Careers
An evolution takes root
Global changes pushing a large number of Singaporeans to work in jobs outside their degrees; further shifts ahead. Comment follows. By Seah Chiang Nee.(Comments follow)
Jan 6, 2007

AFTER returning with a Master's in mass communications in Australia, Phyllis fretted as she shot off one job application letter after another.

She had heard horror stories about the tough market here and worried that she would be unemployed for some time. To her surprise, she landed her first job within two weeks and discovered a career trend.

Her job, however, had nothing to do with what she had expected when she first went to Melbourne six years earlier, which was journalism, advertising or public relations.

She made it as a junior executive at a beach hotel on the flourishing island of Sentosa.

What she and many Malaysians seeking jobs here have discovered in recent years is a growing disconnect between their university degrees and subsequent careers as a result of the changing global economy.

It merely follows the trend in the developed world as old businesses disappear, sometimes overnight, and new ones spring up, creating problems for graduates with an inflexible job expectation.

My friend’s son who graduated in civil engineering from one of America’s top colleges, for example, is now teaching in a secondary school instead of working in construction.

Lawyers have become journalists or musicians and doctors are now managers. An IT graduate I befriended is a professional photographer and a few trained biologists have done well in sales.

Cases of people working in jobs unrelated to their training have become so common that interviewers have stopped asking candidates questions like: “Why should a trained scientist like you want to work as a junior executive with us?”

In the past, parents used to send their children to study accountancy, law or engineering, the so-called secure careers, and see them move single-mindedly into these professions.

A doctor was then a doctor, a biologist generally worked in the lab and a civil engineer, more often then not, would end up wearing a hard hat – square pegs in square holes, so to speak.

Scattered stories of graduates working outside their studies have been around for some time, but the numbers really took off around the mid or late-90s.

The reason was two-fold: the large loss of industrial jobs to countries like China and India, and new economic demands that cause some jobs to disappear and others to flourish.

People were also responding to Singapore’s own economic restructuring to move into higher technology and services that required retraining and reorganising of the labour market.

The economic downturns of Sept 11 (2001) and the SARS crisis (2003) caused large unemployment – and career dislocation.

In the first half of 2001, for instance, four in 10 of the 9,000 people retrenched were executives and 16,500 tertiary-educated Singaporeans were jobless by September. This resulted in professionals having to move into new unrelated work.

In the years ahead, multiple skills and career flexibility will be a fact of life as a result of further changes. Careers will blow hot and cold due to rising and falling demands.

In some years, skills like IT, construction or accountancy would be in demand; in others, especially now, it would be personal banking, healthcare or teaching.

“Any professional sticking to one career choice or skill stands the chance of being left behind,” said an executive head-hunter.

Whether working in Singapore or abroad, the ideal 21st Century graduate will be one who is anchored to one or two disciplines but who has also covered a spread of diverse elective courses.

To its credit, before the world economy changed, the government argued that economic restructuring had to begin in education.

Today, eight out of 10 Singaporean students get post-secondary education that is steadily moving into a multi-faceted approach.

Firstly, it abandoned the old exam-oriented model and adopted a large part of the American system.

The two biggest universities, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, now allow students to pursue courses outside their immediate fields of specialisation.

This is filtering downwards to schools. By end-2007, upper secondary students in 40 schools will be offered 40-hour courses in five polytechnics.

“We'll cover subjects like tourism services (accommodation, food and beverage, and tour planning), IT, Media and Design, Chemical and Life Sciences as well as Game Design,” an official explained.

This will move to the pre-teens with the opening of Singapore’s first “primary school of the future” in 2008 (with 14 more by 2015) to prepare children for a life dominated by technology and information.

“We want to teach children from young to be comfortable with the latest technology,” said a senior official.

Increasingly, students will be offered a wider range of courses and electives, allowing school dropouts to have a better crack at a meaningful job.

Some special schools are moving into non-academic studies. A case in point is North Light School where students can be seen playing games on Xbox 360 consoles during classes.

At Townsville Primary, a small supermarket has been set up, at which children take turns to work – giving them lessons in arithmetic and working skills.

When the two S$10bil (RM22.9bil) casino resorts open in 2010, further career shifts will likely follow. You may well find a medical practitioner working in a casino – and I don’t mean in a clinic either.
(This article was published in The Star on Saturday, Jan 6, 2007)

Comments

Dear Mr Seah,
Your article "An evolution takes root" on careers in a changing Singapore is an eye-opener to young talents considering a career change.
It brings to mind what my son, an electrical engineer, once told me some time back, that he is considering a change in career and is taking up a course in financial planning to prepare for that eventual move. I had advised him against it, as a financial planner serving me (he himself an accountant graduate with honours) told me my son would be facing an uphill task against graduates like himself who has basic and advanced degrees in the same discipline. To a prospective employer, my son stands no chance of being selected.
My son, after listening to my advice, is adamant in pursuing the course and a career switch.
He's on the final phase of the diploma course and all his applications for internship with financial institutions have been rejected.
My fear is that, even if he is lucky enough to land himself a job in the finance sector, will he be good enough as compared to someone like my financial planner serving me.
Mr Seah, thanks for that futuristic article.
Regards
Siew Wah

Dear Mr. Seah
I read with great interest your article concerning a peg fitting into many rounds. I couldn't agree more with you in your last para concerning the future of the job market.
It is no better here but only that Singapore has advanced to foresee the future. Over here (editor: Malaysia) every other university, etc, will advise to send your child for medicine if he is clever, good in his studies etc.
I just spoke to a doctor two days ago who has been a specialist, long time friend, now almost 60 who I had asked about medicine as a career.
His reply was in 3-4 years time, there will be thousands of doctors in Malaysia, local ones churning out thousands, foreign ones also thousands but where are all the young graduates going to find a job?
The gov't here is making it so difficult for doctors to open their own clinics because it must fulfil conditions similar to a small hospital so what is going to happen to them?
My answer after reading your article is go to Singapore and work in the casinos. I really agree that doctors in the future in Malaysia will have to switch to other jobs and having spent 6 years doing such a course it is certainly worthwhile to think more carefully about that.
The money is gone, the years have gone, the hopes are dashed. In the end you just might end up with a very dejected child if the parents are giving advice in the wrong direction. Pity that many parents are really doing that.
Thanks again for such a fantastic eye opening stirring article. I like it tremendously. It actually stirred up my thoughts definitely.
Irene