Post Graduate Adaptation

Boga in Vietnam

There are many kinds of students enrolling for university courses these days.

While some are already experienced in some jobs before heading for the varsity to pursue their dreams, a vast majority are fresh from the school system,devoid of that maturity that work experience brings.

Kang Soon Chen wrote a piece on " Options after Graduation: Entering the Workforce in today's online STAR.

I have taken editorial licence to abridged and shorten it.

Interestingly, The Graduate Tracer Study carried out by then Higher Education Ministry found that 30% of first degree graduates were employed with a basic salary of more than RM 2,500 in 2012 while the Department of Statistics puts the figure of graduate unemployment at 65,000 that same year.

By ranking, pharmacy graduates were top earners in 2013, taking home RM 3,640 a month, followed by those  in corporate strategy (RM 3,200) and financial services (RM 3,054), according to an online job portal.

Increasingly, graduates are vying for graduate management training programmes offered by multinational corporations. These programmes enabled trainees to rotate between different departments so they can gain different skills.

There are various way to increase the employability of graduates — graduates are advised to brush up on their communication skills as well as clean up their social network profiles when applying for jobs.

As a local human resource recruiter says, employers do screen candidates on social media before making the final cut.

To increase the real-world work experience of students, universities and colleges are making internship a compulsory component in the course module.

Internship is the litmus test for undergraduates to decide whether it is the right career for them.

While it is common to hear of students being given menial jobs during their internship, students should make use of the internship period to network and build their professional contacts.

At the same time, more undergraduates are already working part-time in their chosen fields before sailing on to expand their careers by the time they graduate.

Jesse Pizarro Boga is one case. He was already employed as a journalist in a local newspaper when he was still a communications undergraduate.

“For two months after graduating, I stayed at home and did nothing."

“I wasn’t exactly excited about working immediately after graduating because I already had working experience,” says the 24-year-old Davao City native from the Philippines.

Boga later returned to his job as a feature writer at the local newspaper after his break.

“My interest to learn more about journalism and writing made me continue with the job I had in university.

Boga, currently on a one-year journalism fellowship in Hanoi, Vietnam, works at the English section of a local newspaper.

There are challenges living in a foreign city. For one, he has to forego his American fast food meal and adapt to Vietnamese noodle soup called pho.

He also cycles to work.