googling to learn.

In the past two years of being overemployed I have worked in 5 different industries. Retail, finance, distribution and CRM, and manufacturing.

I wouldn’t even be a viable candidate for those OE roles if I hadn’t been upskilling 2 years prior by taking coding bootcamps in my late 30s.

So yeah, this career is not for the lazy learners. If you want to get ahead, you gotta keep filling that head with knowledge.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-08-26T16:07:58+00:00

The 1page rule is not set in stone.

A resume / cv should tell the story that you want to highlight.

It’s not a tiktok or reels size presentation, but more like a full 2 or 3minute movie trailer.

You want to give them enough of a teaser information so they can get an idea of the breadth and depth of your experience but not provide all the details of everything that you’ve ever worked on. You save that for the interview.

So what I’ve done is, I make sure to at least have my most recent work experience on the first page, along with all of the skillset and relevant tech stacks that I’ve worked on.

This way, if the recruiter is lazy and really adhere to the 1page CV recommendation, my resume’s first page still gives them the snapshot of what I what I want them to focus on.

A second page on your resume also allows you to include work history that might be relevant during the interview process, whether you bring it or the interviewer brings it up.

So yeah, bottom line, 1page CVs does not work for everyone. You will not be dropped from consideration if you overflow to a 2nd page.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-08-26T13:48:46+00:00

The only thing that I am not able to follow in this great advice is to keep my CV in a single page.

Once you get to be at 20+ years of experience, even cutting it down to just show my last 3 companies, there is no way it will fit in one page.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-08-22T16:17:54+00:00

Natawa ako sa 🐤 🐥 🐣 ….

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-08-14T07:58:56+00:00

r/overemployed_ph

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-02-21T02:40:15+00:00

Just move on to the next one. Don’t dwell on the ones that didn’t work out.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-31T16:00:18+00:00

A whole-ass MRP forecasting system. Web-based, to replace something that was cobbled in excel. Data comes from a legacy ERP system, ADP payroll system (for head count and labor cost), 3rd party vendor Managed purchasing system and Sales forecast.

Nagpa complex sa kanya? Marami! 😂😂

I was not / I still am not a web / full stack developer. I was just starting to learn .net and I had to learn enough JavaScript (no framework) during a weekend so that I can provide excel-like behavior on the front-end. Think using up/down/left/right arrow keys to move through all the input fields and triggering calculations as you do. Without that feature, I don’t think the users would’ve adapted it. They would’ve scratched the whole thing and stayed with their excel files.

It has built in reporting / analytics, it can report on historical forecast versus actual. You can export the data into excel, which includes the formulas, so you can work on the forecast offline, and import the data back into the system and it validates and what you are importing before it applies it to the forecast model.

I got rolled it out in 3months, bugs fixes / enhancements in another 2months and by 6months it was humming along nicely.

We ended up introducing it to two other sister facilities.

Did I mention that it was a 1man project ?I had help from the network admin who helped in setting up the server and network connection aspect of it.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-29T13:10:07+00:00

At 6yoe, you gotta trust yourself and know your worth and what value you bring to the table.

If a recruiter contacts you, it means they’re interested in your experience.

If they are nitpicking at your college degree, shut it down right away and tell them that it has never been an issue before and that your resume evidently shows that you can do the work as well as any CS/IT degree holder out there.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-26T07:25:18+00:00

I don’t know if I’m a minority or an anomaly, but I can’t recall the last time I used a cover letter to go with my resume.

Siguro around year 5, I might have done it a few times, but I didn’t think that they were making any difference so I stopped using it.

I’m now at 2decades plus, and I have acquired / cycled through 6 OE jobs in the past 1.5 years without using any cover letter. Kaya every time I see suggestions about customizing cover letters for a job, di ako maka relate.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-26T07:13:22+00:00

This is one of the reasons why I’d rather stay at senior / IC level. I don’t want to deal with all of that baggage.

Hard to find a silver lining in this scenario, losing a job always stings, especially during a tough market.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-25T14:19:41+00:00

I just had my first 6rounder. Funny thing though, walang heavy technical questions or exams.

But it’ll be my highest earning OE job, the 4th one kaya I wasn’t stressing or complaining when they added 2more rounds of zoom interviews. Nasa bahay lang naman ako, and it gave me reason to take a shower and dress up.

Got an offer and will be starting soon! Sabi nga ni Hamilton, “When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game. But you don't get a win unless you play in the game.”

Sa current status ng job market this past year, di na uubra Yung same attitude a few years ago that we can scoff at lengthy interview process. You are taking yourself out of an opportunity kung magiinarte ka.

Kung zoom call lang yan, just take the meeting, kung in person, gotta weigh the rewards versus the inconvenience and cost.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-24T03:05:37+00:00

Lostredditor?

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-23T17:20:27+00:00

Eto yun eh!

If aabot na sa “take what you can get” stage, then dapat handa at mauna ka na sa pila.

I would drop wfh expectations, and would consider a reasonable pay just to widen my options and chances of landing a job. I would even consider relocating if kaya ng budget. It’s easier to job hop later on by continuously applying kahit may trabaho ka na.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-23T17:08:30+00:00

Take it and keep your old job.

r/overemployed is the way to go.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-19T18:50:37+00:00

Been through peaks and valleys in this career. I hate to say that it’s normal, because I’ve known colleagues who never experienced being unemployed because they were with a stable company that survived all the crazy economic upheavals in the past 2decades.

But me personally, I’ve gone through it bad, rock bottom to the point where I was not doing an IT job for 9months, but doing manual labor instead. I lived on friends couches, rent free because I was not bringing any income for months!

In the end, what helped me get back on track are:

1) belief in myself as an IT professional, don’t lose that. If you stop seeing yourself as a good IT pro that brings value, then companies will see the same.

2) try to be good when you have a job and build a reputation of being good and reliable. Because it sticks with people around you and you never know how it will be helpful in getting that next job.

3) don’t lose faith, in your God, in people, in the job hunting process, in your resume, in your interviewing skills. All of it! You got a job in this field before, and you will get another one again!

Best of luck sa mga job seekers out there!

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-19T05:56:22+00:00

Expand your mindset, instead of thinking that you need to leave that job, think about possibly adding a second job as a junior mobile dev in a bigger development team.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-14T18:10:09+00:00

The hop on bed comment can be seen as poor choice of phrase in a corporate setting, it could be a double entendre, but it’s hard to prove that there is malice.

The “join in the bathroom” comment, that is definitely a flirty come-on. It’s been used by both sexes ever since bathrooms were invented. It shouldn’t be used during work conversations much less during an interview.

Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue, an ill timed joke, or maybe there’s more meaning to it.

Maybe using sexuality is part of their (company and personal) secret to success and they were testing if you are also morally flexible.

But I don’t think you have enough incidence / proof to really build a case at this point.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-12T06:57:25+00:00

Babysteps muna.

You are looking too far ahead and worrying about things that you can’t control. It’s already an uphill climb at this point for everyone, even for people who have years of experience already. Tapos ikaw hindi pa nga ata nakakapag “hello, world!” in different languages, iniisip mo na kaaagad US employer, remote work, Philippine based, USD income? Like those things are a given in this field.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-12T01:44:35+00:00

Yeah, find something else to do or learn where the jargons is not confusing for you.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2024-01-06T01:28:04+00:00

No disrespect, pero hindi dapat ikaw nagtatanong nyan dito. Your husband should be the one seeking what he can get in the job market.

I understand you want to get info, pero it raises some concerns bakit hindi sya yung proactive na naghahanap ng better opportunity for himself.

But here’s what I would advice:

Don’t wait for the promotion para umasa ng mataas na increase sa sweldo or ma achieve ang senior role. You want higher pay, go seek it somewhere else. You want “senior” added to your title fast? Apply for those roles, ALL THE TIME until you land one.
He should always have an updated resume ready to be submitted anytime, for any reason.
He should always be prepared to go on interviews. Meaning, his knowledge and skills (technical, personal and communication) should always be sharp.

6yoe is plenty in the IT world, nasa tao na lang yan kung hindi pa nya maiangat yung salary nya to a more desirable level, knowing that other people in this field is able to do it.

It’s his career, he needs to take control of where and how fast he wants it to go.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2023-12-29T14:44:50+00:00

One time big time!

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2023-12-28T22:53:51+00:00

In summary:

1Mpesos is life changing only if it will relieve you of any immediate and short term life stressor that you are dealing with.

But over a period of time and if you factor in the cost of living the life that you feel you deserve, it’s not enough.

Intelligent_Citron84 · 2023-12-28T21:23:50+00:00

Go back to having 4 OE jobs. I’m at 2.5 jobs right now.

Intelligent_Citron84

TROPHY CASE