Dealing with setbacks in your search for jobs > 영어토론방

• 목록

• 페이스북 공유
• 트위터 공유
• 구글+ 공유
• 

Almost four of every 10 recent university graduates have been unable to find jobs as fewer companies hire new workers amid the uncertain business outlook. In a survey by an online job information provider, Incruit, of 1,302 new college graduates, 498 respondents, or 38.2 percent, said that they are still looking for jobs, reflecting the tight job market.
 
The respondents include those who graduated last August, and students scheduled to finish school later this month. Youth unemployment has stayed high over the past several years, as domestic companies are unwilling to hire new employees. Korea's industrial transformation from a labor-intensive manufacturing sector to a more capital- and technology-driven one, in such areas as semiconductors and cell phones, also contributed to the lack of new jobs over the years. A corporate preference for experienced workers over college graduates also raised youth unemployment. Intensifying competition among college graduates for limited white-collar jobs has also aggravated the job market.


The online survey also found that engineering graduates recorded the highest employment rate with 65.8 percent having found jobs, followed by those majoring in various human studies at 65.3 percent. Only 53 percent of graduates who studied social studies, including sociology and philosophy, have entered the workforce. By gender, about 64.5 percent of male graduates have found work, while only 57.3 percent females landed on jobs. The survey found that seven in 10 employed graduates have found work related to their major. About 81.3 percent of the newly employed with engineering backgrounds got jobs in which they make use of what they learned in college.
 
But only 63.8 percent of workers with human studies degrees were found to be engaged in occupations related to their major. Graduates who received degrees from universities located in Seoul, Inchon and Kyonggi Province were found to have greater advantages in finding jobs over those graduating from schools in provincial areas.
 
About 69.5 percent of graduates from Seoul’s metropolitan area-based schools found work upon graduation, while only 53.4 percent of local, provincial college graduates found work.
 
According to the survey, typical university graduates have gone through 30 interviews on average before finding work. By company, about 45.2 percent of graduates found jobs with small-and medium-sized firms, followed by 28.4 percent with larger businesses. About 5.5 percent were employed by foreign firms, and 4.7 percent by state owned companies. A 24-year-old woman who graduated from a prestigious private university in Seoul (she asked that her name be withheld) wanted to become a public relations expert. She had completed a successful internship with an advertising company and was confident about her job prospects.


"I did not think I would suffer as much difficulty as my peers in my job hunt," she said. But several prominent public relations agencies rejected her, and her self-confidence faltered. She desperately applied for jobs with a dozen other companies but received no offers. "It was the hardest time in my life. I got really frustrated," the young graduate recalled.
 
"And suddenly, everything just stopped. I had no strength to continue my job search."
She is not alone. Many experts say what she experienced can happen to any job seeker. When a job search yields no significant progress, the situation will inevitably affect the job seeker`s confidence, they warn. Some may even suffer depression. "For a week, I completely lost my appetite. I felt that I was totally useless and hopeless," the young woman said. "At that time, I just felt like being left alone. That made me feel much gloomier," she said. It took nearly a month for her to recover. Job experts say increasing one`s efforts to find a job does not help in this situation, and that it`s important to take time to relax.
 
``University students should decide what kind of work they want to do after graduation and begin the job search early on. Otherwise, they may have difficulties finding jobs after they graduate,’’ Incruit president Lee Kwang-sug said.


Question
1. When you were young, what was your dream?
    Also, now as you are an university student, what do you want to be?
2. Are you satisfied with your major? Tell us why you're satisfied or not.
3. For your career, do you have any plans or doing any efforts?
    Have you ever talked about your future with your parents or friends? How they responded?
4. Money and aptitude, which one do you think is more important? What's your favorite motto?

이 글은「대학연합영어토론동아리」www.pioneerclub.com에서 제공하는 영어토론 정보입니다.