SINGAPORE: The job market is bad enough these days, but one poly graduate says recruitment agencies are making things even harder.
Posting on the r/askSingapore forum on Thursday (Aug 7), the graduate, who holds a diploma in Early Childhood Education, shared her irritation over how recruitment agencies now operate. According to her, many no longer reveal the name of the hiring company at the beginning of the process.
In some cases, she said, applicants are only told who they are interviewing for during the second round of online interviews.
Frustrated, the graduate called the entire process “ungodly and unnecessarily tedious!”
“They make the process 10x as long,” she wrote, griping about the situation. “I think it’s extremely sketchy that they don’t usually input the company that you are applying for.”
On top of all the confusion and delays caused by recruitment agencies, the graduate also pointed out how tough it is to land a job as a fresh grad.
She shared that she’s sent out over 100 applications in the past few weeks but only received three interviews. None of them led to job offers either, as, according to the employers, she has “little experience.”
“It’s unbelievably tough to find a job,” she said. “Everybody else my age right now is also facing the same issue.”
She went on to add that even the few people she knows who did manage to land jobs aren’t in much better shape.
“The people that I know who are hired now have accepted really low pay like S$2.2-2.5k, for jobs that overwork them to the bone and with little benefits.”
“Just take interviews as experience to help you grow.”
In the discussion thread, many locals stepped in to encourage the fresh graduate, urging her not to give up on her job search even though the process felt overwhelming and disheartening.
To further support and reassure her, several commenters shared personal stories from their own lives.
One wrote, “I sent 200+ resumes and only got employed two years after graduation for a job unrelated to my major with a local degree, about a decade ago.”
Another commented, “Keep fighting! Back then, I applied for 300+ jobs before being accepted.”
A third shared, “I just got employed like last week on Friday, after spending two months unemployed. The first two weeks, I mainly spent time looking for a job. Gradually, I started thinking of it as a ‘daily quest’ to just like apply for 10 jobs a day, then go do my own stuff. Eventually, I got some part-time offers and a few interviews.”:
“Some recruiters actually pull through for you, honestly. Just take interviews as experience to help you grow, and always expect the unexpected so you don’t end up too disappointed.”
In other news, a domestic helper took to social media to ask if she was wrong for requesting a S$10,000 loan from her employer in exchange for renewing her contract.
“I’m finishing my contract [with] my employer this coming October. My employer asked me if I still want to continue. Then I tried to tell them what I wanted,” she wrote in a post on the MDW in Singapore Facebook group.
“I told them if they can lend me S$10,000, then I can continue to work. I told them that I need to start to build my home in my country, and I need a big amount of money. Just trying lah if they can lend me.”
Read more: Maid asks if she was wrong to request S$10k loan in exchange for renewing contract
