“It’s A Black Box Kind Of Situation”

When Philip Vendargon began applying for jobs almost a year before graduating from university, his mother thought he was getting ahead of himself.

As it turned out, she couldn’t have been more wrong.

Despite graduating with a business degree, completing four internships and sending close to 200 job applications, his inbox remained mostly empty.

“To get a rejection letter is nice because at least you know what happened,” says the 25-year-old, who is now working in his first job as a compliance associate.

“But most of the time, it’s a black box kind of situation.”

For many fresh graduates, that silence is the hardest part.

You tailor your resume. You submit your application. You wait. Then... nothing.

Data science graduate Robin Ng (not his real name), 26, knows the feeling. After eight months of job hunting, while working to improve his interview and resume writing skills, he received only one offer. “They were willing to hire me at a low-ish pay and for a role I wasn’t looking for.”

Indiependence is an F ZINE initiative featuring honest conversations about things that matter to young Singaporeans. In this edition, editor-in-chief Noelle Loh chats with young professionals and hiring managers to unpack the anxieties and pressures of job hunting. Our take? Nobody knows what they’re doing (and that’s okay). Watch the conversation below.

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Computer engineering graduate Hoo Teng Juan recalls refreshing job portals several times a day, afraid of missing the next opportunity. “Checking the same sites every other hour became a daily ritual,” says the 26-year-old.

“What made me want to give up was the ridiculous hoops some companies wanted me to jump through, only to ghost me afterwards.”

When self-doubt creeps in

While waiting for replies, many graduates are also watching their peers announce new jobs online.

“The job search process seemed smoother for others; I felt like I had to do a lot more preparation to catch up,” says Robin. 

Sociology graduate Lau Yee Hey, 23, experienced something similar. “Peers who got offers earlier seemed more ‘successful’, making me feel slightly left behind.”

Even well-meaning advice from family wasn’t always helpful.

“Our parents think that if you cast a wide net, you’re bound to get something,” says Nicholas Chong, a 24-year-old student currently interning at a bank.

“But I know a lot of people who apply for everything in sight and still get zero callbacks.”

For many first-time job seekers, that’s what makes the process so draining.

You’re constantly making decisions without feedback, wondering whether your resume was overlooked, filtered out or never even seen.

Why it feels like shouting into the void

If all of this sounds familiar, career coaches say you’re not imagining it.

“The application black hole is real,” says a career coach from the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) – a government agency formed in July through the merger of Workforce Singapore and SkillsFuture Singapore. 

Many employers now use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes before a hiring manager ever sees them. For fresh graduates with limited work experience, getting past that first hurdle can be especially difficult.

The hiring market has also become more competitive, with fewer openings and longer recruitment processes.

But while it’s tempting to respond by sending out even more applications, that isn’t always the smartest strategy.

“The frustration is a signal to change strategy, not simply apply for more jobs,” says the coach.

“It starts with an honest assessment of your strengths, your skills and the kind of work environment where you’ll thrive.”

Instead of applying for every opening, graduates should focus on roles that genuinely fit their interests and tailor every application. Recruiters can often tell the difference between a resume that has been carefully customised for the role and one that has been broadly distributed.

F ZINE asked young Singaporeans what they really feel about job hunting.

Three mistakes many graduates make

The coach sees three common mistakes.

• The first is treating a resume like a transcript by listing modules and grades without explaining why they matter.

• The second is underselling internships. Many resumes rely on phrases such as “assisted the team” or “supported the manager”. 
  
  “These tell employers very little,” says the coach. “What hiring managers really want to know is what you did, what problem you solved and what difference you made.”

• The third is assuming that a lack of work experience means having little to offer. Instead, graduates should highlight personal projects, volunteering, competitions, leadership experiences or professional certifications that show initiative. 
  
  “The graduates who get hired are rarely the most qualified. They’re often the ones who make it easiest for hiring managers to picture them in the role.”

Even when you do everything right...

For computer science graduate Jachin Thio, refining his resume with a career counsellor and optimising it with ATS keywords improved his chances of hearing back.

But every interview brought a new kind of anxiety. “Having just one interview with one company didn’t fill me with confidence,” says the 24-year-old.

“I felt that I had to keep up the pace of applying for roles because I might get dropped from the process at any time.”

One opportunity seemed especially promising. After several rounds of interviews and positive feedback, he thought he was close to receiving an offer. 

Instead, the company informed him that the role had been moved overseas.

“I think that was the lowest point for me,” he says. “The process had taken nearly two months, so it was pretty demoralising – especially because the decision to move the role was completely out of my control.”

For many graduates, that’s perhaps the hardest lesson of all.

Even when you’ve prepared well, external factors can still derail your job search.

You don’t have to figure it out alone

Philip reached that point, too.

“I was getting tired and frustrated, and I felt it was showing during my interviews,” he says. “That was when I realised I should get some help.”

He attended a group advisory session as part of the Polaris by Volunteer Career Advisors (VCA) programme at the Career XP Fair organised by then-Workforce Singapore in January. The programme connects fresh graduates with VCAs who are industry professionals offering industry insights and personalised advisory.  

Appreciating the personalised advisory and industry insights the VCA brought to the group advisory session, Philip went on to sign up for one-to-one advisory with the same VCA to continue the conversation and receive support tailored to him.

He expected practical interview tips or resume advice. Instead, the conversations focused on something else entirely.

His interests. His values. His working style. His own definition of success.

“The first session left me almost lost for words because of how ‘deep’ the questions were,” he says.

“I didn’t have all the answers, but over the course of our sessions, I gained a much better understanding of myself.”

Those conversations gave Philip greater clarity about what he wanted from his career and how he could contribute in the workplace. 

The coach says graduates don’t have to navigate the process alone.

Whether it’s asking a career adviser to review a resume, speaking to seniors in the industry or reaching out to alumni for informational conversations, support is often closer than it seems.

“Fellow alumni, for instance, remember being in the same position,” says the coach. “They’re often much more willing to help than graduates expect.”

With a better understanding of his strengths, Philip found it easier to articulate the value he could bring during interviews. Receiving his first offer gave him even more assurance. 

“Almost every interview after that was a positive experience, so I think it’s definitely a confidence boost,” says Philip, who landed his first job in May. 

Head to SWDA’s page for more tools, tips and programmes, or reach out to an SWDA career coach for personalised career and skills advisory.