In complete honesty, it took me 2.5 months total to find one, beginning from the very first week I begun applying for jobs... till now. I finished uni in November, went on vacations until mid-December, and so only started applying mid-December. I spam applied job applications like crazy from December to January, only stopping because I had quite a number of interviews in February to go for (some were several rounds for the same company).
I didn't keep a tally of the number of applications I sent out, but I mostly sent them through job postings on LinkedIn, and got myself 1 interview in December, 3 psychometric assessments and 1 interview to be done in January, and 1 phone call screening and 4 interviews in February. In total, I had about 5 serious companies that gave me face-to-face interviews... and I was beginning to lose hope and was growing jaded up till the very last company, which coincidentally turned out to be the best one that I liked, as well as the one that liked me the most!
I know all these details seem pretty mundane to talk about, but since my blog is like my little diary that I can read and look back on after a while, I think it'd be helpful to remember what my job-hunting process was like.
I won't name the company that I got a job at out of privacy and fear of doxxing (lol), but I will say that it is an MNC and was the only company that offered me a role that was Corporate Communications-related -- which was the exact job scope that I was actively looking out for. I had like 3 Marketing interviews and 1 Strategic Communication interview, and not going to lie I was completely disinterested in the Marketing ones, and only liked the Strategic Comms one because it would have been a government job. Nevertheless, my preference was working in Corporate Comms, and I'm so happy that I got my preferred job scope.
For this job, my hiring timeline was as follows...
(0 week) 21 Jan: Job Application
(+2 Weeks) 3 Feb: HR Phone Screening (a very long one, lol, ALL generic interview questions were asked)
(+10 Days) 11 Feb: Email from HR for Interview
(+10 Days) 11 Feb: Email from HR for Interview
(+12 Days) 13 Feb: First interview with Direct Boss, contacted on evening itself by HR for 2nd round
(+6 Days) 19 Feb: Second interview with Chief Marketing Officer, Third Interview with rest of team
(+5 Days) 24 Feb: Call from HR that I was preferred candidate, but had to wait for interviews to finish
(+4 Days) 28 Feb: Offered expected pay via call from HR
(+3 Days) 2 Mar: Offer letter given, and signed. Background check in progress
(+3 Days) 2 Mar: Offer letter given, and signed. Background check in progress
(+2 Weeks) 16 Mar: Start of Job
I won't say I'm very experienced in hiring timelines since I'm a fresh graduate, but this was certainly pretty fast! I'll be starting work in 2 weeks too, and I think they liked that I was pretty much available immediately :) I'm really happy about securing this job offer, I got really good vibes from all of the interviews I attended for this company (it was pretty much 3-4 rounds, but since I was so distracted by other interviews on the side it didn't feel like much!) and the team that I'll be working with seems so lovely and aah everything truly excites me! I was very surprised to hear that my fellow teammates (expats) had been working in the company as fresh grads till now (~9 years)... It really instilled in me confidence that there is growth and progression opportunities in the organisation. Here's crossing fingers I have the same positive experience in the company as well!
Pretty proud of myself for getting employed relatively fast in this economy and climate... Especially with the coronavirus going on, and what with the government announcing a likely oncoming recession. I also got the job at a very reasonable (and to some fresh grads, perhaps even above-average) pay which is even more motivational when it comes to wanting to do well in this job, haha. Plus, I was already quickly losing stamina when it came to preparing for and going to job interviews, even though I may have only went to 5... So I was very lucky this job offer came at an opportune time!
Here's hoping for the best :)
Anyway, I just wanted to write out a couple of tips that I believe can aid fellow job-seekers as well... or fresh grads looking for jobs in general!
Things I Learned as a Fresh Graduate Job-Hunter
#1: Apply for Government Jobs Waaay Ahead!
Everyone says this, but I paid no heed lol. I couldn't, anyway, since writing my honours thesis during the months of Aug-Oct was so hectic and drained me completely. Either way, since I managed to go for at least 1 government interview, I can at least say I did try for it but it was not meant to be at this time. The main point here is that the civil service can take ages to respond to your application, and by the time they schedule an interview with you, you may have already gotten offered by an MNC. I actually have two government job interviews coming up, but I'll be cancelling them since I prefer the MNC offer more. I believe these stat boards only contacted me once their applications closed (which they leave up the job posting for at least a month for those interested to apply), so... yep, definitely a really long waiting time to even be shortlisted in the first place. Side-note, all government jobs require written tests, and boy they are draining...
#2: Be Clear and Consistent in Your Internship Experiences
I have a little inkling that I didn't manage to clinch the marketing roles I interviewed for, despite delivering a good interview (as relayed to me by my interviewers, lol), was because I lacked in marketing experience. My internships varied across advertising, design and corporate comms, but I didn't have much marketing experiences. Fortunately my corporate comms role saw need for a combination of all my various experiences, and that was why they hired me. But I believe for marketing roles it's more concentrated, and they really want to have someone with actual marketing experience. Anyway, I was still consistent in performing in comms-related roles. For myself, I did not realise I was interested in corporate comms until my very last internship stint where I was exposed to such work, so it worked in my favour still, I guess. So it's still wise to decide on a certain industry/expertise from the start and stick to it all throughout your uni life as you do internships. In other words, try to have a goal!
#3: If Negotiating For Higher Pay, Make Sure You Have Internships to Back It Up
Luckily for me, I did not have to negotiate for my pay, since they agreed to it on the spot. But I have a feeling that if I did not have my three internships to back me up, they would not have agreed to it as readily. During one's university education, often students make the mistake of paying too much attention to their academics and not embellishing their CV with actual internship experiences. All my summer vacations in NUS were spent doing something of note: FASS summer school, or internships. I never wasted any particular vacation doing nothing, haha. I think this foresight really helped me when clinching my first job :) So current undergraduates, please re-think doing nothing during uni vacations and go get an internship instead!
#4: Take Advantage of University Resources/Career Counselling/Resume Reviews
Since I was rather free in the month of December, my boyfriend actually pushed me to pay a visit to NUS' career services to get my resume checked out so I could improve it to get shortlisted for interviews. At first I was kind of disgruntled and reluctant to do it (out of pure laziness lol), but since I was rotting at home anyways, I scheduled an appointment with a FASS career advisor (they have designated ones for different majors) and sent her my resume in advance so she could make the necessary/edits and comments. To my surprise, the session was actually very productive! She gave very good advice and criticism, and I heeded all of her feedback and changed my resume accordingly. Not sure if it's related (or more timing-related), but I actually got a lot more interviews afterwards. Instead of copying and pasting job descriptions of the jobs that I had done into my resume, I manually wrote down all my achievements and described them in numerical terms. My resume definitely looked way more attractive afterwards, and several interviews actually commented on how strong my resume was!
Anyway, I just wanted to write out a couple of tips that I believe can aid fellow job-seekers as well... or fresh grads looking for jobs in general!
Things I Learned as a Fresh Graduate Job-Hunter
#1: Apply for Government Jobs Waaay Ahead!
Everyone says this, but I paid no heed lol. I couldn't, anyway, since writing my honours thesis during the months of Aug-Oct was so hectic and drained me completely. Either way, since I managed to go for at least 1 government interview, I can at least say I did try for it but it was not meant to be at this time. The main point here is that the civil service can take ages to respond to your application, and by the time they schedule an interview with you, you may have already gotten offered by an MNC. I actually have two government job interviews coming up, but I'll be cancelling them since I prefer the MNC offer more. I believe these stat boards only contacted me once their applications closed (which they leave up the job posting for at least a month for those interested to apply), so... yep, definitely a really long waiting time to even be shortlisted in the first place. Side-note, all government jobs require written tests, and boy they are draining...
#2: Be Clear and Consistent in Your Internship Experiences
I have a little inkling that I didn't manage to clinch the marketing roles I interviewed for, despite delivering a good interview (as relayed to me by my interviewers, lol), was because I lacked in marketing experience. My internships varied across advertising, design and corporate comms, but I didn't have much marketing experiences. Fortunately my corporate comms role saw need for a combination of all my various experiences, and that was why they hired me. But I believe for marketing roles it's more concentrated, and they really want to have someone with actual marketing experience. Anyway, I was still consistent in performing in comms-related roles. For myself, I did not realise I was interested in corporate comms until my very last internship stint where I was exposed to such work, so it worked in my favour still, I guess. So it's still wise to decide on a certain industry/expertise from the start and stick to it all throughout your uni life as you do internships. In other words, try to have a goal!
#3: If Negotiating For Higher Pay, Make Sure You Have Internships to Back It Up
Luckily for me, I did not have to negotiate for my pay, since they agreed to it on the spot. But I have a feeling that if I did not have my three internships to back me up, they would not have agreed to it as readily. During one's university education, often students make the mistake of paying too much attention to their academics and not embellishing their CV with actual internship experiences. All my summer vacations in NUS were spent doing something of note: FASS summer school, or internships. I never wasted any particular vacation doing nothing, haha. I think this foresight really helped me when clinching my first job :) So current undergraduates, please re-think doing nothing during uni vacations and go get an internship instead!
#4: Take Advantage of University Resources/Career Counselling/Resume Reviews
Since I was rather free in the month of December, my boyfriend actually pushed me to pay a visit to NUS' career services to get my resume checked out so I could improve it to get shortlisted for interviews. At first I was kind of disgruntled and reluctant to do it (out of pure laziness lol), but since I was rotting at home anyways, I scheduled an appointment with a FASS career advisor (they have designated ones for different majors) and sent her my resume in advance so she could make the necessary/edits and comments. To my surprise, the session was actually very productive! She gave very good advice and criticism, and I heeded all of her feedback and changed my resume accordingly. Not sure if it's related (or more timing-related), but I actually got a lot more interviews afterwards. Instead of copying and pasting job descriptions of the jobs that I had done into my resume, I manually wrote down all my achievements and described them in numerical terms. My resume definitely looked way more attractive afterwards, and several interviews actually commented on how strong my resume was!
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