Fresh grad suspects job listings on MyCareersFuture are ‘just for show’, claims employers always find excuses not to hire him

SINGAPORE: A local fresh graduate took to social media to vent that all 20 interviews he attended through MyCareersFuture ended with employers finding one excuse after another not to hire him, leading him to suspect that some companies were just posting jobs on the platform to “tick boxes”.

Posting on the r/SingaporeRaw subreddit on Friday (Oct 24), he explained that the interviews he got through JobStreet and LinkedIn felt way more genuine and constructive.

“My interviews from Jobstreet or LinkedIn are much better, where I had proper interviews and the rejections make sense, like I would honestly admit it’s my own fault or a genuine mismatch,” he said. “[But] the MyCareersFuture (MCF) interviews feel like a wayang show to reject locals.”

Salary questions right off the bat

Citing examples, he wrote that in almost every MCF job lead, the HR would reach out to him first and ask him immediately about his expected salary.

“I always reply conservatively; for example, if the job lists S$3,000 to S$4,000, I’ll say S$3,100 (just S$100 above the lower end).”

“Then they’ll reply, ‘Oh, your expectations (are) too high,’ or just ghost you. Like??? It’s within the low end of your advertised range, and wtf, isn’t it unprofessional to ask about salary so early? But when HR does it, suddenly it’s okay?”

Long hours and no weekends

The fresh graduate also shared that some employers tried to discourage him from pursuing the role by saying he would have to “work weekends, after office hours, and even on public holidays with no off-in-lieu,” despite none of this being stated in their job listings.

“If I say okay to all that, I can sense visible frustration, and they follow up with, ‘Are you planning to take external courses to upskill in this field?’”

“If I say yes, they say, ‘Oh, then you might not be able to juggle your time because this job needs long hours,’ but if I say no because I have a relevant degree, they say: ‘Seems like you’re not really interested in this field, huh?’”

Did you even read my CV?

The fresh graduate added that many employers seemed to put little effort into preparing for interviews. They would sit down, skim through his CV for the first time during the session, and even ask if he was really Singaporean, which frustrated him since his name clearly is.

“These same HR who don’t bother to read my CV somehow expect me to know every single thing about their company: What year it was established, who the founder is, what the CEO/COO/CTO name (is), or what their IPO price is.”

He also recounted one interview he had with NTUC, which he said was the “absolute worst” of the lot.

“The interviewer was late by 15 minutes. Before I even sat down properly, with no hello or intro, she just said, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ Like, who are you? HR? Director? At least be professional and introduce yourself, please,” he explained.

“She literally read the job description to me (I know because I memorised it), and her answers to my questions were super short, mostly one-word replies. The whole thing was over in 10 minutes. Wasted my time.”

It’s a free consultation?

To top it all off, he shared that some big-name brands grilled him with questions that felt more like free market research than real interviews.

According to him, they would ask things like, “What do your friends think about our brand?”, “Would you buy this product with Packaging A or Packaging B?”, or “Can you complete this short project so we can evaluate your skills?”

“Although I responded professionally and gave my insights, these companies ghost me, and the job listing pops up again on MCF within days,” he continued. “They don’t even have the courtesy to update that you’re not selected.”

“I can vouch MCF isn’t all wayang interviews.”

In the comments, one Singaporean Redditor confirmed that this was indeed just a big “wayang” or show for some companies.

“Oftentimes, we’ve already chosen the person we want to hire, but because of these hiring policies, we still have to ask the candidate to wait a few months while we pretend to interview and evaluate several locals.”

“Fortunately, local uni grads are easy to interview and assess. They have 0 experience and demand the heavens. We always make use of fresh grads because their interviews are always the shortest, but damn stupid la, still need to do all this paperwork to show we tried to hire local.”

Others, however, disagreed and argued that not every company operates this way. 

One shared, “That is what I felt as well, but to be honest, I know of some friends who manage to get jobs by applying in MCF, so I can vouch MCF isn’t all wayang interviews or job postings, but I would sure as heck suspect that least 40% to 60% of their job postings are fake just for the statistics and trends only.”

Another chimed in, “The things you mentioned are basically the norm during a poor employee market. Good luck. We have been too pampered over the last 5 or so years.”

In other news, a woman shared her heartbreak on social media, saying that even after seven years of emotionally and financially supporting her boyfriend, he ultimately became closer to his female best friend instead.

“She [the girl best friend] was allowed to get all the best parts of him and took all his free time. He would defend her whenever I spoke about it,” the woman wrote. “When it was really supposed to be me who was holding his hand, it was he who brought her to meet his family and stood by his side, while I never once met his family.”

Read more: I gave 7 years of emotional and financial support to him, only to lose him to his female best friend