You’re beaming with pride as you’re handed your degree scroll and see your family and friends witnessing the joyous occasion.
At that moment, it almost feels as though you’re fully equipped to take on the world.
That is, until you realise that you have to start looking for a full-time job to sustain yourself.
As a fresh graduate with little experience in the working world, you’d find it difficult to make the transition from a full-time student to a working adult.
Read also: 5 Sobering Realities I’ve Come To Realise As A Fresh Graduate Hunting For A Job Amid The Pandemic
And what’s worse is the inner kiasu spirit when you see your batchmates landing lucrative jobs and off to a roaring start in their careers. T.T
We asked a few Malaysians to share with us the challenges they faced in securing a job upon leaving university and this is what they said. See how many you can relate to!
1. Thousands of resumes, but no reply
Job hunting can be exhausting sometimes, especially when you’ve bombarded countless companies with your resume, only to be rewarded with silence.
Imagine having to go through the same vicious cycle with no end in sight!
2. “Thanks for coming, but nope”
After 3,213,931 years of waiting, you finally receive the email asking you to come for an interview session. “Yes! This must be it!” you think to yourself.
But after a few rounds of interviews, you notice that the emails are getting shorter and less frequent until it completely disappears. The kicker? They don’t even reply to you even when you follow up with them. #pain
3. RM3k? RM5k? Work for free?
Aside from the terrifying “When are you getting married ah?” question, another high on the list is when your potential employer asks what’s your expected salary.
This is where most of us will get stuck and go into panic mode: What number should I give? Am I worth the amount I’m asking for or am I out of my league? ARRRRGH!
4. Bad work environment
Now that you’ve gotten the job that you’ve fought tooth and nail for, you’re looking forward to working alongside a group of friendly, helpful individuals.
To your shock, you realise that you’re stuck with in a terrible working environment, where you have a senior manager and snobbish colleagues who don’t bother to teach you anything.
5. “Eh, how much is your salary ah?”
If you thought comparing salaries was something of the past, you might want to think again.
We’d guarantee that you’ve heard this question thrown around at least once during a reunion gathering with your batchmates.
As if comparing grades with the neighbor’s kid as a child wasn’t traumatic enough…
6. So many platforms, so little time to decide
When we say ‘job hunting’, it really does feel like you’re constantly on the prowl and “shooting down” the perfect job or internship.
But with hundreds of job advertisement platforms online, it’s not long before you find yourself sucked into a whirlpool of potential jobs and internship opportunities but not knowing which is the right fit for you.
Have you kena-ed any of the challenges? Don’t get all gloomy yet.
Universiti Malaya’s Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Club (CEUC) is out to help fresh graduates or students like you with its virtual career fair where you can submit your resume directly to more than 20 prestigious brands and companies.
What’s more? It’s open to all fresh graduates and students in Malaysia.
Below are the details for resume submission:
Submission deadline: 19th November 2021, 11.59 pm
Submission link click here.
What are you waiting for? Don’t miss out on this.
It’s unrelated to the article but here’s our brand-new podcast – Talk Je Lah!
Cover Images via WeirdKaya & NSTP
Editor: Sarah Yeoh
