20/04/2022
Is it tough to obtain a decent employment or are jobseekers seeking for a non-existent ideal? Since the onslaught of Covid-19 pandemic, life has now slowly crawl back to normalcy and we are gradually adapting to its presence. Undeniably, it was hard to find a job ever since the pandemic started; many were even dismissed, made redundant by employers, suffering pay cut and all.
According to MYFutureJobs portal by Perkeso, the number of vacancies grew 232.8% whilst the number of job seekers almost doubled in year 2021 compared to 2020; showing signs that the market is recovering and in need of manpower. While the economic engine is cranking up, organizations’ focus is pivotal on both their recovery and managing sustainable operational cost. In all this fragility at recovery stage, controlling the cost of hiring is at utmost importance. It is found that most employers are willing to pay between RM1,200 to RM2,000 in monthly salary according to the survey. Employers are said to behave cautiously, to be as cost-effective as possible in order to sustain their operations.
What do fresh graduates want? At the background, educational institutions are continuously producing graduates, who had waited patiently in the past 2 years for job openings, better opportunities and working exposures. According to JobStreet, fresh graduates are looking for the opportunity to grow, working in return for fair and competitive monetary compensation plus having a work-life balance. Graduates are looking for high paying jobs to help them in reducing their own financial burdens such as paying PTPTN loan and an inflating daily expense.
On the other side of spectrum, employers are having challenges in hiring suitable candidates even after giving the right amount of renumeration. It is a known fact that majority of local fresh graduates are lacking in areas such as decent communications or information technology (IT) skills, to demand for that ‘desired’ amount of salary in their first pay. Entrepreneurs and human resource practitioners are always struggling with the ability to hire right candidates due to a mismatch and misfit of skills versus their expectations. Employers are willing to pay based on jobseekers’ experiences, work-readiness, communication skills, just to name a few.
Customer service, language-based and information technology (IT) fields require manpower more than ever to support multi channels multi-lingual online businesses. There are the fields which offer attractive and competitive remunerations compared to the traditional office jobs which had been legally disrupted anyhow. ‘Work From Home’ is one of the most commonly searched phrase over job portals. The culture of working from home attracted interns and fresh graduates regardless of the nature of their courses studied. Language related jobs such as an Online Interpreter offers salary from RM4,800 for anyone with minimal work experience as training is provided. Global support structures, connectivity and system are placed by multinational companies, allowing functions to transcend across nations, offering jobs to Malaysian fresh graduates as an option thus, not to limit themselves with a RM1,500 minimum salary pay range.
The effect from Covid-19 pandemic still lingers on, however fresh graduates should not be discouraged in their job search. Positively, fresh graduates should start enhancing those highly demanded skills such as communications, languages, and technical knowledge. By enhancing these skillsets, they can be in better footing to increase their chances of employability and “market value”. Finally, fresh graduates should discover the new genre of work by exploring remote working jobs. It provides an international exposure, promising better salaries without leaving home. Lastly, "Try and fail, but never fail to try.", there are endless of possibilities in the market, you will never fail if you are willing to try.