Right now, graduates are all worried about not being able to land themselves a job after graduation and most of them have also lowered their expectations towards salary. These can be seen quite commonly as i have been conducting lots of interviews with fresh graduates from university and poly. One of the interesting findings that i found was that there were more and more graduates coming to us seeking for a career in finance industry despite current situation. I believe they have a reason for wanting to join us.

One thing that i can think of is the job stability. Right now, there is no jobs out there that are stable. The only job that is recession-proof is to be self-employed. Hence being a financial planner is one of the best choices. Whether in times of crisis or bull market, our services are always in demand no matter what and it is also one of the most meaningful job so far that i know. Therefore some of them are thinking ‘Why not just give this career a shot’

Second reason for coming to us i believe is also because of the kind of exposures and skills that they can learn over here. Personally after being 4 years into this industry, i can proudly dare to say that i am much more mature in thinking and more confident in myself compared to my peers working in a normal job environment. I have also expanded my network by alot and it has helped me in many areas when it comes to doing corporate tie-up.

Being an entrepreneur over here enables you to really learn alot of things and mature faster. The fact that they come in with the mindset of being self-employed only means that they are committed to make a difference in their life and i think it is something to be proud of. From the moment they enter into this industry, they are already different from the rest. They think and behave different from their peers and next time these are the people that will achieve different results from the rest.

So for those people who are still wondering what to do next after graduation, why not send me your resume and i will invite you down for an interview. From there, you can judge better to see if you want to give this challenging career a shot!

All the best to your future success! Cheers!

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Quote:

‘The finance industry now has an influx of professionals aged below 30 who were retrenched from the foreign banks. How can we new graduates compete with them?’ he said.

Meanwhile, some of those who are not yet in their final year have ‘backup’ plans.

Ms Xu Jieyi, 22, a third-year SMU student doing a four-year double degree in accountancy and economics, will graduate in December next year. But she is taking a part-time diploma course in professional make-up artistry. Her parents paid $4,000 for the five-month-long course which started this month.

1 in 2 students ‘afraid of graduating’, Straits Times February 15, 2009

Comment from me:
I happened to read this quote from online citizen website and i personally find it quite interesting to know the finding. How come these days the young graduates are afraid of losing out to people who have been retrenched or afraid of not being able to get a job?

First of all to the question of losing out to experienced worker, we got to tell ourselves that being young and dynamic are our advantages! It means that we are open to new ideas, more willing to work harder and accept new working style. This is one thing that all employers are looking for. The bosses out there does not want to hire a person who has a certain attitude or mindset about how things are to be run because it may create some conflict and he may also have problems handling him. Although they are experienced in doing sales but if they are not hardworking, they can lose out too. Young people should think that learning how to do sales is easy and all it takes is to find the right person to teach you. You should be excited being a fresh graduates!

Second on the part of not being able to find a job. Personally i think it is quite nonsense to say that there are no jobs in Singapore! There are plenty of jobs out there and the question lies in there are no suitable jobs for them. Many graduates are thinking of getting a decent job of $2.5k on their first job and wont’ settle anything less than that. So this also explains why some of the people i know are jobless after 6 months of graduation. Of course there are some of my graduate friends who don’t mind working for just $1.8k for the time being because their mindset is that it is better than nothing. So therefore the difference here is the expectation. In times like this, expectation has to be lower down.

Anyway i don’t see why people should not work for lesser paying job because what is most important is the experience and not so much of the salary especially for young graduates. The first two years of a young person is to explore working life and to find out what really suits him and what are his strength and weakness. Just remember experience does not come easily but money does!

Since young, i had done all kind of jobs ranging from hawker centre helper, waiter, admin to sales promoter. I would said that it was due to my brother who keep asking me to work for experience that’s why i was willing to work any job. I really got to thank him for that because if not i will not be where i am now today. I appreciated what i am doing now and i told myself that should one day any mishap happens to me, i will not die of hunger because i am able to work any job to keep me alive.

Therefore for my readers, just be aware that it is the expectation that matters and working experience is valuable. Don’t be choosy over jobs. Take it with pride and i am sure some good things will come out from it! To those people who are graduating this year, never be afraid not being able to find a job. There will always be job for you but it’s a matter whether you want to try it!

**You can send your resume to me @mro.career@gmail.com if you like to find out more about what i am doing.

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Although it has been very hectic but i’m enjoying every single bit of it especially when i helped my client to do his first accidental claim (which happens to be mine too!). That was when i truly felt the satisfaction in my career! Tomorrow i am going to do another death claim for one of my client’s brother. He passed away at the age of 23 and it was really very upset to hear that. I was so shocked to hear the news early in the morning at 10am. I bet the whole family right now must be feeling very sad due to the sudden loss of a family member.

This particular incident makes me feel that my job as a planner plays an important part of people lives. Whether their dependents will be able to live comfortably after tha will really depends on my planning for them. Hence i felt a great sense of responsibility in my job. Now i am taking more pride in becoming a financial consultant and i am going to groom more young people to be like myself. Going around helping people and making a difference in their life!

Coming up, i am going to give a sharing at my ex-poly to some group of graduating students. Hoping to be able to share with them my life experience after poly and how i juggle between working full time and studying part time. This journey was not easy and i hope i be of help to those students who are at their ‘crossroad-junction’ of their life.

For those who are reading this, i will be at NTU career fair on the 4th & 5th of Feb. So if anyone who are interested to find out more about my agency and my job scope, do drop by NTU to look for me =) I’m looking for people who wants to be an entrepreneur and seek challenging career upon graduation so if you think you fit in the bill, drop me an email at peterlim_agent@yahoo.com.sg together with your resume and i will contact you shortly.

Alright enough of updates from me, i am going to rest. Will come back with more insightful informations soon!

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