Written by - Han Chan Lyung

For our second instalment on the fresh graduate hiring series, we would like to cover the traits of a fresh graduate leaving their school in 2022 and what benefits they may bring to your organisation if you choose to hire them.
Looking at the market now, where there are 2.5 job openings per active jobseekers, it is difficult to get mature and well-experienced people to fill the positions quickly. We have heard of stories where a company has been making do with an open position for more than three months. Therefore, it might be tempting to wait to fill the positions with those entering Singapore as the borders open. However, with the changes to the EP application process (COMPASS Framework) and the shift of the Singapore government’s focus to support the hiring of Locals, there might be more difficulty ahead continuing down this strategy.

It might be good to look back at our past strategies, take what worked, and improve on others. This series of articles is but one of the areas that companies may look at in developing their plans; to invest in the future personnel and leaders of the organisation early.

Institutions in Singapore put in great effort in cultivating all-rounded skills of their students, not only from their majors, but they are given cross-disciplinary training and development in soft skills such as critical thinking, innovation, and problem-solving. Such curriculums are designed and implemented and are criteria they need to fulfil for graduation. 

The punnet square, the two-by-two grid we learned in secondary school biology (the one with dominant and recessive traits), was a question the biologist Reginald C. Punnett had difficulty explaining. Finally, his mathematician friend he talked to over dinner gave him the idea of the two-by-two grid.

The above story can be an example of how bringing in someone with a different perspective can find a solution to an entrenched problem in an organisation, and a fresh graduate who is willing to prove themselves in an organisation that takes them in could be the new wind that brings about that change. 

Yet that is not the only benefit a fresh graduate can bring to the organisation. They are versatile as they are still new and learning and might be able to show that they can do more than what is on their resume or job scope. Fresh graduates are thrown into the adult world worrying about their future; that anxiety has only increased during the pandemic and as we seek to find our footing in the world of “New normal”. With the increased rhetoric of the need for lifelong learning, the barrier to entry for picking up additional skills has been lowered for everyone. However, the inertia needed to bring oneself to start learning is not equal; this is due to existing responsibility and comfort in the familiar and many more. The younger people, especially fresh graduates, are still in the learning mindset and, if given a chance, will be much more willing to adapt and learn the skills much needed by the organisation. This will provide the organisations with an avenue for investment for significant growth by leveraging the skills they can get and apply at work. Identifying the skill gap in the organisation and bringing in someone willing to learn and apply these skills can build a highly collaborative environment to fill in what is needed from both sides. 

Yet, this is not to say all fresh graduates will be like this, which is why candidate selection is very important. So what are the traits that need to be looked for when searching for a candidate?
 
There are many things an organisation can do to find the right person to hire, but here are a few of our recommendations.

1) Approach them first! 
There are various avenues where you can target getting fresh graduates. For example, institutions in Singapore have dedicated career canters and online job posting sites that they run specifically catered to their student bodies. Some even offer avenues for students to upload their resumes that companies can look at and approach first! 
Based on a survey conducted by our parent company Neo-Career group, 
This can help reduce the time taken sieving through the piles of resumes sent out on a job posting and let you take the proactive approach to find the right person.

2) Attend career fairs!
Institutions hold annual or annual career fairs where companies can set up booths to talk to students about their job openings. This is a great opportunity to have a short conversation with them to learn what the resume might not tell and know them on a deeper level in a brief amount of time.
NTU Career & Attachment Office, NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates, Singapore Polytechnic’s Education and Career Guidance (ECG) and most of the institutions in Singapore provide resources for companies looking to hire fresh graduates. They are also well equipped with know-how and expertise to identify how the company can make the best hiring decisions and shape the training programs to make the best employee out of the fresh graduates hired.

3) Look at what they can bring, not what they have done.
It is tempting to judge a person why what they have on their resume; there has been termed “Credential inflation*”. A paper released from the Institute of Policy Studies in 2014 talked of the increase in avenues for people to earn paper qualifications but not necessarily the skills that the company might need. We need to consider that students freshly leaving school may not have many crowning achievements or credentials other than their graduation certificate, resulting in companies fighting over the very top few, missing out on the point of hiring a fresh graduate entirely.
Many papers have been written about the ability of fresh graduates to perform well when given the right training; a 2019 paper written by Carole Serhan in the Academy of Strategic Management Journal is one of such.
It is tempting to try and look for the right candidate for the job, yet it defeats the purpose of hiring a fresh graduate if they are not trained, and a choice is made by filtering them out based on the small number of accomplishments they may have.

Over the coming weeks, we will release articles on guide to fresh graduate salary, how to write JDs that will attract fresh graduates, especially when posting on the dedicated career office websites, and the types of skills that the fresh graduates would have and where they may lack, and best practices when conducting a formal interview to get the fresh graduate you desire.