One day in June, hours of torrential downpour immobilized the whole of Metro Manila: flood everywhere, people stuck in cars, buses, and jeepneys for hours due to traffic, and with train systems jammed, thousands more stranded at the stations, packed together like contents of the proverbial can of sardines. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were also flooded, becoming echo chambers of complaints and reports. These kinds of remarks would go on for the next few days, especially with the skies continuously threatening a repeat performance.

One particular Facebook status caught my eye. It was by a friend who had stood for hours at an MRT station, nearly immobile due to the dense population of commuters desperate to get home: “When you look like a drenched chick. When you have a fan and a roll of tissue in your bag but can’t reach for them. When you can’t even move your arms to take off your jacket, and you’re not sure anymore if what’s dripping from your hair is rainwater or sweat...When you’ve been on your feet for hours...When the usual one-hour-and-15-minute travel time becomes three hours. When you get alarmed and question yourself, ‘Is it still worth it to live in Metro Manila?’”

It’s a worthwhile question to ask even when you’re not standing nose to nose or stuck bumper to bumper with the rest of humanity during rush hour. For those of us who’ve worked for years to carve out a career in this concrete jungle, it’s a good jump-off point to take stock of what direction our lives and careers are going: Am I any closer to what I’ve always imagined my life to be? Are there other possibilities I haven't explored or even thought of? Is Metro Manila the only place for me to fulfill my potential? Is this it, or is there something better out there?

The Rise of new meccas

It’s understandable how most people grew up believing that Metro Manila is the career mecca in the country. Before Cebu and Davao opened their own international airports, it had been the rest of the world’s point of entry into the country and vice versa, the first one to receive and enjoy whatever the international world has to offer, from pop culture and entertainment to economic development and infrastructure. “It is also the center of requirements,” JobsDB public relations and communications officer Cherry Veniles confirms. “This is where people know to get their clearances and papers processed for employment and other official purposes, and have them often in order.”

The picture’s changing, though. Different regions in the country have been developing their own metropolises, a joint effort between concerned citizens, the local government, and incoming investors. A great example is Cebu City, which immediately follows Metro Manila as a highlight city in any description of the Philippines; nearly everything that can be found here is now available there.

There is even a top ten “next wave” of cities that are getting plenty of attention from the IT-BPO industry: Baguio, Dumaguete, Davao, Santa Rosa, Bacolod, Iloilo, Metro Cavite (Bacoor, Imus, and Dasmariñas), Lipa, Cagayan de Oro, and Malolos. “IT-BPO industries are now going local,” Veniles reveals. “They believe that investing and expanding in these cities would help reduce the attrition or turnover rate in the industry.”

“The aim of the new wave cities program is to help ease the inflationary pressures brought about by concentration of recruitment and office space for IT-BPOs within Metro Manila,” Gillian Virata, senior executive director of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) stated to the press in December. With 75% of the over 350,000 graduates in the country coming from outside of Metro Manila annually, there’s plenty of potential in getting closer to such a rich source of talent. In fact, BPAP has begun connecting with provincial universities and schools.

Aside from these numbers, the new wave cities were also assessed and identified through the Next Wave Cities™ Scorecard, which has indicators selected by BPAP and the Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology Office: availability of talent and relevant infrastructure, connectivity through fiber-optic of other telecommunications networks, accessibility, cost of related factor inputs, and the business environment, which includes vulnerability to natural disturbances and issues related to security and safety. “The IT-BPO industry is aware that the next wave of growth must involve alternative locations,” Virata said.

An example is the recent start of Sutherland Global Services’ operations in Legazpi City. With 1,500 call center seats to fill, the international business process and technology management services provider (and one of the world’s largest independent BPO companies) continuously recruits and trains local talents, even scouting as far as Catanduanes.

And where BPO companies tread, other developments are sure to follow, as shown by the rise of pockets of commercial areas around Metro Manila such as Centris and Eastwood. After all, BPO employees need to eat, have places to hang out, and find sources of amusement too. Plus, they have disposable income to spend, ideally near where they work. With the economic and commercial potential that BPO centers bring, the government’s interest in these new key areas increases, as they could help decongest Metro Manila. Thus, employment, substantial wages, and increased income-generating business activities would be spread more equally across the country.

Even those who were never inclined to be in the customer service industry could benefit from the development of these next wave cities. Veniles says, “The BPO industry doesn’t solely mean call center employee positions. Whenever they open an office, there would be placements to fill at the administrative, human resources, management, and infrastructure departments.” Nursing graduates and allied medical professionals can expand into alternative careers through the healthcare IT-BPO sector: medical transcriptionists, secretaries, representatives, clinical research associates, etc. Other growing BPO sectors are finance and accounting, digital management, and game development.

There are also plenty of other rising industries outside of Metro Manila. Among JobsDB’s clients nationwide, the fields of education, merchandising and purchasing, banking and finance, and hospitality/food and beverages each constitute 2% of the total job postings for 2013 so far. Marketing and public relations clock in at an encouraging 6%, design at 4%, and media and advertising at 2%.

These latter, more “creative” fields may not occupy the biggest slices of the pie, but that’s because the job openings are within a corporate structure. In truth, as many self-starting Metro Manila-based businesses have demonstrated, gainful employment in these industries can also thrive on a smaller, more independent scale. “The Philippines is now wired,” says Veniles. “That’s a development that can help jobseekers everywhere. People can find work without having to leave home to work in the city.” That’s good news for writers, editors, illustrators, graphic designers, ESL teachers, and managers/owners of online-based businesses looking for a change in scenery.

It is more fun in the Philippines

The government’s stronger drive for tourism has also opened doors to job opportunities. Siegrid Bangyay, a potter and tour coordinator based in Sagada, says of her hometown, “As one of the top tourist destinations in the country, its tourism industry has the potential to employ a lot of people.” She cites arts and crafts, agriculture, and food production as currently booming ventures in Sagada. “Running restaurants and hotels, creating and selling souvenirs, and other hospitality-related businesses are also flourishing.”

“There is also a trend of Filipinos who have worked abroad and are looking to ‘retire’ back home,” Veniles reveals. “In Ilocos, for example, plenty of Filipinos who used to live in Hawaii have since opened up small businesses like inns and restaurants. To oversee and run these, they typically look for someone from Metro Manila to hire—and being a hotel manager, even if it’s at a small-sized hotel in the north, isn’t too shabby at all.”

Indeed, with the different attractions to be found all over the country, there’s plenty of unconventional employment to be found, even ones usually cited as dream would-never-happen-in-a-million-years jobs. Farm manager Neil Binayao III’s responsibilities at the Tuminugan Nature Sanctuary in Bukidnon include doing aerial and photographic surveys, documenting wildlife, and touring farm guests on hikes and adventure activities like whitewater rafting. He admits, “Certain aspects of my job are things other people would pay to do.” Openings for resort doctors or medical personnel, diving instructors, tour guides, and other “exotic” tourism-related positions can be found in far-flung paradises that house booming locales such as Palawan, Cebu, Bohol, and more.

The comfort and hindrance of the same old

Of course, as with any job, these openings don’t just fall onto anyone’s lap. Whatever your dream occupation is, knowing where to look for it is integral. Even with the unemployment problem in the country drummed daily into the public by the news, there’s a reality that’s a reason for hope and also of puzzlement.

“Every day, on JobsDB, there are 90,000 job postings,” Veniles reveals. “Research, IT, HR, marketing — they're not just run-of-the-mill jobs. Yet only 30% of them are being actively applied for.” Even accounting for the mismatch between an applicant’s qualifications and the available jobs in their industry, there’s still a big discrepancy between 90,000 and 27,000. “It’s the reverse case in Singapore. Even if they don’t meet all of the requirements for a post, Singaporeans send out their resumes anyway. Why aren’t more Filipinos doing the same?”

Veniles believes we’re simply too attached to what’s safe. “We want to stick to what we’re used to, but as we always say at JobsDB, there’s something better out there, only if we’re open to change. Most people here ignore job alerts that come to them by email, unless they’re distracted enough by something else in their lives to try out something new.”

Rocky Cajuigan, a writer, artist, and NGO volunteer based in Baguio and Bontoc, believes that a black-or-white, all-or-nothing mindset hinders anyone from making a life-changing career switch. “Young people listen to two things only: the good and the bad, acceptance and rejection, milk and coffee—and that’s a problem. The binary contraption will always haunt anyone’s idea of doing what they want to do [because] doing what [you] want to do is a spectrum of colors.” Believing financial stability and personal passions to be mutually exclusive (though that’s less prevalent now than in previous generations) immediately closes off avenues where both could flourish, achieved, of course, through dedication and hard work. “There’s never any money at the beginning anyway, as with anywhere else.”

The bottom-line is that traditional notions of what comprises a fulfilling career—Metro Manila-based and preferably business-oriented—are no longer the only standards worth considering as new avenues continue to open. But as with any venture, you get nowhere unless you take the first step.

The age and money factors

The urgency to know what you’d really like to do for the rest of your life comes at different times for people, though. Veniles agrees that age is a critical component in the search for something better. “Fresh graduates typically want to ‘experience’ Metro Manila first. For them to start considering working somewhere else, they’d have to reach a turning point where they'd want to explore options or start something on their own. Normally, that happens to people who’ve had years of experience working—around 28 years old and above—and already have managerial skills and responsibilities.”

She also notes that at JobsDB, when client companies approach Prestige, the job portal’s placement arm, the list of requirements for most provincial and regional placements are for those in supervising and managerial positions already. “There are also rank-and-file openings, but they’re specialized in their skills demand; it’s a different level of capacity that they're looking for. That’s a problem in placing fresh graduates and not-so-experienced employees in the provinces.”

Another important factor would be the presence of families in the provinces. “Most people who transfer to postings outside of Metro Manila already have relatives in the province, which is handy for cutting down on living costs. For those who don’t, it’s definitely a big change, especially with the difference of salary rates.”

But this reality, while tough to adjust to, wouldn’t be forever, because while income rates are lower outside of Metro Manila, the cost of living is also lower. “A cup of coffee doesn’t cost hundreds of pesos. You wouldn’t have to eat at restaurants for lunch,” Veniles says. “Sometimes, even transportation costs are cut: You could walk or bike to work.” Between the salary change and the savings, she believes the difference would even out eventually. “In most cases, companies provide a one-time relocation allowance to transferred employees, and employees can negotiate if they’d like to receive that as a lump sum or in increments for a certain period. There are also companies who provide freebies, such as dorm housing or free lunches, so that’s another source of savings.”

There’s also a different pay-off: a fresh perspective. “Those who visit or return to Manila after working in the province could find an appreciation for a different pace of life,” Veniles says. They could also relish bringing a new perspective to their new workplaces. “Former Manila-based employees bring a change of culture that most provincial companies appreciate, as they adopt a foreigner’s view to the places where they get transferred to. They see the places’ potential for development, what could be done and improved on.”

Some level of navel-gazing required

Before you go off in search of a map to look for your ideal workplace that could lead you to the job of your dreams, some preparation must be done. Veniles emphasizes the need for a stronger online presence for both jobseekers and the already employed. “More than being on Facebook or even LinkedIn, you should use the benefits of the internet: Have your online CV accessible. Sign up for updates on job portals. Whenever you see an interesting job ad in your inbox, look into it; it might be something that clicks with you. Who knows where it’ll lead?”

A big career change also calls for serious self-examination. “What would make you happy? Actively seek that out. Have a clear idea of what you’d like to have in a perfect working environment: Not having to take two hours to get to work? Not having to wear a corporate uniform? Having a view of nature?” Clarity of vision is vital, as ambivalence could undo all the research and preparation you’ve invested when you realize later on that you wanted something else. “Once you’re sure about what you want, everything will fall into place.”

That place could very well be Manila, or somewhere else beyond it. The point is, it’s the place that’d be worth the sacrifice, where you’ll find your dream fulfilled.

This story was published in the September 2013 issue of Garage Magazine. Lead image is by Ronan Capili.