We have all imagined once before in our youth, that as long as we have a degree, it will help us to ensure that we would no longer have to worry about our income and success for a lifetime. It is an understandable imagination. The fact is that based on our academic grades, we are indeed the champions.
You are in your current university because you are the top 10% of your cohort in your studies amongst all your peers of the same age. This makes you a top achiever in the current realm of your competition. You have weathered the storms of selection and filtration through the standard channels which the Singapore education system has structured.
Everyone requires a university degree in our generation; it is a door opener and gives you a competitive advantage, one-off, at the entry point of your career. This differentiator of yours exists only at the onset for the lack of a better indicator.
Over time, the value of a degree decreases because almost every other person who will enter your company or industry has a degree, not mentioning the many foreign talents with outstanding credentials who have entered Singapore. Moreover, employment has turned into a global affair, with employers having access to a much wider selection of talents outside of Singapore. The relevance of your degree is also being continuously eroded, due to rapidly evolving industry parameters; the academic knowledge learnt back in school becomes outdated much faster, sometimes even before your graduation.We used to be in a league unchallenged by others. The same prized status we used to enjoy has faded off into the horizon. We face many challenges from all angles, whether be it people who have a higher level of education or people who are willing to undertake the same responsibilities and workload for a much lower income.
Many students are also unaware that employers no longer scrutinize the grades of the subjects that were taken in their university course; all employers want to know is whether you have a degree or not. What matters to them more is the experience and attitude of the applicant. Many students do not realize that they are already in the final phase of their formal education; their degree is only a stepping stone, not the sole determinant to acquire a brilliant and successful career. They are still stuck on the secondary school mentality of maximizing their grades, as though they require their university grades to get into a better school to study.
Times have changed and it will never revert to what it was 10 years ago. Have a look at recruitment advertisements: "minimum with 3 years experience" and the like. Hands-on experience is obviously of value so much more than grades. If outstanding grades or even a very high quality degree certificate is more valuable, then the recruitment advertisements would read like this: "minimum 75% A's for all subjects studied in university" or "only 1st class honors graduates need apply". Have you ever seen such advertisements?
Increasingly, selection interviews are also placing much greater emphasis and higher importance on the attitude and EQ of the graduate. In these times, employers are much more discerning and demand only employees who have initiative, are more willing to put in effort to learn and work, more willing to cope with the true demands of constructive work without complaints, able to manage interpersonal relationships well and are able to put relevant hands-on experience into good use. It has evolved into a game where the true ability to deliver consistent results is the direct assessment, and that is the key to opening the door to any career. It is also this same ruler which will be used to measure your subsequent progress in the many years to come, in any industry.
Which is worth more to invest in to secure a successful career? Where is the real competitive advantage? Is it all about the grades that we score in the virtual garden which we have created for ourselves in the academic environment? What can we proactively do to ensure and secure our success for our short-term and long-term future?
Reassess our thinking and develop true vision to see how the fundamental dynamics of how the world actually works.
Your True Competitive Advantage