For fresh grads, a Catch-22 situation

For fresh grads, a Catch-22 situation

By Tan Ying Ding IT HAS been nine months and 10 days since I graduated - for me, a transitional period that I call bittersweet. Now, with a recent letter from the Central Provident Fund Board requesting I repay in cash the amount withdrawn for my university education, I'm reminded that I am among the statistics of fresh graduates struggling to land a job in the current global economic downturn. Since I graduated in July, I have sent a total of 32 resumes to statutory boards, government ministries, private financial institutions, etc. Six companies replied - five to offer me an interview, one to reject me. Though my peers might have sent out more cover letters and resumes, I believe there is a growing sentiment of depression felt equally by us all - we might have consigned ourselves to the waiting room of Limbo, considering the need to seek a psychiatrist. More companies have frozen their headcounts, others have retracted job offers - as has happened with a few of my friends. Still others are cutting back on hiring fresh graduates with little or no working experience. Indeed, after seven months of trying, I even allowed myself to be coaxed by a licensed representative of a leading life insurance company in Singapore into taking the Capital Markets & Financial Advisory Services Module 5 examination (requisite for all representatives of licensed and exempted financial advisers). This, even though the social stigma currently attached to the job of a financial adviser clashes with my introverted personality. In the meantime, it seems I'm caught in a perennial waiting game. I send resumes and cover letters, then wait to hear from the human resource personnel. I take screening and personality tests, then wait for the actual job interview, where I wait again for the inevitable but dreaded question: 'What is the reason for your unemployment gap?' Call it a Catch-22 for fresh graduates: we don't have the experience needed for the job, but how can we prove ourselves if we cannot get anyone to hire us in the first place? The market, having shifted from a seller's market to a buyer's market in the months before I graduated, does not look set to improve - quite the contrary, in fact. Come this July, the graduating class of undergraduates from the three local universities will be unleashed into the job market, and competition might well intensify. This influx is one more concern, especially for those like me. I read sociology, considered a general degree, which I had thought would offer me considerable options in the working world. After all, my peers who opted out of the honours track and hence graduated a year earlier than I did are all working in very different professions: sales, teaching, banking, communications and even airspace management, to name but a few. But it seems my repeated tries are telling me otherwise. While I do not disparage the discipline for which I have much respect, I do in hindsight wonder if it was prudent for me to have chosen my major out of interest rather than practical reasons. Now, I am dejected, and at times worried that the woes of my unemployed status will spill over into other areas of my life. Wallowing in self-misery, however, is not a solution. In the meantime, I have chosen to give tuition, which has been a really rewarding experience. As my students grow and improve, I find myself with more assignments coming my way. Even more, I am determined to keep my chin up, though I still long for the day when I can be truly proud of that graduation portrait of mine silently residing in the living room. The writer, 25, graduated from NUS last year with a degree in sociology. He is currently giving tuition while applying feverishly for a job.

- wong chee tat :)