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Highlights of the week:
For more career opportunities from various industries, please access CareerAxis.
Dear Students, Now that you have
successfully made your way into university, are you perhaps already thinking
about your next most life-defining decision – whether to work in an MNC, SME,
or start-up after you graduate? Which is the path for you? Here’s my take to
why immersing yourself in a 2-year stint in a Small and Medium Enterprise
(SME) can be the first yet essential step in your career. A Different Game Getting accepted into
a local university can be an exciting experience. It can also give comfort to
some, knowing that all your efforts over the past decade in the education
system has paid off. Just when you thought
the hard part is over, you join a new race – the GPA race. This is when every
term paper and quiz can impact the final GPA you eventually graduate with.
Every academic decision is linked to the next; for many of you, the stress is
real. Grades are important as they were a huge deciding factor on your
admission into university. However, the next phase of your life requires you
to chart your own destiny by making your own decisions. Transitioning from a
school environment to the working world is an entirely different ball game.
The border between right and wrong is blurred, and no one will be around to
grade everything you do. What's Next? The start of your
career journey can be overwhelming. What is next for you? Should you go into
the path your degree has specifically prepared you for? Or are you planning
to join the civil service? Perhaps you would like to take a leap and venture
towards a career completely unrelated to your education? A few of you might
even consider giving entrepreneurship a go and start your own small business.
Contrary to popular
opinion, having a next big step after getting a degree is not the only way to
get you moving towards the right direction. Instead, taking small steps and
putting the drive to acquire new skills or passion can sometimes bring you
further in the long run. What if you were told
there are organisations that would appreciate your efforts and intelligence,
and will provide you the opportunity to lead, design, and execute projects
with real-world impact? How do you think it will improve your CV or your
personal clarity regarding the industries or sectors you plan to invest your
future with? Introducing the Backbone
of Singapore's Economy As an integral part of
the local economy, Singapore’s 280,000 SMEs collectively hiring over 70% of
Singapore’s local workforce. SMEs are companies with a turnover of up to
S$100 million or consists of headcounts up to 200 or fewer employees. SMEs
are much like the soil, water and sunlight that enable the flower, Singapore,
to bloom for the fruits that are our future generations to be born and
thrive. Supercharge your CV
with a 2 year "paid Final Year Project" with an SME Featuring a relatively
flat organisational structure, SMEs offer a playing field like none other.
SMEs business owners are constantly looking out for innovative, talented, and
resourceful colleagues to join their team and take the company into new
markets or soar greater heights. They are well-positioned to accept new ideas
for innovation and transformation to grow their businesses. By joining an SME
directly after graduation, consider the prospect of having a direct mentoring
relationship with a business owner. What happens after the connection is made
and the employment contract is inked? Imagine it like a 2 year-long
"Final Year Project" (FYP) where you get to learn, be mentored,
apply real work skills, and be paid for it. You get to learn as you
earn! Both an ant's and bird's
eye view of a business Being part of an SME
offers you both a micro and macro view of the business. You will be driving new
and exciting innovations on the ground. At the same time, your mentor will
offer you the overall perspective of where your project fits or sits in the
grand scale of things. Over time, the challenges you overcome and the
victories you score will reveal to you the heartbeat of a business. Being
part of an SME with fewer than 200 employees bring you closer to the real
action and allows you to directly learn the realities of business and life. Understand how
business leaders think In a smaller
organisation, the layers of management are considerably lesser, and you are
least likely to be bogged down by middle management. Why? It is a common
trait for SME owners wanting to get things done to provide better bonuses for
their employees. With increased face
time and lesser bureaucracy between you and the owner(s) of the business, you
will be much more appreciated at your position, and enjoy more investment
from the business owner(s). Learning directly from the movers and shakers of
Singapore's economy can feel more rewarding as compared to working in a
repetitive job. Understanding how entrepreneurs think, and what motivates
them to act might be an invaluable lesson that you can carry with you for
many years to come. With access comes
mentorship We all live in a fast
and ever-evolving world. Believe it or not, the wisdom and experience of
those who have come before us can save us a lot of anguish and frustrations. SME owners are big on
mentoring as they know that investing in people, especially graduates who are
used to guidance and coaching, is a sustainable path towards leadership
development. In companies with fewer than 200 employees, the business owner,
leaders, and even managers have more time and space to mentor new hires, such
as fresh graduates, who are often on a Management Trainee Program. You may
not realise it but having a weekly mentor session can have a considerable
impact in your learning especially when you have active projects running in
parallel to review and test management styles with. Sometimes it's not about
what is taught but what is caught. From Theory to
Practice Companies with few
employees usually encourage each team member to lead projects or drive
initiatives. This approach is not for the faint-hearted as often enough,
leaders must own the failures or discharge credits to their team when success
is achieved. Many people seek the glory of success; but few can withstand the
punishing pain of failures. Being employed in an
SME increases your chances of being at the helm of a project, leading a team
and chairing meetings. How? Opportunities abound, and you can always find new
approaches to achieve a better result. So if you
have something in mind, grab a meal or coffee with your company's leader,
pitch the idea and get it off the ground in a matter of days if you are
resourceful enough. You will be exposed to plenty of practice opportunities,
successes, and failures in such environments – which you can use as a
leverage to boost your CV should you wish to enter another vertical in a
different industry. How does a 2-year
“paid FYP" sound like to you? If you are wondering
how to make your CV more robust and ready, or seeking personal clarity on
what you are good at or passionate about, a stint at a local SME might be the
right baby step for you. The journey with an SME could possibly shape and
define the rest of your life in ways you cannot even imagine. Better yet, you
may discover that an SME is the right place to grow and develop yourself
beyond the initial 2-year plan. So for a start, to
get your feet wet, think of it as a paid FYP; after all, aren't the best
Final Year Projects applicable to the real world? Finally, by picking up
more skills and knowledge, you will be able to command a greater salary in
the open market. Focus on improving yourself, and you will discover that the
experiences you gained and skills you picked up in work and life can add up
to be something very valuable one day. “The best investment you can make, is an investment in
yourself... The more you learn, the more you earn.” – Warren Buffett –
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