Picky or poor job market? CS grads allegedly reject jobs that pay less than S$5K AURORATOTO GROUP

SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user took to the platform in some confusion, asking whether two of their friends who had turned down job offers were being picky or if the job market is “really that bad”.

In the post on r/askSingapore on Monday (Sep 1), u/throwawayaway539 wrote that the friends in question had graduated with a degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

“They rejected a few offers because the pay was below S$5k, and the jobs didn’t come with the usual big tech perks like remote work or fancy pantry snacks… reasons that seemed pretty trivial, yet they keep complaining that the job market is very bad,” the post author wrote.

They added that these friends now say they would prefer to remain unemployed instead of taking up traineeship offers because, for them, “this is an insult to the prestige of CS.”

To the post author, this attitude makes them appear to be “picky rather than the market being tough.

“So is the job market really that bad, especially for fresh graduates?” they asked.

A number of commenters wrote that both things can be true at the same time.

“I agree that they are being picky. The job market is not really good, and it doesn’t guarantee that everyone will land a job with good pay and perks. To be honest, I would have taken the job and search while working to get more experience. Job experience is an important factor for consideration too,” was the most upvoted comment.

“The golden years of tech are over… they’re being picky,” wrote another.

“All these uni grads went in with the mindset that they will be paid big bucks when they grad, and there is an echo chamber telling them that they will always have high value as long as they have a CS degree. No surprise that once the industry has stopped booming, these people will struggle to come to terms with reality. Plus, not everyone who graduates will get the best jobs. Most will have to settle for less,” a Reddit user chimed in.

“Assuming they are not being delusional about their capabilities, big tech was hiring a lot more a few years ago, and they probably would have gotten the perks they are hankering after. That doesn’t mean they aren’t being ridiculously picky now that they have missed the boat, and even big tech is rolling back a lot of the perks they used to offer,” wrote a commenter.

“Your friends are not thinking. Even with a smaller $$ figure, they can gain experience and hop… rejecting it means they are forever at 0 while peers who have accepted that ‘low paying’ role may have either had an increment or job hop,” a Reddit user added. /TISG

Read also: NUS Computer Science grad yet to land job despite sending hundreds of applications