Begin with end in mind

Begin with end in mind, don’t wait until graduation to find a job

Finding a job as a fresh graduate is tough. Don’t make it worse by waiting until the last minute to figure out what you want to do, argues NTU’s Career and Attachment Office’s Loh Pui Wah.

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SINGAPORE: A while back, I had a graduating student who came to see me for career advice.

This student had written and submitted many job applications to hiring companies. Other than one or two brief conversations over the telephone with recruiters to verify details on his resume, he did not manage to secure a formal interview.

He was getting anxious by the day because one by one, friends and school mates were either starting work or evaluating job offers. At one point in our conversation, I asked the student why he waited until now to start finding a job.

Not surprisingly came the reply:

“I was focusing on my studies and never really thought about what I want to do after I graduate.”

WHY WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE ABOUT TO GRADUATE?

I often ask my students to keep in mind one key question in their university journey: “Will you wait until when you are about to graduate to start thinking about the job you want for yourself?”

Students have plans to ace exams. Many also have plans for overseas study exchanges and the holidays they want to take during term breaks.

So why don’t they have a career plan or at least something certain in mind as a first job by the time they graduate?

I sometimes got stumped looks when I pose this question to the students who come into my office. When probed further, many give the usual replies:

“Graduation is still faraway, so I never really thought about it.”

“I am in this course because people say it’s a good stepping stone, but I realised I am really not interested working in this field.”

“I am very busy in school now. No time to think. When it comes, I’ll figure it out.”

UNIVERSITY NOT AN EXTENSION OF EDUCATION JOURNEY

A colleague once said: “University is not an extension of junior college or polytechnic, but the beginning of one’s career journey.” So classes, projects, exams and good grades are necessities of getting a degree and getting by in higher education but they are not the end-goals.

Students must begin their first day with the end in mind on what they want to achieve and what they want to go into when they finish their last day in university.

If you see university as a means rather than an end, then your time in university may be more purposeful. When you see your time in university as a space for you to explore and try new things to prepare yourself for an eventual career track, you may find yourself prioritising that meet-up with a venture capital firm, that coffee with a social entrepreneur or talking to that bank.

All these experiences might teach you valuable lessons about yourself and what your interests. More importantly, it might give you a sense of the industry or role you’re interested in.

So students should see your days in university as days in-between the present and when you begin your careers, as days of career planning, understanding the fields you want to go into, and gaining relevant skills that culminate in but do not necessarily end with starting with your first job.

Know where you are going to avoid “u- turns” and dead ends. Every subject you read, every activity outside the classroom you join, every exchange you go and every internship you do should add value to your career and life goals.

Not having your end-goal in mind is like driving aimlessly roaming from one place to another not knowing why you are not getting to where you want and bumping up against roadblocks.

In the course of doing so, you might find that you’re interested in something very different than what you set out to prepare for. No need to despair. You can still make adjustments because you started planning for your career early. You may not have all the right answers to decide exactly which job you want, but at least you can make changes and pivot to gain the skills and experience for a different field.

TAKE ACTION, DON’T PROCRASTINATE

For those with six months to go before graduation, coming to this newfound realisation can be daunting. For these students, it may be too late to change courses, take extra electives or even do another internship.

So, what can “unprepared” students do in their job search into the final months in university?

One can definitely start from a newfound self-awareness. Start by taking an honest look at yourself. What are you really good at? What are your strengths, skills and competencies? What are one or two things you are really interested in? At NTU, we have career assessment tools to help you understand yourself and suggest jobs that you might be best suited for based on your personality profile.

Next, don’t procrastinate, set your end-goal immediately. Now that you are more self-aware, ask someone whom you trust to point you in the right career direction. Or approach university career consultants or coaches who can help you clear your doubts and set your career goals.

Don’t stress out over finding the perfect job. Your first job is not your last job. Over the course of your long career, you are also likely to change several jobs. Even if your first job doesn’t turn out to be your dream job, what matters more is that you gave it your best shot and gained something out of it.

Last, take control and take action. Actively own your future career. Check out what companies you’re interested in and if that’s up your alley. Be bold in asking questions. Find out what roles companies are hiring today and planning for tomorrow. If there is mutual interest, be confident to grab opportunity with both hands. Just take the plunge. Don’t let the fear of performance get to you and in fact, aim to fail fast but recover quickly.

The graduating student at the start of my commentary managed to find new confidence and direction in the career paths he wanted to take, and quickly found a job he grew to love.

So it seems it wasn’t too late, but it did involve compressing four years into one afternoon. Any student who has pulled an all-nighter to start and finish a term paper will know better to avoid such a harrowing experience.

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Loh Pui Wah is Director of Nanyang Technological University’s Career and Attachment Office. He can be contacted at [email protected]