2. Start looking the part

The main obstacle for many fresh grads is a lack of experience. Please understand that, when employers talk about “lack of experience”, they seldom mean your skills aren’t up to scratch – most probably believe that your education makes you qualified.

Rather, the “lack of experience” they refer to is about soft skills, such as working in a disciplined corporate environment, knowing how to interact with clients, etc (this is why completing your National Service before graduating can sometimes be a boon, as some employers view it as a form of work experience).

As such, it’s important to look the part from day one. You want to show that you can fit into your employer’s corporate culture. 

Don’t turn up to job interviews dressed too casually (e.g., no wearing t-shirts or carrying tattered backpacks). Have your resume in a proper folder, not crumpled up in your bag, and take note of the overall look and feel of where you want to work. If you can, try to scout ahead – visit your employer’s offices, or ask family and friends who work in similar fields, about how to dress and sound the part. 

Some hirers make up their minds in the first few seconds they meet you.

3. Focus on getting started ASAP

Get started as soon as possible (ASAP), even if your first job doesn’t meet all your negotiables (see point 1). 

Even if you need to spend one year earning less, you’re accumulating work experience in that time. You’re learning the ropes, developing connections, and establishing your reputation as someone reliable. More importantly, you can start saving up, which prepares you for the next jump in your career. 

More importantly, you avoid gaps in your resume: hirers tend to be suspicious of people who don’t work for long periods (there’s a number of reasons for this, including worries that you are too picky, that you may have rapidly changed jobs in that time so you don’t list them, etc.) 

So don’t try to “wait out Covid-19” because you think higher paying jobs will suddenly appear after it ends. If you do, you could find all the desirable positions were taken, while you waited.

4. Don’t be too fixated on your educational background

Covid-19 creates a competitive job environment, and you may not land a career in your desired field right away. Don’t let this hinder you, just because it’s outside your comfort zone. 

Most employers in Singapore now focus on practical skills, rather than qualifications. For example: if you know how to do social media marketing, but your qualification is in accounts, they may be willing to hire you as a social media manager. It can be irrelevant to them that it’s “not what you studied for”.

Think about this way: if you urgently need a plumber because your toilet is leaking, and you find a licensed 24-hour plumber, would you care that his degree was in IT and not engineering? Probably not, as long as he could fix the leak right?

This is the same way most employers now think, when deciding who to put on the payroll. They are looking for relevant skills, more so than your paper qualifications. 

So don’t be under the impression that you only have to look for jobs “within your background”. Cast your net wider, and apply for any job in which you happen to have the right skills.

5. Highlight achievements and skills, not qualities

A common mistake among fresh graduates is to highlight qualities. These are examples of qualities:

• Honest
• Hard working
• Passionate 
• Disciplined

There’s no denying these are all great. However, these are traits that any job candidate can – and will – claim to possess. As such, they’re not too useful in your resume or at an interview. But we tend to over-emphasise these because, back in school, these were traits that institutions tended to emphasise (e.g., for entrance essays).

When moving into the workforce, fresh graduates should rework their profiles. You should instead focus on achievements, or skills – these make up the headline of your resume. Examples of this include:

• Created a project that received government funding and was implemented 
• Knowing ruby on rails, Java Script, etc. 
• Raised a record amount for a charity event you organised 

And so forth. These types of resumes “pop” when viewed by a hirer, who is often skimming through hundreds of different job applications.

6. Use your network

Don’t be shy to ask family, friends, or even your past lecturers about job opportunities. Often, the most powerful way to find employment is word-of-mouth referral. 

When you are introduced as being “very good at accounts”, or “the best coder I know”, this speaks louder than any personal claims you write on your resume. In fact, the majority of people who find jobs quickly did so because they were referred, rather than by going through the usual application process. 

If you feel you’re at a dead-end, it may be time to stop calling companies and recruitment agencies. Instead, try calling friends, relatives, former teachers, etc. These people can provide you with a firm “foot in the door”.

Above all, don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone

The job market becomes very restrictive, if you decide you can only work in one specific role or field. If you’re willing to try out different avenues, you may find quicker employment, and in some cases even higher income from the very start. 

One example of this would be fresh graduates who join the finance industry early – this offers them a job without fixed “income ceilings”, and which they can potentially join right out of school. Ready to begin your fulfilling career switch? Contact us at Midcareers.sg to get started, if you’re interested in such a head start, even if you’re fresh out of school.