NUS grad says he's a failed product.....
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The following letter was first sent to Mr Gilbert Goh, president of Transition.org. We reproduce it with his kind permission.
Dear Mr Goh
Please publish my story under the name “Chua S” if you find it appropriate for your site.I am a 35-year-old male home-grown Singapore Chinese citizen. I graduated in 2000 from NUS Business School and harboured high hope of a good life afterwards.
However, when I started work in an operations position, my pay was only SGD 2100 – way below the general market rate of SGD 2500 for fresh grads.
At that time, job competition and wage depression were prevalent and I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity as it was better that I have a job than nothing at all.
My situation may sound unbelievable to you but it is true – since then, I have been stucked in a prolonged underemployment and unemployment cycle of which I can see no light for the past ten years!
As of Jan 2011, I have been out of proper employment for 8 months after completing a contract operations job. Contractual work arrangement means that I will be working for a while and stay unemployed for another long period before I managed to secure another contractual work arrangement again.
Its not ideal for work security and there is no way that I can even think of starting a family with such unstable job arrangement prevalent in our current work environment.
Relentless marketing of so-called foreign talent by the PAP has reinforced the view that foreigners are better even though they may not be and their services are not actually cheap either.
I have heard of foreigners earning $5000 when I could barely earn above $2000 and I hailed from the prestigious world-classed National University of Singapore! Something must be wrong somewhere…
Local home-grown HR managers have told me that foreigners were being hired simply because these people were foreigners. Everyone liked the idea of a diverse workplace until they were badly affected by their adverse work ethics and knowledge.
When I was hired for contract positions, the supervisors were always anxious I would disappear suddenly and they had to find replacement. People of my profile are expected to cut and run after 3 months.
This was despite the fact that I have always completed my contract term. They just couldn’t commit to a more permanent work arrangement with me.
From my observation, organizations generally preferred females (including foreign females) for the positions I applied for. These positions include administration, accounting, banking, finance, operations (office-based), human resources, retail services and sales support.
Organizations only employed males for engineering, sales and technical positions. I did not have the relevant engineering and technical background.
I have also noticed that more sales positions are now occupied by females leaving me wondering what kind of jobs are available for guys!
The only sales area where males still maintain the majority count was those of a self-employed nature.
I have also stopped applying to insurance companies because they were only interested in me becoming an insurance agent.
Some people have suggested that I go into teaching or tuition. The idea of exhorting young students to study hard for a brighter future is totally repulsive as I am the clear example of a big failure from our renowned meritocratic educational system. We are encouraged to study hard, get good grades and graduate but in the end, we all struggled to get stable decent jobs and this unpleasant situation is not only unique to me… many of my peers are caught in the same tragic cycle too.
What good is it if you have all the A’s in your report card but you could not find ready employment long after you have graduated?
Furthermore, the Ministry of Education is likely to reject me just like any other civil service or related positions that I have previously applied for.
As I felt that my NUS educational background has been either irrelevant or a liability, I have been careful in taking up any upgrading courses. In 2003, I was even rejected for a position as I was still taking a part-time course!
Other people in my situation would have long emigrated or become self-employed. I need not describe my frustrations further as this has been repeated by many people here.
I hope you are able to assist me. Please keep up the good work on your website. Thanks.
Regds,
Chua S
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Got so jialat meh......NUS grad cannot secure a proper job. Me thinks he's choosy.
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or marked.
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When I was hired for contract positions, the supervisors were always anxious I would disappear suddenly and they had to find replacement. People of my profile are expected to cut and run after 3 months.
This was despite the fact that I have always completed my contract term. They just couldn’t commit to a more permanent work arrangement with me.
While on contract, he didn't go find a perm job? thinking that it will come find him instead???
fresh grad wor... which company will wait until his job finish then hire him?
work security is not abt waiting for tons of contract jobs to come... work security is abt having a perm job...
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I have heard of Sim degree graduates who can't find a job and have been doing temp job for 5 years liao..
He is just suay lah and there are people who are more suay than him lah..
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Business is a very general degree and there are jobs in many different areas. How come cannot find a decent paying job sia. He didn't make use of his time in his 20s and now in his 30s.....wah very difficult considering we have a high foreign influx who can do his work cheaper.
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So what if he has a degree from NUS business school? Does this justify his constant whining about the lack of employment opportunities that comes his way?
This guy puts his blame on the Singaporean education system failing him, as well as putting his own failures onto others (Examples: Foreigners getting preferential treatment from local companies, companies preferring females compared to males in the areas of his expertise, the economic situation or the plain fact that companies are not willing to curb to his demands)
This guy even complains about his tertiery education background doing more harm than good to him. WTH?
And honestly, having good grades doesn't mean you'll neccessary cut it in the business world. Of course there's a relationship between having good grades and being successful, but it doesn't mean that the particular individual would "DEFINITELY" make it, would it? If it did, I'll just study my ass off and become a lifeless mugger, not having to worry about the fact that you'll also need good interpersonal skills, man management skills, decent leadership skills, ability to 'go with the flow' and react to the ever changing economic environment.
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Originally posted by YourAverageSingaporean:
So what if he has a degree from NUS business school? Does this justify his constant whining about the lack of employment opportunities that comes his way?
This guy puts his blame on the Singaporean education system failing him, as well as putting his own failures onto others (Examples: Foreigners getting preferential treatment from local companies, companies preferring females compared to males in the areas of his expertise, the economic situation or the plain fact that companies are not willing to curb to his demands)
This guy even complains about his tertiery education background doing more harm than good to him. WTH?
And honestly, having good grades doesn't mean you'll neccessary cut it in the business world. Of course there's a relationship between having good grades and being successful, but it doesn't mean that the particular individual would "DEFINITELY" make it, would it? If it did, I'll just study my ass off and become a lifeless mugger, not having to worry about the fact that you'll also need good interpersonal skills, man management skills, decent leadership skills, ability to 'go with the flow' and react to the ever changing economic environment.
i do agree that education is not the yardstick to measure success
many times, it not technical know-how, its technical know-who
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
Business is a very general degree and there are jobs in many different areas. How come cannot find a decent paying job sia. He didn't make use of his time in his 20s and now in his 30s.....wah very difficult considering we have a high foreign influx who can do his work cheaper.
Yeah... Taking business nowadays isn't a good idea... Too broad...Engineering can do business, HR can do business, IT can do business but the other way ard isn't always possible...
eh... he now 30s still doing contract? I dun understand why when doing contract work, he cannot go out find perm job... If he found a perm job while still in contract, he shld pay bond and leave... no company is going to wait for him...
and if he say cannot find perm job then jialat la... coz I got dip and o lvl males who still can find 2+k jobs with experience...
This one really heng suay de la... but of coz must put in effort...
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He has a degree but does he know how to work?
A lot of graduates think they are some big F because they have that piece of paper
End of the day, the company is interested in results
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Originally posted by elindra:
He has a degree but does he know how to work?
A lot of graduates think they are some big F because they have that piece of paper
End of the day, the company is interested in results
I've tried working with some interns and fresh grad...rigid thinking, everything talk abt theory and stuff, insisting that books and school is correct... but when cannot produce result, 10k reason all come out...
I guess one must work for quite abit of time for time to slowly mature...
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This is a big hint: "Furthermore, the Ministry of Education is likely to reject me just like any other civil service or related positions that I have previously applied for."
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Get a MBA from anywhere, and you can be a manager in anywhere except singapore. Period.
Best Regards,
Chin Seng
Homework Forum Moderator -
Originally posted by Rock^Star:
This is a big hint: "Furthermore, the Ministry of Education is likely to reject me just like any other civil service or related positions that I have previously applied for."
What did he do to get himself perm rejected?
curious....
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
This is a big hint: "Furthermore, the Ministry of Education is likely to reject me just like any other civil service or related positions that I have previously applied for."
The word "likely" means it's not confirmed -______-and business wor, why go civil service??? -______-
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
This is a big hint: "Furthermore, the Ministry of Education is likely to reject me just like any other civil service or related positions that I have previously applied for."
From the content and tone of his letter, they probably had good reason to reject him. :P -
Originally posted by goodheart:
I have heard of Sim degree graduates who can't find a job and have been doing temp job for 5 years liao..
He is just suay lah and there are people who are more suay than him lah..
Or maybe he has really lousy interview skills...or is just plain lousy? many diploma holders his age are easily earning over 3k leh. -
A grade..
I think he only knows how to study. What other skills he got ?
I am sure there are loads of A's lining up. But what differentiates him from the other A's are skills, talents , personality and much much more eh.
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a manager an MBA does not make .....
much less a degree ......
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his degree which category?
any honours?
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Different people have different talents. I'll say he's either skilled or talented (Linguistically) in the academic sense, which is the reason for his academic success.
I believe everyone agrees that being a top academic student does not translate into success in the professional field. In fact, all fresh graduates have the potential to be successful in his/her worklife, but the main question here is this -
'What differentiates a student who has the potential to succeed as opposed to a student who actually reaches his potential?'
Obviously our supposed victim of the Singapore brand of education could not step over from school and into real work. Theories that we learn from books are essential as it sets you thinking, but using such rigid formulas/theories in the real business world never work. As far as I'm concerned, esp. since I'm not even of the age to enter Universities yet, what differentiates a worker would be his/her ability to adapt to changes and face challenges with a fresh perspective.
Not saying that old formulas never work. It's just rigid thinking that never works, and it's sad that the Singapore Education System focuses on grades more than the personal growth of students, and thus the emphasis on "RIGHT" and "WRONG" answers.
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education does not equate to intelligence...
what we have here may be an education moron.. and i've seen many in my time.. they have MBAs, PhDs but are totally useless in the real world..
and not surprisingly, most of them are whiners just like the guy...
the biggest example we have is some self-styled "opposition lea-duh" in Singapore..
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
Got so jialat meh......NUS grad cannot secure a proper job. Me thinks he's choosy.
wassssss up nigga aneh!!!! -
Originally posted by ^Acid^ aka s|aO^eH~:
While on contract, he didn't go find a perm job? thinking that it will come find him instead???
fresh grad wor... which company will wait until his job finish then hire him?
work security is not abt waiting for tons of contract jobs to come... work security is abt having a perm job...
Harsh fact of working life:
Even perm job does NOT mean job security unless it is a 40-year bond. Sad but true.
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Originally posted by cyberr1981:
Harsh fact of working life:
Even perm job does NOT mean job security unless it is a 40-year bond. Sad but true.
hokay hokay... u're right...moi gib chiu a cookie~
but it's still better then a contract job
