VietNamNet Bridge – Only a modest percentage of new graduates can find satisfactory jobs, while the majority either are unemployed,  work blue-collar jobs, or accept low-paying jobs or in fields in which they are not trained.

Recent graduate Thu, for example, finished studies at the banking & finance faculty of a prestigious school in Hanoi last year. In fact, during her four-year study at the school, she did not know what her job would be after graduation. She just imagined that she would go to the office every day in a bank uniform and receive a high salary at the end of every month.

Thu had reasons to dream of the best things for her. Five years ago, when Thu entered the school, personnel demand in the finance and banking sector was so high that all the graduates could find jobs after the graduation. Therefore, she believed she would never be unemployed.

But things are now quite different. After some months of being idle, Thu got a job as an “individual customer relations executive” at a joint stock bank.

“The bank also employed workers for some other positions. However, I was not eligible to apply for the posts because I did not have three to four years of experience as required,” Thu explained.

“Meanwhile, no experience requirements were set for the candidates applying for the post of customer relation executive,” she added.

However, after one month of working at the bank, she realized that the job was not as interesting as she imagined when she was at school.

Thu’s daily work was trying to contact customers every day to persuade them to use the bank’s services, deposit money at the bank and borrow from the bank.

“I usually got a scolding when I called hot-tempered customers because I bothered them,” she said. “Meanwhile, my salary was just enough to cover daily meals and fuel for the motorbike”.

However, the job that Thu was tired of is still the dream of other new school graduates.

Mai, a business administration school graduate, decided to return to her home village several months ago after one year of making vain efforts to look for a job in Hanoi.

Mai said she now works for a garment company in the countryside.

“I need to be more practical,” she explained. “I need a job now which helps me earn money. It’d be better to work as a blue collar worker and make money than sit idle with empty hands”.

Meanwhile, many new graduates who can find jobs say they feel disappointed about the wages offered by employers.

A recent survey by JobStreet.com found that new graduates expect to receive VND3-6 million a month (16.16 percent of them wanted VND3-4 million, 35.32 percent wanted VND4-5 million and 21.35 percent expected VND5-6 million). However, the actual salaries they receive are lower than the expected levels.

The report showed that 28.83 percent and 18.14 percent of the graduates expecting VND3-4 million and VND4-5 million, respectively, are receiving VND1-2 million lower than that.

The income levels are not high enough to cover new graduates’ basic needs. The survey has pointed out that 17.5 percent of them spend VND1-2 million higher than their incomes, while 40.58 percent  spend VND2-3 million higher.

Kim Chi