In the annual Singapore 100 Leading Graduate Employers Survey 2021 conducted by GTI Media Singapore, graduates highlighted the five most crucial factors that’ll most likely affect their decisions when choosing their first employer (salary didn’t even make the top 10 list).
There are practical reasons for considering these factors graduates mentioned—if you think about it, there’s really no point in choosing to work for an employer you’ll be unhappy with in the long run.
For starters, it’s harder to look forward to work every day when you’re miserable or to motivate yourself to give your best in what you do.
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In the worst-case scenario, you may even find yourself in a mentally dark place.
These are the top five factors new graduates look at when choosing their first employer, and what you can do to ensure you find an employer that can offer them to you!
1. Who will be leading you at your first job?
Good leadership, advice and guidance is vital, and more so in times of uncertainty. In fact, for the first time in recent years, working under a good leader took the lead as the top influencing factor for 75.1% of graduates who took part in the S100 Survey.
Having your potential direct manager or supervisor included in the recruitment process is a good sign.
When the time comes for you to ask questions during an interview, ask your potential manager or supervisor to describe the team you’ll be working with.
If they understand the team dynamic well and keep tabs on everyone there, you know the person’s a good leader. Good leaders tend to make the effort to get to know their teams, understand their different workloads and constantly strive towards helping them develop personally and professionally.
2. What skills and development can you build with this employer for your next gig?
No matter what others may think or say, work-life balance has long since graduated (pun intended!) from buzzword to a standard of living, as evidenced by the 71.2% of the votes the factor got.
At the end of the day, you’ll likely want to spend up to five years with your first employer, so you won’t be doing yourself any favours if you don’t even like your job.
You deserve stability and growth in these uncertain times, so don’t be afraid to work hard and be patient!
3. What are the career progression prospects?
The offer of good career progression prospects has always been one of the factors graduates have cited for several years running, garnering three-quarters of the S100 Survey votes.
That’s not surprising, considering a clear idea of career progression can give rise to job satisfaction and a sense of purpose – values many graduates are aligned with.
To drive the point home, a 2018 survey by Randstad Singapore found that limited career paths were the driving factor behind 38% of employee turnover.
In other words, clear career progression creates more tangible goals – professional growth, opportunities to learn and grow, promotions and even potential pay raises.
During the recruitment process, your prospective employer might broach the topic in later interviews.
If they don’t, tactfully and politely touch on the subject with a sentence like, “What does a career path for a successful candidate in this position look like?”. This will let your employer know you’re thinking of staying with the company for the long-term; and that’s certainly not a bad thing!
4. What level of job security can you expect?
Less graduates want to start their own start-up company, with only 26% of graduates considering the idea in 2021, compared to 31.6% in 2020. And this is no surprise, seeing as 71.5% of graduates in the S100 Survey 2021 want job security, a much higher number than from 2020.
Although this paints a bleak picture of the impacts and cascading effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re not entirely powerless.
During the interview process, ask what skills development initiatives a company has that’ll allow you to hone your skill set and pick up new skills.
On the other hand, if the company is only willing to take you on as a trainee, graduate intern, or part-time staff at the moment, don’t be afraid to ask how you can bolster your chances of gaining a conversion to full-time staff.
Do your best to impress your manager to land that coveted full-time role!
5. Does everyone get equal opportunities to shine at this company?
Singapore’s a meritocratic society where diversity and equality are core values, complete with anti-discrimination laws, programmes and guidelines to keep discrimination in check.
But in reality, despite these measures, 73.5% of graduates worry about whether their gender, race, sexuality and disability, among others, affect their opportunities.
To get around this issue, a quick way to figure out if you’ll get equal opportunities in a potential company is to do some research. If they’re a multinational corporation (MNC), chances are, they’ll have a dedicated diversity and inclusion (D&I) department, complete with public reports.
If not, however, request a tour of the premises during the recruitment process.
Later, ask yourself: How much diversity did you see in the office space and management levels? Are you comfortable with the diversity or lack thereof?
This article is contributed by gradsingapore.
