I finally decided to book a date for my GRE exam so that I won’t be able to give myself excuses to delay it further again. I booked for late October which should give me plenty of time to study for it… assuming I don’t end up in a job requiring plenty of OT anytime soon.

Anyway, I went for an interview earlier today. It was for an online advertising role. But the pay they are offering is mediocre (40% lower than what I expect to get) – an amount that I could have easily gotten 5 years ago right after graduating with a polytechnic diploma. Except for the salary discussion part, I guess the remaining parts of the interview went pretty smoothly.

I told them candidly that although my passion and interest is in online advertising, I am already 26 and I need a job just as they do for money to support my current and future family needs.

Kinda felt like a waste of time once it became apparent that our salary expectations were so far apart. But well… I’m taking it easy because even before I went for the interview I figured that as a small private sector company they probably wouldn’t be able to offer salaries which are on par with government and investment banks’ standards. Anyway, who knows… maybe I impressed them enough for them to offer me what I want (probably not).

And oh, for those people out there who face the problem as I do with performance anxiety during job interviews… I think  I found the solution – don’t over prepare for an interview, even if it is a very important one… I think the most important thing is to be relaxed… go in without pressuring yourself to perform well and speak just as you would to your friends or family members. That’s what I did today and I felt no stress and was able to be more proactive in selling myself. I remember during my last two interviews I was so uptight that my mind went blank and I wasn’t able to say anything else besides those things I memorized so I wasn’t able to answer the unexpected questions (of which there were plenty) well enough.

Anyway… more trip reports to come… stay tuned!

No related posts.

I can’t help but feeling a little sore at my situation, although I know I am surely not the hardest hit guy around. But the thought that I worked so hard for 3 years to end up in a situation like this is definitely frustrating.

Actually, I have always wanted to start my own business, and I suppose this is the best time to do so – since there aren’t any good jobs out there, I might as well go for it and employ myself, right? However, it is definitely not going to be an easy route to take… and when I think of it I get a little queasy because I feel age is catching up with me and I don’t really have a lot of time to waste trying to do the things I like to do… rather than the things I ought to do (i.e. get a job and start earning dough to prepare for the future family).

I have to admit I am a little lost. Kinda happy (that I am over with formal education), disappointed (about the lack of good opportunities) and still hopeful (that I’ll be lucky in business and can forget about job seeking) at the same time. I guess I will just keep all options open – try out my business ideas and at the same time keep a look out for job opportunities. As my faithful readers (if there are any out there) know, I have always wanted to leave Singapore and I had hoped to graduate into an overseas job. The recession thwarted my plans. Sigh. Looks like there’s a really big deal of uncertainty to deal with ahead.

No related posts.

I’ve been really busy finishing up my Final Year Project. I was assigned two very senior (i.e. full professors) evaluators for my project assessment. The presentation happened yesterday and it was quite brutal. In short I was heavily bombarded with critcism despite the decent work which was evident. Well, an undergraduate can never outtalk two full professors right? Just too bad I guess. But a glimmer of hope remains in that my advisor intervened a little by defending my work to them. Hard to find such a good advisor – guess I got lucky… compared to some of my friends who had nothing good to say about their advisors.

Anyway, it’s 7 days to my first exam (I’ve got 4 papers I have barely started revising for!)… and 13 till I graduate into unemployment. Yes sir. Mrbiao, who always believes that he is a good catch for any employer, is graduating into unemployment. Nothing too bad about that I guess. I was telling my friend yesterday that graduating without a job and becoming desperate from not being able to get a decent job for months may just be the right ingredients for the creation of a very successful business. Certainly if I can get a nice job in a good firm I would go for it. If I can’t I won’t starve either. It will only fuel my hunger for success in starting another business.

Meanwhile, I’m planning to do lots of things after my exams. Planning for my grad trip to China… perhaps going to write a conference paper based on my FYP to proof those full profs wrong… developing business plans… maybe taking some short courses and certifications… sorting out my messy PC desktop and do some spring cleaning at home… spending time to learn photography… and… perhaps taking advantage of low air fares these days for a trip to Australia or somewhere else I haven’t been to. I’ll probably bring my mom since she haven’t been to any ‘ang moh’ countries before!

No related posts.

Statistically, I am an above-average student. I do have some achievements outside of academia, although probably not so outstanding to be considered as a ‘talent’. I did my homework on career development, resume-writing and meticulously drafted my CV and cover letters, doing lots of research on the firms I apply to… all to no avail.

Sometimes I wonder how are the average students faring on the job market if I am already having so much difficulty even in getting selected for interviews.

A sign of the bad times for graduating students – a couple weeks ago there was a career fair in NUS – I estimate that more than half of the recruiting organizations were government entities, with Defence organizations making up a significant proportion. I wonder about the long-term sustainability of the Government creating jobs in the civil service to mitigate the lack of jobs in the private sector – will it eventually become a burden for taxpayers to support so many civil servants, and are all these positions created out of the needs of the hiring organizations, or have they been created just so that the Government can make the unemployment situation look better?

Actually there are some tempting offers out there – First Class Honours graduates are being offered $3,800+/month (with NS) for positions as Prisons or ICA officers. I am somewhat confident of being able to get in… but as most people know, it can be difficult to leave civil service for the private sector later… and I have swore off going into civil service in the first place anyway.

Am I being inflexible and picky? Perhaps some people might think so, but from my perspective, I studied hard for years to get to where I am today – so that I can graduate with a good standing and have more advantages in the job market – so I think I deserve to choose. Well, looking at the bleak situation today, I guess it’s useless to say all these now.

I have also thought about starting my own business – either a tech business that combines my interests with what I learnt in business and in school, or the more conventional trading (buy-sell) business where less technical skills are required. The former would require more time, effort and expertise to start – thus probably requiring me to source for funding… and can also be more profitable. The latter would be easier to start, faster to break even and more scaleable (and also easy to end so that I can move on to a proper career should it not work out)… but might be less rewarding (actually I guess it depends on the product category). Then again, during recession there is the uncertainty about the probability of success in starting up because of the overall slowdown in consumption across all sectors.

I’m feeling quite lost now – on the one hand, I am thinking of being patient and wait for a decent offer from a good firm to come along… while on the other hand I am worried about how long I will have to wait – I want to move on in life, save up for marriage and kids before I get too old, you see.

I guess another option is to further my studies – do a PhD, or Masters. For a PhD, well, I think it might work for me, but it certainly isn’t what I feel like doing. For Masters, I would want to do it overseas as I suspect a local Masters isn’t worth as much on the job market as an overseas one… but of course that’s just wishful thinking because I obviously don’t have the money to go overseas. And surely delaying my career for one year ain’t the best idea, considering the uncertainty about how the economy will be like next year.

Perhaps I ought to put up my CV here in the naive hope that someone will see value in what I can offer?

I’m having mixed feelings about graduating at this time – on the one hand I am very glad that I’m finally through with schooling and can move on in my life… on the other hand I am very afraid about graduating into unemployment.

Any advice or experiences to share, anyone?

No related posts.

I kinda gave up seriously looking from last December, because I know I am just not going to get lucky – all the good jobs would probably be offered to candidates who have previously interned with the companies or those with good connections. From time to time I do scan web sites of firms like the banks, big three audit firms and other big names but there just aren’t any openings.

Of course it didn’t really helped that I applied to all the major banks which are the worst-hit by the ongoing economic crisis. Actually, I don’t really know what to apply for… but here’s a rough guide of what I am looking for:

1. A company that is one of the top players globally in its industry

2. Non-technical positions in IT (e.g. IT strategy planning, IT audit, E-Marketing, management trainee roles, etc)

3. Competitive salary (e.g. hopefully not at ‘recession rates’)

4. Opportunities to (eventually) work outside Singapore

Perhaps some people might think that I am having too unrealistic expectations in such uncertain times, and that I should just settle for any job that comes along. But I have my reasons for having those criteria:

1. I slogged through 3 years of polytechnic education, graduating amongst the top 5%; and am in my 3rd and last year of slogging it through university to hopefully get a first-class honours degree. If I am going to settle for a career in  some average company then my efforts in school would be wasted. I might as well have relaxed through the 6 years of tertiary education if I am just looking for an average job, right?

2. Some people have suggested to me that I just take any job offer that comes along, and then when the economy improves I can apply to join a better firm. As I understand it, top companies look at your previous employment when deciding whether to make an offer – I might not be able to join a good firm later on if I start off in a lower one. Putting it in another way – I believe that it is easier and better to move from top-down rather than from bottom-up.

3. I am looking to join a firm with international presence because of my life goals – to eventually migrate from Singapore. It would be easier to seek an internal posting. Of course, I don’t mind starting my career in another country too.

4. I hope to work in a management or professional, non-technical IT role because I know my strengths are not in programming or systems development work but in planning, analyzing and stuff like that. No point climbing up the wrong ladder and taking up a development job only to waste time and change career track later when I know what exactly I want.

I am thinking of waiting out the crisis to get a good job in a good firm… but wonder how long it would be before the better firms start to recruit again. Sure, many of them are still accepting applications on their career web sites right now, but how many people are actually receiving offers? Given my CV, I can’t even get short listed for an interview with them. It makes me wonder if they are just indiscriminately rejecting all applications but putting on a false front to say that they are still recruiting, so that the market will not panic that much.

I suppose waiting out is certainly an option for me because I am lucky in that my family don’t need my financial contributions and I have no financial obligations (e.g. debt) to pay off. The dilemma I am facing is that waiting out would disrupt my 6-year career and life plans. I ain’t getting any younger and I really hope to get started on a good career, start a family and move on in life as soon as possible.

It’s really tough luck to be graduating at this time… I know I am probably better off than many of my counterparts already since I don’t have tuition fee loans to pay off or other financial obligations, plus with my CV I probably can have better luck on the job market than average graduates. But then, nobody is really any better off during a recession isn’t it?

No related posts.