Finding a job as a fresh graduate is never easy, especially during this pandemic. However, on Tuesday, some of our Psychology Society Alumni came back to talk to us about what to expect after graduation to better prepare us for what’s to come. The two alumni members were both former PSYSOC members and had managed to secure a job within their first year of graduation. Our first speaker, Bernard, found himself working as a researcher and our second speaker, Jordan, found his footing in the field of product management.

Bernard spoke to us on what to prepare while we were still in university and gave us important tips when looking out for a job in the future. He explained that its ideal to start researching about your ideal job market to find out companies and organisations of interest, months before graduation so that we have enough information to reach out to them in the future. Bernard also mentioned that people often neglect their portfolios which made job hunting more difficult when students end up struggling to piece together their achievements last minute. These little tips really helped me to understand what to look out for in the future and steps to take in the meantime to prepare.

Bernard also mentioned that it is common to face rejection when applying for job but its manageable if we continue to persist, pointing to his own case of finding a job as a researcher without prior internships. I felt really encouraged seeing his success as well, since it meant that there were still various job opportunities despite facing such a pandemic.

Our second speaker, Jordan, talked to us about his field of product management, and the unique ideas of user experience design (UX). I had not heard much of about UX before and was quite intrigued since it seemed like it veered far away from our usual focus on fields of psychology. Jordan told us how UX was a creative process and actually involved some psychology theories as people strive to design the most user friendly and welcoming technology. He even mentioned how social media such as Tik Tok utilizes UX to formulate an addiction model so people would endlessly scroll through the pages, which contributed to much of their success.

Other than introducing his field of product management, Jordan also mentioned some crucial interview tips that could help us if we wanted to join the field. He emphasised on the importance of a unique profile and advised us to do pro-bono work or internships while we are studying. The tip that I found to be most essential was to research the company in advance and prepare what you can offer to improve the company, since it applied to all industries.

I think that the talk by Bernard and Jordan alleviated a lot of the worries I had about graduating and made me feel much more certain about my future. I think that everyone learnt a lot from this talk or at least felt like they knew about what to prepare and face in the job market. Overall, I highly recommend people to join any alumni talks in the future as they are the people who knows our situation best and can give us the insights we need into the field.