UNDERGRADUATE May Zhang has given herself six months to find a job in the corporate world upon graduation; failing which, she may open a cafe with her boyfriend.
While she will graduate only in July — she has yet to take her final-year exam — Ms Zhang is already starting to worry about whether she will land her dream job with a communication consulting firm.
“I’m worried because there are fewer jobs available and we hear stories about friends who got retrenched after they found a job after graduation last year,” said Ms Zhang, 23, who is doing a double major in economics and corporate communications at the Singapore Management University (SMU).
But instead of leaving everything to chance after graduation, Ms Zhang has already mapped out her plans post-SMU.
“I’ll try to use the six months after graduation to find a job. There’s no point waiting to find the dream job because I can start my own business,” said Ms Zhang, who has already sent out resumes to three companies.
The avid baker, who started an online blogshop selling cupcakes one-and-a-half years ago, is considering opening a cafe with her boyfriend. She said: “I’ve always thought of setting up my own cafe. It’s an opportunity now to start my business.”
Like Ms Zhang, many final-year undergraduates interviewed by Weekend Xtra are also starting to worry — not about getting their dream job, but getting a job at all. Never mind that graduation is a good six months away.
At this time last year, most final-year students would have been more concerned with project deadlines, revising for their exams and less stressful matters, like planning their post-graduation holidays.
But with Singapore possibly facing the worst recession in its history, many undergraduates are putting worries about their job prospects at the top of their lists. Some 15,000 students are expected to graduate from Singapore’s three universities in July.
Said Dr Helen Chai, assistant dean of undergraduate admissions and the director of BBA programmes at the NUS Business School: “I think students are in tune with the current times and they are well-prepared for the situation ... They are exploring their options to enhance their career versatility, including the school’s concurrent masters programmes.”
For some, being well-prepared means sending out their resumes now instead of in April, when the exams are over, to give themselves a headstart over their peers.
It also means paying more attention to job advertisements in newspapers and career talks held by their universities.
Some undergraduates told Weekend Xtra that they are also lowering their job expectations, and that they are ready toaccept a lower salary or work in an industry that is not their first choice.
NUS civil engineering final-year student Yang Chang Han, said: “I’m planning to job hunt now; I had wanted to start after my exams. I’ve heard of people who have looked for a job for six months and are still jobless. Hearing their stories scares me.”
When asked whether his friends are also worried, Mr Yang, 25, said: “The question that we ask each other now is — ‘Have you found a job?’” He added that he is also willing to lower his pay expectations to $2,500, from his original target of $3,000.
Ms Jessie Loy, 23, is considering teaching as a career, even though she did not set out to be a teacher when she opted for mass communications at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
She said: “Recently, there was a teaching award seminar by the Ministry of Education and I thought I’d be one of the few ones from my course to attend it. But there were quite a lot of my coursemates there; they said they were checking it out as a potential back-up because they don’t know how the economy will be once they graduate.”
Another option that more undergraduates are considering is furthering their studies, such as pursuing a Masters degree.
Ms Qian Xiao Hui, 21, is considering doing a Masters in Financial Engineering if she doesn’t get a job when the banks make their customary hiring rounds in February. The final-year banking and finance student at NTU said: “I don’t want to compete in the bad job market. Education is an investment.”
Although the private sector may not be hiring as much as they used to, the public sector remains a good place for undergraduates to seek their first jobs. Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced in his recent Budget speech that the Government would open up 18,000 new public sector jobs over the next two years across different ministries and statutory boards for all levels of employees.
Still, despite such openings, the job market will still be a tough year for fresh graduates, given the high number of job losses expected this year, said Mr Alvin Liew, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank.
Professor Michael Heng, from NTU’s School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, said that while the job market may be tight, graduates who are flexible in their job hunt should have no problem finding a job.
He said: “You need to see your skills differently. If you see yourself as having a capability and not just having hard skills, you have no problem finding a job. Paywise, you still have to adjust expectations, but if you do well in your job, there’ll be no problem getting pay increments.”
Despite the bleak outlook, some students already have jobs waiting for them come July — thanks to the help given by their respective universities.
Mr Colin Teo, a final-year student at NTU’s Nanyang Business School, took up an offer from the school to intern at one of the Big Four accounting firms last June.
The 24-year-old said: “I signed up for it because I already felt the signs when the sub-prime crisis started and the US dollar started to weaken. I know I had to do an internship at one of the Big Four to secure a job.”
He approached his internship company last November for a job and got an offer ahead of his peers. Given the tough economic climate, Mr Teo said: “It’s better to be somewhere now than nowhere. It’s barely six months to graduation and some people are not even getting job offers. But they are not in total despair; they are still taking things in their stride.”
- TODAY newspaper
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