Discover+: Infocommunication Technologies

By trial and error, whilst juggling the different commitments in our lives and balancing tradeoffs. Our priorities and motivations will change across different seasons of our lives. For example, fresh graduates may be able to better afford the “lower opportunity cost” of chasing experiences instead of money at the early stages of their careers and have more energy to work for longer hours. This is opposed to parents of newborn children, who may choose to temporarily or permanently cut back on their working hours. Meanwhile, others may choose to dedicate significant amounts of time and energy to hobbies and passion projects outside of work. Thus, our means of optimising the 24 hours in each day will also likely change and evolve across different phases of our lives. 

Furthermore, one should leverage the highly accessible online resources (e.g. courses, certifications, YouTube videos, LinkedIn for networking, etc) to better ascertain his/her career interests.

Firstly, asking to rotate their job roles every 2-3 years, regardless of whether it involved vertical or horizontal career progression. Next, learning the art of networking earlier, which entails proactively approaching others and speaking up, and not only speaking when spoken to. Lastly, maintaining meaningful connections or relationships and reciprocating them. 

As every organisation requires a wide variety of roles to function (e.g. human resources, finance, legal, sales and marketing, etc), it is a misconception that the ICT sector only consists of ICT companies or ICT jobs. In fact, the following four quadrants may comprise the ICT sector — tech company & tech jobs, tech company & non-tech jobs, non-tech company & tech jobs, and non-tech company & non-tech jobs. Furthermore, one does not necessarily have to possess a “tech background” to enter the ICT sector. 

While there is no “perfect candidate”, 3 important factors may influence hiring decisions. Firstly, the “attitude” of the fresh graduate — does the candidate demonstrate interest, curiosity and a willingness to learn about the ICT sector through formal or informal education? This can come in the form of undertaking courses, certifications, extra-curricular activities, volunteering projects or internships to learn more about the ICT sector and proactively networking with ICT professionals on LinkedIn. Secondly, the “aptitude” of the fresh graduate — do they have an ability to learn quickly about the ICT sector? Thirdly, their “soft skills” — does the candidate possess robust transferable skills, such as communication skills, people management skills and emotional intelligence?

Career progression often varies from person to person and is not linear in nature. For example, although vertical progression (i.e. promotion with pay increment) may appear more beneficial in the short term, horizontal progression (i.e. rotation across different roles without pay increment) may be more beneficial in the long run. As the employee not only gains more skill sets, knowledge & expertise through his/her exposure to different roles, they are also given the opportunity to expand his/her network which will better ascertain their genuine career interests. Furthermore, while some people enjoy being specialists in one particular area, others are more keen on being a jack-of-all-trades. Overall, one should not fret too much about career progression, but should simply give their best in whatever work that they have been assigned, and trust that their efforts will be recognised in due course if the work has been well-executed. 

The answer to this question varies across the ICT sector – it depends on the company culture, company size, team in question, etc. Overall, as there is only so much “pain” that one can endure for money, one should not optimise his/her career decision purely to maximise earnings, but should also seek to find meaning, satisfaction, fulfilment and happiness in his/her job.