Career choices and disciplines of study - don't be choosy.
My daughter, Aileen's appeal to study business didnt go through. For weeks she had been calling the admissions week once every few days, anxiously praying for the magical, long-awaited "yes". She had obviously been clinging on to false hope, which worried me tremendously. She had never been one to take disappointments well. She hasn't come out of her room ever since she found out today that she was, after all, going to have to study science. I'm going to check on her later.
Her attitude towards science also gets me quite worried about Singapore’s future. Drawn by the ridiculous pay in sectors like banking, finance and consulting, hordes of young undergraduates flock to the same few faculties like business and economics. Of course, the traditionally prestigious and well-paying careers of law and medicine also regularly draw floods of applications to their respective faculties in the local universities. Then there are so many critical professions that are instead being shunned by youths nowadays, and the low numbers show it. Who's going to be our nurses, engineers, civil servants, teachers and journalists? Who's going to build our roads, care for the greying population, and run the country? Just because a job doesn’t pay well doesn’t mean it’s not needed.
It's just a job.
None of this would have happened if people would only swallow their pride, adjust their salary expectations, and just gratefully take whatever vacancy or offer that they can find. Honestly, it's just a job. Take what you have and be happy. Not everyone can be a millionaire, but everyone needs to make a living. Also, these vacancies need to be filled, whether you like it or not. It’s the only way our educational and labour system can function properly to serve our nation's manpower needs.
But so many youngsters want glamorous, high-paying jobs. Just take a look at this article:
WHAT'S with university-bound young Singaporeans and their penchant for business degree courses?
You have science students who want to go into finance. Engineers who want to go into finance. What a waste of taxpayers’ money. Now we have labour shortages in engineering and other critical sectors!
Engineer Shortage Worries Asian Execs
"Glamour" and "prestige"
Okay, maybe the desire for good pay isn’t too bad when you compare it with the infinitely more ridiculous desire among young people to go into “glamorous” jobs. In other words, people want jobs to boost their egos. There is absolutely no rational explanation for this.
Just a few Saturdays ago, the Straits Times had to do devote an entire section to promote engineering as a glamorous, cool, noble, and even sexy profession! As an engineer myself, I can safely say it's none of those! When do I even get to be sexy or wear nice clothes to work? Our projects keep us engineers busy enough as it is. That's the reality for any profession. Yet young people cling on to this notion that their lives would be magically enhanced if everyone else goes "wah" when they mention their jobs!
So because of these twin temptations of money and glamour, Singapore is at a manpower crossroads. We need foreign skilled labour more than ever, but this is not sustainable. We need our own people to put aside their dreams of wealth and consumption, and just take on whatever careers that need to be filled, and do the job to the best of your ability.. Take it from someone who’s seen everything. At the end of the day, it really is just a job, and your job isn’t your life.
JobsFactory Employers of Choice for Entry Level Graduates
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