Therr are two news articles that popped up on my feed yesterday which particularly made me feel so annoyed.

  

1. One is about UNISSA graduates being unable to secure gainly employment upon graduation from a prestigious university 
2. Another is about the currently employed and their right and entitlement to double pay

To this I thought, wow! 

We are so self entitled.

First of all, a degree, not even from the best university in the world, does not guarantee a job.

It however, guarantees you skills and the maturity of problem solving to face the world of work. 

So contrary to popular belief, upon graduation, jobs won’t be lining up on your front door just waiting for you to wake up and finish breakfast.

In the jobseeking world, you are in competition with people from other universities, with many different disciplines, and each with their own edge.

Think about YOUR personal brand. Think about your CV, is it different than other people? Is it deadly boring? Does it highlight the wrong/right things? Most of all, does it give you an edge over everyone else?

If not, work on it!

Secondly, are you seriously applying to only one place, with probably 100 applicants, and maximum 1 vacancy?

Here’s the thing, when you are jobseeking, you need to cast your nets FAR AND WIDE. And you need to cast your net with urgency. 

“Esuk tah ku apply”

“Aku nunggu dulu dari XXX kalau nada bunyi aku apply sana”

No. Send your application in urgently. 

Build your network. Often, many vacancies are not even advertised. We rely on word of mouth. 

So build your network in the professional world. By the way, this is something u need to work on even when you are still studying, and guess what? When you transcend to the working world, you still need to do it.

It doesn’t matter if you are shy and reserved, building a network doesn’t mean you have to be the life of the party. Sometimes, it’s simply doing a favour for people, helping them out, sometimes it’s just talking with one person confidently. Sometimes it’s just making sure your Linkedin is updated.

Trust me, if you know what you are talking about, people WILL remember you.

If you are sincere, people WILL trust you.

This is why, I keep on saying, those in local universities have a SOLID edge over those from foreign universities- they are sometimes out of touch with local situation.

You know Brunei so much better and you are here longer so you have more time to build your network.

The thing is that you just need to be awesome! 

Which brings me to the second article.

When you are awesome, when you are employed, you don’t have to worry about double pay. 

If you are focused on the work, employers won’t even think twice about paying you double. They’ll be all BEST MONEY SPENT EVER. 

Just focus on the work. The key is have self respect. Respect yourself to only produce great work – at least most of the time (of course we all have off days). Then you can negotiate more pay.

I am telling you no sane employer would want to let go of a good worker. It is too costly and time consuming to hire a new one.

Ok atu saja bye.