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.

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!