Sharon Au On Why She Couldn’t Find A Job In Singapore After Leaving Her Paris Job

The job market’s been pretty rough lately, and everyone knows how hard it is to find a job in Singapore.

But who would have expected Sharon Au to struggle with employment too?

In the newest episode of Jeanette Aw's YouTube series JA Unscripted, Sharon, who's been based in Paris for the past eight years, opened up about her plans to move back home. 

"I will still return to Singapore," the 50-year-old assured. 

Truth is, every time Sharon returns to visit her family or during the holidays, she'd take the opportunity to "test the waters" and see if it's time for her to come back and work. 

Sharon was an investment director at a private equity firm in France but resigned from her position after her apartment was burgled in 2022, and is taking the time to re-evaluate her life and heal.

Since then, Sharon has taken up several local projects on an ad hoc basis. These include stage production Everything For You (2022), SG60 tribute The River Remembers (2025), and Cendol (2025), a short film directed by Qi Yuwu.

"Every stage of life brings a different version of myself. At some point, I think I will come back, and it will feel comfortable," she said.

Are we nearing that stage in her life though?

"Not yet, not so soon," she confessed. "I feel that I still have many things to express and accomplish."

Sharon added that whenever she thought it might be time to return, she'd encounter the same obstacles during her trip home, making her realise it still wasn't the right time. 

But why didn't the four-time Star Awards Best Host winner just look for a job here after leaving Mediacorp in 2018?

Well, it was not that she didn't want to.

"It’s impossible for me to find a job in Singapore, because I don’t know how to go through an interview. I find it very embarrassing," she admitted. 

A friend even helped arrange an interview for her with a company executive once but she backed out at the last minute and chose not to attend.

The reason? The interviewer had learned that the applicant was “the famous actress Sharon Au". 

"The more people recognise me, the less I can bring myself to attend an interview. It was then that I realised I couldn’t work in Singapore, because I couldn’t get past that barrier."

Sharon also said that can't return as an artiste, which required her to constantly smile and "wear a mask" while dealing with people. "It was too exhausting and uncomfortable," she explained. 

Guess what? Jeanette could totally relate.

The actress recalled the time when she wrote, directed, and acted in her own short film, The Last Entry (2017).

At that time, Jeanette actually took the initiative to approach investors for funding. However, she was met with ridicule and sarcasm, and, in the end, failed to secure any investment.

There were also investors who approached her to discuss potential collaborations, but the negotiation terms never matched.

In reality, those people had no genuine intention to invest, they merely wanted a chance to meet “the celebrity Jeanette Aw”.

According to her manager, some investors even made absurd proposals, asking Jeanette to help promote their products, with the sales revenue determining how much they would “invest.”

"The product itself cost less than 2,000 yuan (S$366). That’s how they tried to belittle you," she deplored.