Lack of skills, job-hopping, self-delusion, new graduates find it difficult to find jobs

Confused when applying for a job

Tran Thi Hien is a student who has just graduated from the Faculty of Economic Law - Vinh University. Meeting Hien at the graduation ceremony, the new Law graduate affirmed that after graduation, she will go to the South to start a career. However, despite having a good graduation degree, Hien is not really confident to apply for a job because she admits that she lacks experience in the field she is studying and the knowledge she has acquired is mainly theoretical.

Before that, during her 4 years as a student, Hien also worked part-time but mainly in sales. Therefore, when she came to the South, Hien said she would also work a part-time job such as sales, store management or any other job to earn more income. At the same time, Hien will study Chinese to equip herself with more foreign language skills.

“I also feel quite sorry because during my time at school, we were not equipped with enough basic skills so I did not have much practical experience. Before graduating, the teachers also guided us on how to make a job application and some basic skills but they were still general, they did not guide us in detail, specifically so now if we go to an interview, we are quite confused.”

Tran Thi Hien - Fresh graduate from Faculty of Economic Law - Vinh University

Job fair for students. Photo: My Ha

Hien’s case is not unique. Every year in Nghe An province, thousands of students graduate, but the percentage of students who cannot find jobs is not small. One of the important reasons is the lack of skills, not meeting the demand, or lack of practical experience.

At Vinh University of Technical Education, a job fair was recently held for final year students and students currently studying at the school. The fair is not only an opportunity for students to look for job opportunities but also helps them to get acquainted with the labor recruitment market, approach a professional environment and experience basic interview skills.

“We consider the fair as a test step for students to re-evaluate themselves and draw lessons. In fact, compared to many other provinces and cities, our students are often weak in foreign languages. Besides, they also lack some soft skills such as communication, interviewing, teamwork skills... Previously, determining soft skills as an important factor for students before graduation, for the past two years the school has also assigned the pedagogy department to prepare lesson plans and make skills an official subject.”

Mr. Phan Xuan Thach - Head of Student Affairs Department, Vinh University of Technical Education

Students often tend to like job-hopping.

Many people also believe that student unemployment is due to a lack of labor market. However, this is not really true, especially at the present time, when many businesses are "thirsty" for human resources.

“Currently, we have many orders for graduates in the fields of construction, electricity - electronics, information technology and have many policies for highly qualified workers. However, recruitment is still very difficult.”

Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien - Director of a company recruiting workers to Japan

The company representative also said that he had previously highly appreciated the abilities of Nghe An students, but when it came to direct interviews, it was very difficult to recruit them. For example, at the end of May, the company held a seminar with more than 100 students attending, but only 5 students passed the application round.

This time, even though it is the graduation season, the company only set a target of recruiting 20 people, even though the number of graduates is up to hundreds. Talking about the reason, Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien added: "Many students go to interviews but they do not know what their purpose is and just go "riding a horse to see the flowers". Or many of them think that they just need to spend money and then of course they will have a place to go to Japan without paying attention to factors such as foreign language, understanding of culture and daily life of the host country. Meanwhile, the Japanese pay a lot of attention to this issue and they appreciate workers who are conscious and responsible for their work".

Class time of students of Vietnam - Korea Technical College. Photo: My Ha

Regarding this issue, Mr. Tran Vinh Quy - Vice President of Nghe An Young Entrepreneurs Association also said: “Students of Generation Z (those born from 1996 onwards) are exposed to a lot of information, so they absorb it very quickly and have clear personal views. However, their weakness is that they know a lot but not deeply, and tend to like to change jobs. Besides, because there are many job opportunities today, some students often have "illusions" about themselves, do not focus on learning and improving their expertise to improve their skills and expertise, but only care about jobs with immediate income..."

Through many years of experience in recruitment, Mr. Tran Vinh Quy also believes that, to have a good job, right from when they are still in school, students need to actively participate in social activities, work part-time or participate in a study project... In addition, when accepting a job, they must do it with the highest responsibility and must be really patient. Even, you should not be reluctant to do small jobs because the recruiting unit may want to challenge you or do not focus too much on the salary but should choose a job that is suitable and true to your ability and passion.