"... The skies are airbrushed a gloomy grey. People are not placing any bets on their future. They don't speak with any confidence about their long term plans. How can they plan long term when they don't even know how tomorrow will surprise them?
Basic tenets have turned topsy turvy: Get a degree. Then, a steady job. A steadily-rising pay. Eventually, get your own car and apartment. This logical progression does not hold any more, as spoilt-for-choice job-hoppers have become settle-for-anything job-seekers.
While some of my friends gripe about their bosses (myself included) and stuffy work places, few will quit their jobs.
Why? Well... tomorrow might throw up a better offer, but burnt graduates also realise that tomorrow - being so unpredictable these days - might not throw up any job.
The days of telling yourself that if you make the right moves, you will get the right results, are gone. You can't take your job for granted. You can no longer bank on the inevitable wage hikes that come with the seniority-based pay system. Even a good showing in the performance-linked salary structure does not guarantee rewards as a bad economy can undo the best-laid plans.
...
Between the red pill of takin six months off to explore the Inca culture of Peru after graduation and the blue pill of accepting a humdrum job that insists you have to start work right away, I suspect most young Singaporeans will rather choose the unexciting blue pill these days.
Success is not guarannteed but setbacks are certainly more likely.
...
It's a much more Darwinian world we are living in... "
Excerpts taken from an article written by Today journalist, Ng Boon Yian.
