After a difficult time at a previous company, I had decided to leave without finding a new job. I thought that the process of searching for a job would be easy, but I was dead wrong. It took me 6 months before I could get a new job.

During this time of waiting, I constantly prayed for God to show up and do a miracle for me. He did show up for me—but it was not in the way I was hoping for.

After prolonged silences from companies, I would keep praying and surrendering my anxieties to Him. Every time I did that, I would subsequently receive calls for interviews; however, these did not progress past the initial stage. This went on for several months.

One day, I went for an interview which I did not expect much from. To my pleasant surprise, I was offered the job on the spot. I was elated. Finally, I thought, my search was over.

Within the same day, the company’s human resource department contacted me to discuss the pay. It was way below my expectation, so I tried to bargain for more. The HR person told me that she would check and get back to me.

Over the following days, I felt excited. Perhaps I was desperate or just tired from searching for a job, so I was ready to jump aboard despite my family’s disapproval.
They felt that I should be paid more because of my qualifications and that the job was more operational in nature, and believed that I should do something else instead.

Confident that I would get the job, I even celebrated with a friend.

A week later, however, the HR person contacted me to say that they were withdrawing the offer. I was shocked and disappointed at the same time. I thought that after 4 months, I had finally reached the end of the tunnel.

That night, I lost it. I wept openly, allowing myself to express the full emotions that I had been hiding from my family—all the disappointment and sadness from all the rejections and the latest rescinded offer.

I asked God: “Why? Why did You allow me to have a hope, only to take it away from me? When would it be my turn to get an offer when all my friends were already receiving offers? Did You forget about me?”

In the midst of my tears, God brought to my mind several worship songs that reminded me of His amazing, unfailing love.

I realised that even though my feelings of rejection were valid and legitimate, they did not need to end there. Jesus understood rejection, so He knew exactly how I was feeling. I could have hope, because God’s perfect love for me would never fail.

Even though I didn’t have a clue how my future will pan out, and I thought I would never make it through this season, I knew that God would enable me to get through it. Slowly, as I sang these songs, hope started growing in my heart. This helped me to restart my job search.

Subsequently, the same pattern resurfaced: I went for interview after interview, but there was no progress. I started feeling depressed and low again.

It was then that I decided to lower my expectations: from searching for a full-time job, I began to look for traineeships, then part-time jobs.

But God continued to comfort and strengthen me through His Word. Romans 12:12, for example, reminded me: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

One day, I received an offer of a part-time job. I was just about to accept it out of despair, when a traineeship offer came on the same day. I was elated, as I did not have high expectations for that particular interview.

The traineeship was more in line with my career goals than the part-time job, which was located at the other end of Singapore, which would mean a long daily commute.

But God knew my desperation, and intervened just as I was about to take the part-time job.

Even though things have not turned out the way I would have liked them to, I am ever thankful to God that my season of joblessness has ended. I know that He is still in control of my life. If you are in a situation similar to mine, I pray that you will receive your breakthrough, just as I did.