SINGAPORE: A polytechnic graduate who expected to start her career in social services soon after graduation says she’s now making bubble tea for a living after four months of fruitless job hunting left her with little choice but to earn an income elsewhere.
On Friday (Aug 7), she shared on the r/singaporejobs subreddit that she graduated with a diploma in social services and had genuinely believed she would find a job fairly quickly.
Since the sector revolves around supporting vulnerable communities, she assumed there would always be demand for workers and that it wasn’t the sort of job AI could easily replace.
She couldn’t have been more wrong. According to her, application after application went nowhere.
Recruiters ignored her, employers ghosted her, and the few who eventually responded took so long that the opportunity barely mattered anymore.
“I got called one month after I applied for one job, and another time I got a text from a special needs school FOUR MONTHS after I applied (I was already working at my F&B job). I was fuming because I know this specific place could definitely use more staff.”
“I am just so demotivated every time I see job applications online and I see I have to compete with 10-20 other candidates.”
‘Some money is better than nothing’
With her family needing immediate financial help, she said she eventually had to press pause on the job hunt and take a full-time F&B job that pays around S$2,200 a month.
“I’m just going to focus on making enough money to settle some family things first. Then I will continue the job hunt. It’s tough and disheartening to work in a field unrelated to my studies, but at least some money is better than nothing.”
“I told my parents as a joke that if I am not able to get a proper job this year, I’ll go to art school to pursue my silly dreams and all that, but at this point I am legitimately considering getting a diploma in art teaching.”
“But if I do that, I might end up turning from unemployed to super-unemployed-but-with-2-diplomas. LMAO, the job market is so bad I want to follow my heart liao.”
The graduate also said she feels “embarrassed” about where she is in life and has started questioning whether going to university would improve her career prospects at all.
“I wanted to work for a year or so first in a proper community job before applying to uni, but now at this point, I am not sure there is any real benefit to going to uni at all, leh. I don’t think I can actually tahan becoming a proper social worker, anyway. Most of my friend group from poly all go study non-social-services stuff at university. I confirm I will burn out really fast.”
For now, the woman said she’s planning to switch to another F&B job as her current employer once tried to avoid paying her overtime.
At the end of her post, she asked, “Any other poly grads doing F&B jobs not related to their diploma? All my friends are in uni right now, so I don’t know anyone else going through this right now.”
“You’re still young, so you have options”
In the discussion thread, several people who said they were in the same boat chimed in to show their support and share their own struggles.
One user with a counselling degree wrote, “I’m in a similar position. I spent two months hunting for a social services job and still only got 2 interviews after over a hundred job apps. Currently doing retail part-time, paying S$14/hr but with inconsistent shifts. Job market so terrible I don’t know how we’re gonna survive.”
Another commented, “Same. Doing contract jobs here and there, mostly warehouse jobs lasting 3 to 6 months. I rest for 2 months between each stint.”
Others offered suggestions on how she could improve her prospects. One user said, “Why not go to SUSS and study for a part-time degree while working? I don’t think a social service diploma will land you a proper job earning more than S$3k/month. You’re still young, so you have options, and you can tahan doing difficult jobs like F&B.”
Another suggested, “Maybe you should apply directly to family service centres starting with those nearest to your home? They are always lacking manpower.”/TISG
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