Memories...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Managed to squeeze some time out todae to visit the NUS Career fair with Princess Shuang Er..haha, must say it was really exciting and informative for me. And to make things even better, i saw Hsin Hui hahaha! So long since i saw that notti girl! Well, apparently she's got a first-class honours in food science, but she decided against specializing in that field coz she was kinda sick of doing research haha..so she's with TMS Asia-Pacific now..a recruitment agency for the travel and hospitality industry.
Oh, i was also really glad to see Jerrine and Marcus again from Finexis.. =)
A few things struck me todae though. Actually i kinda suspected it for quite a while le, but todae more or less confirmed my thoughts.
1st of all, NUS students should really brush up on their dressing and professionalism when meeting potential employers. I went to the Career Fair expecting everybody, or at least most students to be well-dressed. Frankly, i was appalled that me and Princess Shuang Er were actually the minority who were dressed formally. My brother went yesterdae and he too was in formal attire. This was in spite of the NUS Career Centre's repeated reminders for students to dress appropriately for the event, and they do have a point. Like it or not, most people will always be judged on their 1st impression delivered to their prospective employers.
I do hear a lot of stories of how NUS students suck in dressing, even from companies themselves. After seeing today's scenes, maybe they are right. If you were an employer yrself at the fair trying to recruit potential candidates into your company, would you be more keen to explain yr company to someone dressed with the right attitude or someone in shabby jeans/ shorts/ slippers? Would you want to waste yr time talking to these people? Princess Shuang Er feels its becoz a lot of NUS students are arrogant in the sense that they think that their degree is so high and mighty as compared to NTU and SMU's, so they dun have to spend so much time on professionalism or delivering the right image.
Even if those students are not graduating this yr, does it really hurt to dress up appropriately for the event? duh.
Which brings me to my 2nd point. Sometimes i m quite amazed as well, by how so many students here are in their shells and cocoons. They study and study, not knowing what the hell they are studying for, or what jobs their degree will give them an edge in. I feel one doesnt need to wait until his or her final year or sem in school, before embarking on the job search. There are so so many career options available if one is willing to explore, and if u oredi noe which company u wish to apply for 1 or 2 years before u graduate, u can then take concrete steps to prepare for yr application in advance. You could do research on these organizations 1st, or try and boost up yr CV which ll make it relevant and attractive to the company. And you ll have the advantage of being more prepared than those who only job search at the last minute.
In fact, my brother (who's graduating this sem) and I are often bemused by how so many of our peers who are going to graduate soon, be it yr 3 or 4, are still nonchalant and bochup about looking actively for a job. Some graduating people, when u ask them what job they want to seek, they just tell u, "oh, i m going into private sector. Confirmed!" And then when u ask them, so what job in the private sector?, and they are speechless. Mayb it never dawned on them that the private sector is huge. And they are graduating in 3 months time. Geeze.
My take on these people is that they are trying to escape from reality. Some are refusing to accept the realization that they would be no longer be students, and would be out in the rat race with others. Some are refusing to grow up. Some, like what Shuang Er says, are just too arrogant in their thinking in that an NUS degree is so valuable that a wonderful job is guaranteed and secured, which means they dun have to put in much effort to look actively.
Time to get out of your cocoon and think about your future?
