A rite of passage into the workforce: Job search

After my eventful time in South Korea, and since my mother is well on the road of recovery. it's time to sit down and begin the next stage of my life - settling down as a working adult with a desk bound job.

Gosh, how I hate the sound of this. How dreary can it get? 20 years down the road, I'll still going the same thing and going through the same routine. But this is a rite of passage every human have to go through, me included. Doesn't mean I have to like it... And face it, nobody likes job hunting

The uncertainty, the stress, the extra work, etc. Who likes job searching?

You would think that, with the economic upturn Singapore is facing, there would be a demand for labor. There is.Here in Singapore, there's a huge demand for EXPERIENCED labor, never mind what industry or function one was from. As long as one has WORKING experience and his/her character is a fit with the organizational culture, one can be guaranteed employment.


Where does that leave fresh graduates? Nowhere.

NOBODY wants to hire fresh graduates.

Which i think is ludicrous, because there is a pool of untapped potential out there and nobody wants to be the first to tap into it. Oh yeah, except for the sales function, that is. The one area desperately in need of manpower and that everybody, including most fresh graduates, desperately try to avoid.

I'm desperate enough to accept a sales job, despite the fact that I can't sell, even if i were to use money as an incentive...

Anyway, from my job hunting experience, I've come to realize a few thing:

# 1 Networking is very important. 

I just can't stress how important it is. Often companies will call you up for interviews based on reccommendations or referrals. And often, whether you get accepted on a permanent or contractual basis also depends on your network. Based on information gathered from my circle of friends and acquaintances, one has a way higher chance of being employed as a permanent staff if one was 'vouched for', compared to if one was employed via a recruitment agency. So job hunting isn't just an individual effort. It takes a considerable amount of effort from your surrounding friends as well.

#2 Go for all interviews. 

Any interviews, even if it's jobs you are not interested in. Just apply and hear the interviewers out. You never know if the job might interest you. In the worse case, you can still get some interviewing experience out of it. And this will definitely help a lot when you're finally interviewing for your 'dream job' (I don't believe in dream jobs. Job = work. If you have to work, it means you're not enjoying and that contradicts the meaning of Dream altogether.).

#3 It takes a bloody hell lot of time. 

A friend of mine took 5 months to find a job and even then, he was recommended by a friend for that job (you see how important networking is!). So be patient, take up some courses to upgrade certain skills. If not for my mother's condition, I would have applied to learn driving.

#4 It isn't really about plain intelligence anymore. 

Although they do play a part in getting you that interview, your school results are not the only factor that is taken into consideration, nor are your sports achievements / CCA records, when it comes to the actual hiring. According to a report by Forbes, What matters too are emotional intelligence, moral intelligence and even body intelligence (http://www.forbes.com/sites/keldjensen/2012/04/12/intelligence-is-overrated-what-you-really-need-to-succeed/). Therefore...

#5 BRANDING IS VERY IMPORTANT! 

Logic and common sense both dictates that since it's the employers who are hiring (and paying the $$), therefore, they'll want to hire employees that fit into the company. So, for us potential employees, what matters is how we portray that image of fitting into that company - whether we have the values, beliefs, personality that they are looking for. But said image should be a blend of the values that the company is looking for and the values we possess. I.e... It's useless to 'wear shoes that are ill-fitting' or be a person whom we can't be. It really won't end well for both parties.


SO yeah. I'm not exactly a good source to learn from though. Up til now, I still have not yet gotten a job, although that might change in the few weeks to come. Keeping fingers crossed!

P.S. I've started posting up blogs posts about South Korea as chronologically accurate as possible so scroll forward, starting from end August 2012. Stay tuned for more!