Hi all, I'm Dave, really in need of some advice or pep talk now, thanks a lot in advance.

Born and raised in Kunming, I graduated from a local university, got a job in a great company. Few years later I was transferred to its headquarter in BJ, things were going very well at the time.

Suddenly out of nowhere my father was diagnosed with cancer, hearing the news, I took the earliest flight back to Kunming, that night in the hospital I was faced with the most difficult decision of my life: to return or not. On one hand, he was a great dad who had raised me, been there for me all those years, through ups and downs, I looked up to him since I was a kid and I was very attached to him, plus it was my responsibility to look after him as the only child in the family. On the other hand, the job was perfect in almost every aspect, promising career, great colleagues, good pay... It didn't take me too long to make the decision, which was letting go of my job and returned to Kunming to look after him.

At the time I thought it would be easy to find a suitable job, by suitable I mean jobs that were relevant to my previous experience, finance and administration, combined with the use of English, preferably jobs that pay more than 5K/month because I needed the money to pay hospital bills. Little did I realize that as a third-tier city, Kunming's job market was vastly different from what I had expected, then came the rude awakening, having checked job site after job site, contacted friend after friend, I didn't find anything that was suitable.

For months I lived off my savings and it took quite the fortitude to accept the fact that I was not making money and at the same time had to put on an optimistic face while taking care of my dad.

Then I took a job in an English training school, mainly because it paid fairly good money (around 6k/month), I worked Tuesday through Friday on various tasks and taught English 8-10 hours a day on weekends. Just when things seemed to get better, the school is now on the brink of closedown because of poor management and marketing. So once again I'm back to where I started.

While I'm no stranger to adversity and I treasure the personal growth the experience has afforded me, plus I'm a firm believer in silver lining, but right now I'm just having trouble thinking about next career move, and I appreciate your advice or thoughts.

That might sounds dumb, but what about having your father living with you in Beijing the time he has his cancer treatment going on ?

And so you go back there (if lucky enough in your previous company) with better jobs opportunity and better hospitals to take care of him.

If you can make quite a lot of money in BJ (instead of struggling here), it won't be a problem for you to support your parents' life over there.

More jobs, better money, better doctors in BJ. and there is no shortage of other training schools in kmg. i hope to good this does not turn into an appeal for funds from a scammer.

" i hope to good this does not turn into an appeal for funds from a scammer"

I was actually thinking the same... I hope it isn't and we are not wasting our time...

@Karina17
I should have elaborated a bit more, during my time in BJ, he came and stayed with me for two months, but just like any typical Kunmingese, he felt very uncomfortable with the air pollution, climate, food, traffic there. Furthermore, I did ask if he wanted to get treatment in BJ but he refused. Anyway, in hindsight, quitting the job may not be the best option, but I didn't know a better solution at that time.

@Dazzer
The very intention of this thread is seeking advice on CAREER MOVE, instead of "appeal for funds from a scammer", maybe you should spend more time on reading other's posts before posting slanderous stuff.

if you see slander i suggest you learn to read yourself matey

I don't know what your experience is, but no doubt Kunming is not the place for a professional job market.

You're responsibility is to look after your father, and take care of the medical things. To me, that means making a move out of Kunming so you can get a decent paying job AND provide your dad with proper quality medical care.

So, consider other places besides BJ. Xiamen, or Shenzhen would be my choice.

@dazzer,

the point that the person never indicated anything about asking funds in his writing and for you to assume in someway that you have to write it down here would suggest your a d**che

if he in the end would write that down here about asking funds then i would say it just right for you to jump in and write that down even to the point of overkill would have the warmest of welcomes

dm-01, all i can say is just keep fighting, do what is best for now in your fathers health situation. that is if you need to be in kunming then dont stop looking for job, dont lose hope. if you must that you need to get to go to bigger cities then go. i would suggest emailing or applying again on your former job, look for your direct officer or the boss if you have previous contacts and explain your situation. sometimes it works since you have a good life situation decision reason which is your dad for leaving your former job.

its tough and it may affect you but dont lose your perspective on why you decided where you are now. just keep fighting

i has dealt with many douches some were con artists. in a play parts 1-n are sob story to get people sympathy after that win confidence, then go fishing. also I was not the only one who had that same thought. also this was first post, and the language used is that of a native speaker.
P.S. i still have not actually said the op was a conartist, i just expressed a hope that the post was not a scam. i stand by my original reply.