Commentary: Fresh grads should see short-term contracts, internships as stepping stones

SINGAPORE: While you're however in schoolhouse, landing a brusque-term internship is often cause for commemoration. However, after graduation, expectations naturally change.

For many in search of job security, anything brusk of a full-time permanent position is not good enough.

Still, with COVID-nineteen impacting the economy and tightening the job market, it might be time to look at short-term employment and postal service-graduate internships through fresh optics.

According to the Joint Democratic Universities Graduate Employment Survey released in February, while more graduates were employed within half-dozen months subsequently their final exams concluding twelvemonth than in 2019, the number in total-time permanent jobs dropped markedly from 81.7 per cent in 2022 to 69.8 per cent last year.

More than than a 5th held part-fourth dimension or temporary jobs. This is more than triple the proportion in 2019.

The continuing dubiousness in the business concern surroundings is making companies prefer a cautious hiring approach, developing a hybrid model of total-time employees and skilled contract professionals amid a growing need for specialist talent in fields such as IT and digital marketing.

Their contingent workforce could comprise not just temporary contract workers, but likewise freelancers, independent professionals, independent contractors or consultants. This way, companies can be flexible in responding to dynamic demands while keeping their fixed personnel costs low.

PRIORITISE LEARNING AND EXPERIENCE

From a worker's vantage point, while temporary jobs offer less chore security, they should not be seen as fourth dimension-wasting endeavours.

In fact, they represent vital opportunities to learn skills and cultivate experience which fresh graduates conspicuously lack.

A year in a company that enables you to larn on the chore and from more than experienced colleagues is valuable not only as far as it allows you to choice up and hone hard and soft skills, only also because the experience can be showcased in your resume to assist you land your side by side job more easily.

READ: Commentary: Fresh grads with no full-time work experience need anarchistic methods to land a job

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A graduate I met recently remarked that with a year'south feel, he qualified for a much larger pool of jobs in his industry where employers often ask for upwards to three years of experience.

He felt more confident almost his abilities. Hiring managers he reached out to were more enthusiastic about interviewing him once they realised he had some practical work experience as opposed to none.

For those unsure about their interests and planned career trajectory, brusk-term contracts and internships are opportunities to try out a job and employer without having to commit to a long-term relationship with longer notice periods.

Such experiences are a useful way of discovering your strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes when information technology comes to work and a career. This self-awareness should atomic number 82 to more informed career choices in the future in terms of chore functions and manufacture.

ONE Matter COULD LEAD TO ANOTHER

It's not uncommon for contract jobs and post-graduate internships to lead to permanent full-time employment.

Ms Muslihah Mujtaba, 26, graduated with a caste in theatre practice from Academy of London'due south Imperial Key Schoolhouse of Speech and Drama in December 2019. The 26-year-old is working every bit a Foodpanda delivery rider while she hunts for a chore. (Photo: Muslihah Mujtaba)

Workforce Singapore said that as of April, over 680 out of well-nigh 9,200 graduates who had joined the SGUnited Traineeships Programme had been offered full-time conversions with their host organisations or had found full-time employment elsewhere.

Just as you try out an employer, they go to try you out. A contract worker who shines volition naturally increment their chances of existence offered a chance to stay with the visitor at the end of their contract.

From our feel, upwardly to 40 per cent of candidates on brusk-term contracts end upwards being offered contract extensions or permanent roles, whether within the same company or elsewhere.

However, fresh graduates need to be strategic when deciding which companies to work for. After all, from the data shared to a higher place, almost don't run across their shorter-term contracts interpret to longer-term employment.

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So, fresh graduates should research the company'south medium to long-term business goals and figure out whether their role is crucial to achieving these.

For instance, for a contract data analyst part, find out through conversations with people in the manufacture, electric current and old employees of the company, also as news reports, whether the company intends to increase its utilise of big information to make strategic business decisions.

Find out how large the current squad is and how many more people will exist needed in the coming months and years to meet business goals. How experienced do new hires on the team need to be?

The answers to these questions will help you discern if long-term employment is a possibility. Don't hesitate to ask the hiring managing director outright what the possibility of conversion is. If you feel comfortable with the respond, trying out the job could exist benign.

In club to increment your chances of being offered something more long-term or permanent, yous must practise your part. Exist curious and interested in learning and excelling. Find out what the company values and add value accordingly. This will put you on the radar of key determination-makers.

WIDEN YOUR DEFINITION OF A DESIRABLE EMPLOYER

If short-term contract offers are all you're getting lately, consider which types of companies will add the most value to your growth.

While multinational companies and big brands could aid brighten your resume, I'd advise not to discount start-ups as they have fewer resources and are therefore more willing to accept a chance on fresh graduates who don't demand big salaries.

A career fair organised for start-ups to find talent in March saw an overwhelming interest from chore seekers, with more 1,100 people turning up to explore about 300 jobs on offering. (Photo: Hafiz Ma'il) Job seekers at the inaugural Startup Career Fair on Mar 30. (Photo: Hafiz Ma'il)

Their smaller set-ups also hateful that fresh graduates are likely to exist assigned crucial tasks and as a outcome, get richer professional experiences.

Retrieve that even temporary stints offer opportunities to abound your network as colleagues tin become friends and mentors who can open doors to help you go your side by side job.

Since COVID-19, I've also met several individuals including mid-career professionals who are opting for ad-hoc project piece of work mainly out of a desire for flexible hours, varied work and diversifying their risks of beingness laid-off.

A portfolio career comprising projects with several companies gives graduates varied experience and widens their networks further.

FREE LABOUR?

While brusk-term contracts, project work and internships can be ameliorate alternatives to unemployment, what nearly unpaid internships?

As with everything, the positives must outweigh the negatives.

Founded by three young Singaporeans, tech start-up Glints aims to lucifer young adults to internships and permanent employment opportunities. (Photo: Glints)

Does the job offer abundant learning and networking opportunities? Is it a role that allows y'all to gain a skill or experience that cannot be found elsewhere? Is it with an employer that adds value to your resume?

From our experience, most companies typically pay interns, merely if a company says information technology won't pay, discover out why by speaking to people in the industry, former or current employees who might exist able to explicate, besides as read what people are saying nearly it on career platforms such equally Glassdoor.

READ: Commentary: Employees can help identify COVID-19 zombie firms

If the company really doesn't accept funds, is transparent about it and offers opportunities that you feel outweigh the lack of remuneration in the short-term, in that location's really no harm in dipping your toe into the organization.

Employers too have to play their office. Those who don't pay interns risk developing a reputation for being exploitative. In add-on to simply beingness the right thing to exercise, treating such workers fairly ensures companies volition have continued admission to quality flexible talent.

Fresh graduates must seize opportunities to widen their definition of gainful employment. Twiddling your thumbs or sending out your resume with a focus only on full-fourth dimension permanent opportunities may not exist entirely wise at this time.

Instead, focus on starting somewhere with a view to readying yourself for amend opportunities downward the line.

Jaime Lim is Group Business Leader of PeopleSearch, an executive search and outplacement services house with a presence in six cities including Singapore.

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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-fresh-grads-should-see-short-term-contracts-internships-stepping-stones-294921

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