4 Mindsets To Have For Fresh Graduates in A Tough Jobs Market
by Job Search & Career Blogs
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“What’s more frustrating than not getting a job offer?"
Answer: A retracted one
The virus pandemic has not just changed the job market for the worse where young fresh graduates struggle to thrive but transformed the way even professionals think about a career.
While some say that it is a short-term disaster, others look at it as a long term opportunity and truly, it is a glass half full or empty situation.
However, the fact is that many young graduates have had to face retracted job offers after having been offered positions at companies, some of those struggling to survive as well.
Barring a few sectors like IT and financial services, most others have had companies falling out of business even.
If you’re part of a sector that has been adversely impacted and the companies that you’re applying to have individually suffered heavy losses, try to empathise with their situation. They might not have been in a financial position to pay you as much as they ordinarily would before the pandemic hit. While they can’t hire more employees now, they might still be open to offering short-term work opportunities to keep the business running.
This does not mean that you compromise and settle for just about anything, however, we do encourage that you be flexible around your margins and be open to innovative arrangements of work such as short term freelance gigs, traineeships etc. If your education can lead you to another sector where there might be more opportunities, and you’re willing to negotiate a career there - take that leap of faith.
Much has been said about how the post-Covid world will in the immediate future, be a time for specialists and not generalists.
While we do agree that skills help make you more employable and relevant - one has to essentially be agile.
Being agile means unlearning and relearning a lot of things and acquiring some modern skills of interfacing with tech or problem solving etc. More and more people will need to be self employed because the number of jobs are fast declining in the formal sector.
It could be a good idea, if you have the privilege, to utilise this time when you’re unable to secure a job, to undertake short term courses in hard and soft skills that could broaden your horizon and make you more employable in future. However unusual it may sound, it is almost imperative to master teleconferencing and presentation skills on point at these times.
Like most of the world, you could utilise online learning programs and courses on the multitude of platforms out there. There are other options for graduates in Singapore, additionally. Some universities are offering free CET courses to young graduates and some, like NTU, have offered additional alumni credits to the Class of 2020 to take up paid courses as well.
If you’re over 25, you are in luck because you are able to make use of SkillsFuture credits to upskill and tap further on Workforce Singapore (WSG)’s resources.
Whenever life gives you lemons, you make some tasty lemon juice!
We’re often faced with these situations where we find ourselves in the deep end of the pool and it’s swim or sink. If it is a situation like that for you, you will have to work hard, might have to relocate, change sectors, etc.
This might just be the realistic scenario.
Image: GIPHY
However, if there’s a cause that you care about a lot or an issue that motivates you, we encourage you to take the opportunity to put your blood, sweat and tears in it.
Start a social enterprise, leverage technology to solve public policy problems, initiate a community level organisation.
In short, don’t just look for opportunities, create them!
Be it from your school seniors, peers, WSG career coaches, and even recruiters at BGC Group!
Think of us as free resources to help you get started somewhere. We all know that it is a tough job market, and we are always happy to give you a leg up in your career journey!
As one of the top recruitment specialists in South-East Asia, BGC Group has a wide network of hiring employers across sectors who are looking for the right candidate to take on the job opportunity.
Trust us when we say that even with an economic crisis ongoing, there are plenty of open job vacancies that we are looking to fill for employers.
Our goal has always been to help job seekers along with an easy recruitment process, and given our recruitment expertise in areas of IT, healthcare and corporate functions.
Tap on our network of multinational employers or the government sector through a resume drop or applying via our jobs portal to get the latest notifications on our full-time and temporary contract job opportunities.
