Hi Gilbert,
I refer to the article “Young Graduate Feeling Pessimistic About Her Future” and wish to share my personal experience on this issue.
I too share the same sentiment about the uncertain employment condition in Singapore. Before I start, let me share a bit about myself.
I graduated from University with an Honours degree in 2008 and assumed that having a degree in Singapore would at least lead me to a decent job. I am not asking for the sky but just a proper regular job to meet my financial obligations.
I have a strong belief in my own ability and held firmly to my career ambition and prospect.
I count myself fortunate to secure a decent marketing job in a Japanese firm after hearing stories from my cohorts who fail to find work after many months of job searching.
However, reality soon sets in when my company began to feel the effects of the financial credit crunch.
Three months into my first job, I was one of the few hundreds who were retrenched due to a massive organizational restructuring exercise to reduce headcount.
That was when the nightmare started. I was also ill-prepared for such a torrid time.
Being a fresh graduate who has limited savings and saddled with huge monthly repayment commitment because of my university tuition fee loan, I was desperate for a proper job to pay my bills.
After four months of fruitless job searching, I settled for a door-to-door sales job to tide myself over this period – more out of desperation than anything else.
The job was also physically demanding and exhausting.
I have to go door to door in industrial area such as Tuas to sell consumer products under the scorching hot sun for 6 days a week.
The feeling of physical tiredness and mental depression tortured me every single day as I walked the streets selling industrial products.
I also questioned: “What has become of our economy nowadays? Is it so difficult to get proper work even for a graduate?”
My health condition deteriorated during this period and I fall sick every alternate day.
I was on the verge of a mental break down after a horrifying 11 months and decided to call it quits. I left the company without a job for the sake of my health. I was also apprehensive as I know that it is not so easy to get back another job nowadays.
During this period, I tried various attempts to search for a job – online job portals, newspapers, friends and relatives all to no avail.
I have thrown away my dignity, aspiration, dream career and prospect aside – I just want a proper and secure job to meet my personal and family commitment.
Several months passed by quickly and after a whooping 500 resumes sent, only a handful called me up for interviews with no concrete offers made.
It was sheer mental torture, having to see the pile of unpaid bills and the bank calling everyday to chase for late payment.
Soon, I sank into a mental depression and felt completely useless.
There was a period whereby I can’t even afford to have a proper $3 meal outside and had to feed myself with instant noodles and plain water every day.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I went through the limited options available then.
I had to swallow my pride and dignity to borrow money from my girlfriend just to repay my monthly debts. It was the most terrible period of my life to say the least.
My future seems bleak – I do not have elite parents and their age is catching up.
I am expected to be the sole breadwinner of the family after I graduated but they still have to work odd jobs to support themselves knowing that I was out of job.
It was a feeling that I find difficult to stomach.
At this point of time as I am writing this, fortunately, I managed to secure a job in the general administrative role after 5 tough months of job hunting.
It was never my ideal job but I know I have no choice as I badly need a job to meet my financial obligation.
The competition was intense even for such a general junior position thats pays around $2000 a month.
I have to compete with many foreigners, fresh graduates and even the experienced PMET for the job.
Even if I know that my remuneration and benefits are fully exploited to the maximum by the employer, I have to accept the job and continue working for the sake of survival. It was a situation that I couldn’t envisage immediately after my graduation. Called it the worse scenario situation if you may.
On retrospection, after an average of 16 to 17 years of education and 2 years of national obligation, we are left with no jobs or job with depressive wages to meet our basic daily needs. Will this be the future for all our graduates from now on?
My future seems bleak and there is no way I can regain back my passion, ambition and confidence to where they were before I graduated.
With Regards,
Tan
(I am okay with any form of publication. Identity to remain anonymous)
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Every year, tens of thousands of fresh graduates struggled with experienced matured PMETs and newly imported foreigners for whatever scarce jobs available in the job market nowadays. Only the fittest and most abled will survive sadly.
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- Local NUS graduate happily working in Hong Kong and may never return
- From handcuffs to NTU honours degree in engineering
- 25-year-old Masters Degree Graduate Trying out $6/Hour Dish Washing
- Ex-NUS Graduate: “I’m a failed product of our meritocratic educational system”
- Jobless Female Graduate Concerned About Salary Negotiation During Interview
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TAN,
life is never a bed of roses. Discard the thinking that armed with a local honours degree, everything is smooth sailing. Your generation has more competition not only locally with FT but globally than our generation in the 80′s.
U still have youth on your side, be strong and focus on your job and dream (longer term goals). Work diligently in your work (even thought it may not be what you like) but you never know what leads ahead when your supervisors see that you are passionate and hardworking.
Start thinking of setting up local cost business like internet business, learn a skill in trading in financial markets (stocks,FX). Try even to broaden your horizon and opportunities by working overseas.
I have accounts from friend and personally: my friend was interviewed by a FT engineer, i have FT ex-colleague whom was given a job in a newly star up Uni. many years back because the husband has a teaching appointment(and she complained that in the States she only work xxx no of hours). I am not saying all FT are no good but we are left with no means with the government liberal FT/PR policy. Many Chinese are saying our “PR” are cheap. I have know of many FT/PR from North Asian using Singaporean as a jumping broad to North America.
Yet here, PMET above 40′s and young graduates are not appreciated.
Move ahead and train your subconscious with positive thinking everyday.
To Mr Tan,
In a way I can empathize with what you are going through. I went through similar experiences after graduating with honours many years ago. My personal advice is to try the government sector since you have an honours degree. If you have 2nd upper and better even better. Use that as a base to gain some experience before deciding what you want to do next. As a young graduate, if you don’t have parents with connections and money (like mine), you either get lucky by joining a good company and life becomes smooth afterwards or you have some few mis-steps in your first few jobs. In the government sector, you don’t make a lot but it is pretty stable and gives time to think, gain experience and money to pay your loan and bills. You can always move on to the private sector once figure out what you want and have the right experience and connections in a few years time. Still young, nothing to worry about.
I do have one further advice, regardless of your future occupation, make sure you can speak at least 2 more languages (fluently) beside English. Trust me, you find it really useful, 10-15 years down the road once you move up the management and worked for global companies.
All the best.
Not sure why alexa sent me over to your but I might as well say I have become actually entertained by the site conent you have sourced together. How long did it take to end up with that many coming to your site? I am pretty darn to this WWW thing.
dear Tan,
care to share the following?
1) which university? is it one of those private unis in sg? (we all know they’re not at the same level as the big 3. so no point kidding yourself)
2) what was your course of study? (some deadbeat courses won’t guarantee you a job of course. think arts and social sciences)
3) what level of Hons did you get? (if it’s a 2nd lower then it’s quite self-explanatory right? more importantly, how long was your course? sometimes a condensed 3-yr direct hons program actually adds no value since the employer will consider that you’ve only has 3 yrs of tertiary training, no different from a non-hons grad.)
by omitting these facts your letter will lead the reader to conclude that the future for fresh grads is very bleak. however, i am of the view that this will be an incorrect conclusion.
and just for completion, besides your degree, do you have any skills or abilities that set you apart from your fellow graduates? e.g competency in a 3rd language or bloomberg capabilities. there are more of course, and with these skills one doesn’t really need ‘elite parents’, as you’ve put it. just some foresight, which in your case it’s still not too late to attain.
you are definitely not along. I had thought I was alone only to realise there are many others in the same boat.
I don’t think the class of honours is relevant but I would think the type of degree is. There are diploma holders who have done very well. Reason? They don’t give a damn and just bash through.
I can believe that local uni grads have problems as I have a few who from NUS and NTU who can’t find jobs. And when they do, they are only offered peanuts. At 33, they only make $2.5K a month each at foreign MNCs — 1 American and the other British.
I think something is really wrong and I have a conclusion but not too sure. Basically this place is being made used….
Selfins says:
‘I have a few who from NUS and NTU who can’t find jobs. And when they do, they are only offered peanuts. At 33, they only make $2.5K a month each at foreign MNCs — 1 American and the other British.’
Are you serious, at 33 only make $2500 a month with a local state Uni degree?
I think whether you have a local state uni degree or 10-15 years experience is useless in this current situation.
I have a friend who is both qualified(paper wise) and experience (doing tier 3-4 network support) cannot find another networking job for $2000/mth. Those who are in networking should knows it is not easy to support tier 3-4 networks.
In fact, I owe him a great deal in the knowledge that he had imparted to me. He is humble, helpful and hardworking. He is always working till late at night and never grumbled when called backed to troubleshoot problems when other colleagues cannot resolved.
After working for 10 years in that company, he was retrenched and replace by a foreigner. His job hunt after retrenchment was a journey of tears. He was turned down again and again, ridicule by many interviewers(sadly many of the interviewers were Sinkies) and given the cold shoulder again and again despite of the good recommendation from his ex-company.
He was even willing to accept for a job that pays $1600/mth(30% the salary of his last job) and the interviewer told him that he was ‘over-qualified’. He soon learned from his friend, who had informed him of the job opening that a 23 year old Indian foreigner on E-Pass was given the job! E-Pass mean $2500/mth. How experience can a 23 year old guy be compared to a tier 3-4 support engineer with 10 years experience and the worst still is to even willing to pay more to the foreigner. True enough the new Indian ‘engineer’ screw up on the first week on the job and quarreled with the senior engineer.
I cannot understand Singapore’s employers’ logic anymore.
My friend had given up hope on getting a job and started to consider to driving a taxi. Luckily for my friend, due to his past good performance, an old superior of his, who is working in Australia pulled him over to work in Australia. He is now paid more than double of his previous salary, on expat terms in housing and benefits. He is now happily working in Australia and told me to visit him if I were to go to there.
He told me that he does not wish to return to Singapore, even if somebody were to offer him a higher pay. In Singapore, he is always considered as ‘inferior’ in comparison to a foreigner. Unlike Singapore, he is respected for his work attitude and experience in Australia. In Singapore, he is a piece of shit, but in a 1st world country, he a talent. This is the Singapore ‘formula’.
If we really did attracted the good foreigners like in the 80s and early 90s, I have nothing to say. But it seems that we are attracting all the wrong ‘talents’ while letting go our own true talents. The strangest thing is that all the shit ‘talents’ are not really cheap at all.
This country is really getting sick. I am also planning to leave this dumb country once there is an opportunity and let the ‘foreign talents’ take over.
Hi everyone,
just happen to chance on this forum and offer my 2 cents worth. i feel that it is not a matter of “The Singapore Employer” but here, we’re talking the HR recruiter for that particular company. Every company has their own reasons for hiring so if you’re going to make a like-for-like comparison, it’s never going to end.
secondly the employee himself needs some self assessment and find the right job fit. Reflect your strengths and abilities and be realistic. I’ve been through the period of getting rejected at interviews and each time, I’ll reflect what was the reasons that led to the failure.
thirdly, job hunting is never a true test of paper qualifications. We all know the paper is just a passport of entry. Experience in that related field is more of what recruiters are looking at. Plus, a tinge of luck and confidence to go by to do that magic trick.
so take heart, to those looking for employment, not to place your eyes on other things like FTs or the system only, but self reflection as well. Make every fall add on to a stronger you.
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