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We’re graduating
By Near Li, Annabelle Shen, Tina Zhang
Graduation is coming. Welcome to the world of work! The graduating
students in the University of Macau (UM) come to a fork in the road: which path
should they choose to follow, so that they will find true “happiness”.
Emily Sun, a Year 4 student majoring in Economics, whose goal is to
work as a sales manager in a Fortune 500 company, has decided to enter the
workforce and start working right after graduation.
Sun said, “Honestly speaking, I had for a time vacillated between
pursuing further studies and working.” However, when she found that working experience
is very essential for job application after surfing job-related information
online, she made up her mind. “After realizing this fact, I no longer hesitated
and sent out my first curriculum vitae soon after,” she said.
On the other hand, some graduates are under great pressure. More
students regard having a higher degree such as a Mater’s could effectively help
them meet employers’ requirements. To put it in another way, they might strive
to postpone the “deadline” of entering the workforce.
For Sun, pursuing for higher qualifications is purposeless if they are
just used for job-seeking. “There are so many things I don’t know in the world. I want to figure out what suits me best through working.”
Although Sun has made up her mind, she expressed her worries about
seeking jobs in this competitive society. There are so many competitors she’s
facing now; some of them are from well-known universities with profound
academic expertise, while some have studied abroad.
Smiling impotently, Sun said, “I am still looking and searching online.
If you are seeking for more promotion opportunities in future, big cities are
definitely your best choice. However, it is much harder than I expected.” The
situation is quite uncertain because getting a job with reasonable salary is
difficult, especially in those big cities with high living costs.
Despite, Sun is still looking forward to graduation. She said
determinedly, “Life might be hard, and I am scared about that. However, I am
excited when I think that I could finally fight for myself like a real adult. I
am still young that I have a lot of time to be who I want to be.”
Rody Luo is a Year 4 Civil and Environmental Engineering student who has
worked hard to strive for an outstanding GPA. After this summer, he is going to
continue his studies in the United States. Not only him, but also his parents
have agreed that Luo should pursue higher qualifications. "Actually, it's
not competitive enough now to land a good job with only a bachelor’s degree, I
think," Luo said.
Luo has applied for 10 graduate schools in the U.S. and he has now
received three admission offers. "Schools which accepted my applications
are all ideal schools, but I haven't decided which one to go to, I'm still
expecting an offer from my dream school, though the chance is very low."
In short, Luo is also looking forward to graduation as he described
himself as a challenge lover who likes to meet new friends, speak different
languages and explore new cultures in the U.S.
Reg Zhu has also planned to go to graduate schools. He thought that
education is a kind of investment, "and also, all I have learned is not
enough for me to step into society." And for Reg, graduation is just a normal thing, there is nothing to
lament or celebrate. "If I hadn’t had a plan for the future, I might have
been anxious about graduation, fortunately, I know what I'm going to do in my
future."
Survey results
This group of reporters conducted a survey on the current graduating
classes of UM in March. About 96 questionnaires were collected. According to
the data, almost half of them choose to work after graduation, the other half
choose to pursue further study. Only 43% of those who opt to work have an
explicit career goal, and up to 83% of them have not yet found any jobs. There
is no single interviewee who thinks that job seeking is very easy, most of them
have difficulty finding a job. For those who have already landed a job, 83% of
them admit that they are not satisfied with the current one and will keep
looking for their ideal job afterwards. In the meantime, among those who have
not yet found a job, 80% of them choose to continue to look for a job while the
rest opt to pursue further study.
On the other hand, 89.5% of the interviewees who opt to pursue advanced
studies have a clear research interest. More than half of them have already received
offers and most of them stated that these offers are from their choice
universities. The survey data indicates that up to 86% of them are
enthusiastically looking forward to their future postgraduate life. Nearly 82%
of them think that graduation application is quite difficult, however, a few of
them think that the application process is easy. Among the other 45% of those
who have not received any offer, more than half of them choose to continue the
application process, however, 30% of them opt to look for a job. Nevertheless,
85% of all the graduating students surveyed still see graduation as a happy
event and looking forward to it.
Standing at the crossroad of life, the graduating students may have
different choices that will lead to different life directions. Each choice may
involve difficulties and hardships, but they maintain their hope toward a new
life and feel grateful to the unforgettable college lives in UM.