An undergraduate journey begins with high hopes, zest and commitment. Lectures and tutorials, labs and projects, make life hectic enough that some may have to sacrifice time for fun and excitement. This goes on for some good 10-12 weeks before the exams come around. The final exam is like an ultimatum - the final determinant to the undergraduate pursuit throughout the academic semester.
As if this is not enough torment, undergraduates - final year and foundation students alike, are confronted with a dilemma - that it may not be as easy to get a job when they finish their studies(unless the country's economy booms and foreign investment soars, etc..) Newspaper articles and research reports caution us about employability in every way. Universities conduct trace studies and produce statistics on graduate employability.
Let's admit that gone are the days when even the highest CGPA can guarantee a job almost immediately. Nevertheless, the academic scroll is still very important because it also means you will be shortlisted for rewarding scholarships, awards, as well as job interviews.
Please prepare for employability early, as soon as you hear about it:) Think about this - having spent almost 5-6 years in a good and competitive university, isn't it ironic that a great mind with excellent CGPA, a stunning personality, and a host of soft skills illustrating leadership, team work and communicative competence, can't bring you close to a decent job! Of course you WILL get d job!
On this note, cutting-edge graduates prepare for the final selection interview. This is the time for you to articulate your skills and abilities, demonstrate your cutting-edge qualities, and impress your panel of interviewers. As mentioned by Crosby (1999), "No matter how skilled students may be, those skills will not lead to a job if potential employers do not know applicants have them."
I remember a comment posted by "Zack" earlier with regard to this employability odyssey. She succeeded in her final selection interview not only because of her work experience, but also her active involvement in campus activities that have made her more matured, confident, and ready to undertake real-life challenge.
Well, life is really about experiencing a lot of the ups and downs, success and turbulence, etc. Make time for friendship, interpersonal skills and leadership. Join clubs and societies, competitions, and speak UP. Brilliant ideas are supposed to be shared with the rest. If you want to make a difference, in the near future or later, you should start now. The odyssey can be a winding, less travelled road, or a trodden path - but you have a share in paving for a more reassuring future. The onus is really on you.
ok.I may not be the best person to comment on this. Hence, I'd like to invite opinion and feedback from the blogging community who are indeed at the receiving end of this employability craze - readers and writers in this blogosphere who have been recruiting, employing, selecting candidates, and those graduates who have successfully passed the test of the final selection interview- please drop us a line or two in response to this issue.
About Me
- Dr. Zue
- UNITEN , Putrajaya Campus, Malaysia
- PhD (English Language Studies) MEd (Measurement & Evaluation). BEd (Hons) TESL. Research and publications on speaking, group communication and decision making, literacy and TESL. Paper presentations in local and international conferences on oral communication, literacy and TESL.
11 comments:
wats up pn.zue!!!!!!
we agree with wat u said...
extra campus activities help motivate us as students to polish our leadership skills and abilities....
by this it helpes us to perform better in the near future...
besides that, we gain more friends from diffrent backgrounds and culture...
therefore we as future degree holders should not only have qualified 'papers' with us but also interpersonal skills...!!
:) smile alwayssss!!!! from us..
Ignorance is the prime convict which limits students to avoid participating in a certain society or club. We often assume that all we need to graduate is only with equations and textbooks. "Gone are the days when even the highest CGPA can guarantee a job almost immediately"(Zue, Para.3) because there are too many fresh graduates who apply for jobs with high opportunity that there lacks space to accomondate all of them, therefore, the outstanding only may apply; outstanding in terms of soft skills of course. Nevertheless we should all strive to achive more in order to succeed.
hye puan zue...nice topic ;D
I also agree with your thoughts.Excellent students should not only come up with excellent CGPA, they also should have softskills and self confidence when they are in front of other people..
As we can see, a lot of graduates were jobless nowadays because they doesn't have this two abilities in them.Getting a scroll in the graduation day is a common thing that every undergraduates can get.But not everyone has good softskills and confidence if they doesn't build it from now, in campus life..
so, think about it if you want to be employable in the future..;D
The opportunity to study is a privilege. It all depends on the individual on whether they view life as a thrilling challenge or obstacle, as it reflects upon their attitude towards the value of life and the knack of dealing with the hardships of it. Often times, people are not satisfied with their current jobs and somehow feel that the knowledge they've acquired from their education isn't put to use.
Hi Pn.Zue,
I agree with most of your points, however, the soft skills must be developed by students themselves, especially for new students. This is because lecturers can only help grooming and supporting them. It might not turned out well without the students effort. Without the spirit to try and groom their own selves, soft skills cant b mastered well.In this case, students have to push themselves to quickly adapt the new environment and speak up whenever they're given the chance to do so. In short, we cant 100% depends on our lecturers, we have to try and improve our soft skills so that we can be one of the versatile graduates and stand out among the average ones!
Hi Pn Zue,
I do agree with you, Pn Zue. It is not easy to get a stable job with high salary nowdays. excellent result and great performance during campus lifes could not guarentee a good job. in order to achive it, you have to become extraordinary and shine among others candidates. the interviewers will ultimately look for an excellent graduate that is not only good in his/ hers academic but also are great in his/hers interpersonal skills. communication skill and leadership qualities will be the most important skills that excellent graduates should have. with these qualities, they could carry themselves well during job interviews.
I agree with you on things, but if I got a high degree in the study that is not enough because there is no communication between universities and the labor market in the selection of disciplines and we also find that there is a difference in the names of some disciplines in recent market action is requested to allocate a new Mamakl universities expect to have in a long-term selection of disciplines and its relation to the labor market
In the end,
The subject is very impressive for the selection of the student and the University of specialization and foremost companies in the research required for graduates of non-repetition of disciplines in the end there are no jobs
The subject is very impressive, but there is a divergence of views and I expect the university is a place for education not claim the existence of jobs for graduates
‘Well, life is really about experiencing a lot of the ups and downs, success and turbulence, etc. Make time for friendship, interpersonal skills and leadership. Join clubs and societies, competitions, and speak UP.’(Zue,Para. 3)I strongly angree with the above statement.First and foremost, students have to realize that life is not all about books,tests,quizzes,exams,etc.Life is definitely more to that.Nevertheless,students should not neglect it and be ignorant about their academic performance.Gettin 4 flat for every semester is meaningless if you are the type of student who does nothing other than studying.Picture this;’excellent CGPA, a stunning personality, and a host of soft skills illustrating leadership, team work and communicative competence’(Zue Para.4).Wouldn’t you wanna be like that?With this in mind,think of the advantages of being an all-rounder student.The first advantage is employability would not be a problem to you.Big and renowed companies would be more than happy to hire you a job.As we all know the percentage of unemployed graduates are increasing day by day.Therefore,we should muster as much invaluable experiences we can gain while we are studying here,in UNITEN.Furthermore,being an all-rounder student would also make us a more better person and also prepare us for our future undertakings.By having a superb personality and all sorts of soft skills,we can actually make a difference in this world.You could easily be an idol to the younger generations to look up to.Hence more dynamic leaders,successful entrapenours,etc would be produce.All in all, we should not procrastinate but start getting involve in campus activities.So, go out there and grasp all the experiences no money can buy.
(p/s:studies is still no.1 tho)
Salam Madam Zue,,,
I'm totally agree with u.A brilliant student with excellent CGPA alone doesn't meet nowadays employers qualifications.Thus,we should involve in extra campus activities to polish and improve our soft skills that are totally demanded by career world nowadays.It will be very beneficial if we can improve our interpersonal skills so that we can communicate better with others (:
everyone talks about employ ability these days. its a fact the world 's economy is not that good. but whatever happens there is always a silver lining. whether u get the job or u don 't that does n 't matter. there are other jobs as well. we don 't have to be picky.
lets say i, for example, wants to be writer badly. well, if i have no publisher, then i can't publish my books and technically, i need to put this as my side job.
whatever job i get, i will just do it and get over it. how long the hours or how much is the pay, is another matter.
all that we needed is a promotion if we are lucky or we could just do the job well enough for the bosses to see and get promoted. we have to be hypocrites sometime.and we must be nice to our colleges and subordinates. they work extra hard as well. plus we have to work with them to get the job done.
AND those ladies and gentlemen are some norms and rules of the working society. there is also a pyramid of life cycle which shows us where we are.
the ceo, the manager, the supervisor and at the bottom but the ones who contributed the most..............the employers. we should be proud that we are good workers and not lazy people of the upstairs. hehehehe just sayin.
guess that s all from me.
hope we can succeed in anything that we do.
Post a Comment