Peer Teaching Sheet

PEER TEACHING SHEET

Managing Job Expectations

Employment rate in Singapore grew tremendously despite the tight labour market and there was an increase for mid-income earners for the last five years as shown on statistics. In addition, degree holders are the highest contribution to the growth as compared from 2006 to 2015 (http://stats.mom.gov.sg/Pages/Labour-Force-In-Singapore-2015.aspx).

Students that was interviewed often gave similar reasons why they continued to study a degree course because apart from better career advancement, there will be more job opportunities with higher salary (Lee, 2015).

However, for graduates that did not go through internships or experienced in a working environment, most of them face challenges as there will be a change in surroundings which it might take some time to adapt to. Moreover, for graduates that do not have any relevant work experiences prior to jobs applied will usually realise that what they studied in school are different from what they will be doing. Especially when the job you got accepted for, demands a lot from you (Antonio, 2014).

In fact, handful of graduates will accept job offers that might not be what they have studied back in school but due to certain reasons they accepted the job. For instance, receiving pressure from peers getting to know they found a job or when graduates are not certain of what career directions they are planning for. Definitely, career advisors would like to encourage fresh graduates to think of their long term career path as well as listing realistic path.

Pursuing this further, preparations can start from the jobs you are applying. Whether if you are suitable for the requirements employers stated on their job descriptions. Meanwhile, if you received job offerings do take time to look through the details, what they expects from you, will you be able to commit to which includes job scopes, working hours, location etc. Similarly, majority of jobs requires oneself to be a team-player, the ability to communicate and work alongside with colleagues. Think about whether the job you are going to accept will affect your lifestyles such as the expected working hours are different or if the job requires you to travel frequently as they have office overseas. All of the above mentioned should be your concerns on job so that you can manage your expectations in different aspects. (Soneja, 2015)

Additionally, do take note that if you are a fresh graduate without prior experiences to the job, research on market rate salary in regards to your job. On this article, a survey took place in 2014 which includes two hundred and thirty three companies in Singapore and found out that the top reasons for employers not hiring fresh degree holders are that they are either not fit for their vacancies or having too high expectations for their salary. You might not want to lose a job offer due to the wrong expectations of salary (Teo, 2014).