Jason Wong, HKG, YVR, HNL

Counting yesterday till today, 31 resumes are at my door.  I don’t pay much attention to tabloid media, but a job applicant cover letter does tell more stories than anything.  This year, I have received more insightful cover letter.  Applicants spent more time to describe their character, personal side.  Believe it or not, it was like reading someone’s personal profile/diary than someone’s cover letter.  Throughout my HR career, I have never seen anything like this.  I usually encountered unprofessional, ill-prepared resume+cover letter package or cookie-cutter type of introduction.  On resume+New Year Day, I drove to Hawaii Kai and had lunch at Panda Express.  The business was slow given it was holiday and a staff there was chatting with me and through her, I learned the stories about different relatives of hers are still out of work.  Some have college degrees and some have 10+ years working experience and they are still out of work for more than 18 months now.  Yesterday like the usual me, I had lunch at McDonald’s.  A lady (40ish or so) sat next to my table who was talking to her mom about she was going to the church later.  She also told her mom everything was fine about the morning job interview by saying how much the potential employer liked her credentials and experience.  When she hung up the phone and left the table, I saw couple pages of newspaper  left behind with circled recruitment ads plus notes .  Invisible SOS messages are written everywhere.  Are the recession and depression really well over?  In bail-out sectors, yes but no for the rest.