Launching Pad

That’s what your first job should be, according to the Sarawak’s Labour Department Director, Mohd Zubir Mohd Basri. According to the Borneo Post, Encik Mohd Zubir said,

There are now 36,044 job vacancies in Sarawak with 2,348 or 6.5 per cent for college or university graduates while another 33,696 or 93.5 per cent are in the non-graduate category.In this regard, job seekers need to take full advantage of any opening available rather than wait for the job of their choice to come along.

 

Indeed!

Encik Mohd Zubir also was reported to have stated that job seekers were told not to be picky when it take to taking on their first job. His advice was toget employed fast so that the young job seekers would obtain the experience they needed to land better jobs elsewhere when the opportunity arises.

I tend to agree. From personal experience in the las tyear or so, the newly-employed tend to be far pickier about their (first) jobs. It has to be in the right location, with the right salary, with the right office decor, the right colleagues and the right coffee percolator.

Slightly digressing, a newbie came on board recently with a client of mine. I warned my client that this newbie, with a CV 6-pages long, might be a hire-risk, since he obviously had been job-hopping. After pain-stakingly training him for 3 weeks, we thought he was doing well. He seemed to enjoy the job, and seemed to pick on things really fast. After three weeks to the day, he packed his bags and left.

So much for giving people a chance…

And they wonder why employers are so worried about hiring newbies…