SINGAPORE: A Computer Science graduate from the National University of Singapore who has remained jobless despite sending over a hundred applications received a lot of advice when they posted on the NUS Whispers Facebook page earlier this month.
In a separate post, however, a netizen who has experience as a hiring manager wrote that they disagreed with much of the advice that had been given, and offered their own, which included seeking employment overseas.
“Have you considered applying overseas? International working experience is highly valued by employers as it signals independence, risk-taking and going out of your comfort zone,” they wrote, adding that taking a job abroad is easiest while a person is still young.
The original post author had written on June 9 though they sent many applications for software engineering (SWE) and data science (DS) roles, they’d been interviewed several times, but to no avail. They had gotten to the point of applying for jobs with smaller salaries, such as those in testing, game development, and embedded systems.
Commenters, including Prof Ben Leong, encouraged the post author to pursue lower-paying jobs in the meantime, go for an internship, and get working experience.
However, the new advice giver flatly stated that the post author had been given poor counsel, saying that to opt for a less popular field “just get a job” would put their career at risk and would not be worth the salary they’d receive.
They appear to have some experience in the field and seem to find roles in testing, game development, and embedded systems to be dead-end jobs.
They then picked apart the advice given by commenters, starting with taking lower-paying jobs, which would affect an employee’s lifetime earnings.
“Every increment in your company through merit or promotion is based on a percent change from your existing salary.” Starting with a low pay package could mean low salaries later on in one’s career.
They added that the jobseeker could also get pigeonholed if they start out in a less popular field. In their previous role as a hiring manager, they wrote that the most important information in a resume are one’s previous job or internship, education level, and years of experience.
Additionally, they advised them to tweak their CV by having it read by someone else, see where they can improve with how they interview, reach out to their network for referrals, and if they do take a lower paying job, they should do so in a field with growth potential. /TISG
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