DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 16 April) – The most in demand specializations for fresh graduates in Mindanao right now are those job positions in customer service.
Maria Roselyn Ombao, marketing manager of JobStreet.com, said that customer service positions—from customer service representatives to technical support representatives—are aplenty these days. This is based on the jobs posted in its website during the first quarter of the year.
Last Thursday, JobStreet.com presented its 2015 Mindanao Jobs and Salary report.
Ombao said in a presentation that administrative support and clerical positions rank second, while those in finance and accounting rank third.
Those who work in information technology (IT) and computer hardware, and sales and retail, also join in the top five hottest jobs list.
JobStreet.com claims to have the largest number of employer advertisers, with over 20,000 companies in their database; 100,000 job postings, and 5.5 million candidates.
In Mindanao, 420,000 users and potential job candidates have signed up in JobStreet.com; 1,400 companies are in the database. There are 3,800 to 4,000 job postings daily.
High paying
Ombao said that jobs that currently have high paying salaries are those of IT specialists.
A fresh graduate who can fit specific requirements of companies (like competence on certain programming languages) can rake in (the average salary) P22,429 per month. Industries that employ these specializations include call centers and business process outsourcing firms(BPOs), banking and finance, and IT. Entry level jobs for this include technical troubleshooter, IT support specialist, and technical support associates.
It is also interesting to note that IT positions in Mindanao pay just the same when compared to same job offerings in Cebu and in the National Capital Region. In Mindanao, the average salary of fresh graduates working in IT is P22, 429; in Cebu, the same job position has the salary of P25,483; while in Manila, P23,949.
Positions in the hotel management and tourism services rank second in the top five list of jobs that pay well for fresh graduates. Those who enter the aerospace, aviation, and airline hospitality earn an average of P18,600 per month.
Healthcare/pharmacy and marketing/business development fresh graduates can earn P18,364 and P16,635, respectively.
Those who wind up in customer service (in industries call centers, BPOs, banking, finance, and healthcare) can earn a modest P16,528.
Philip Gioca, Philippine country manager of JobStreet.com, said that this list is a “pulse” of the job market and may change regularly; it is not a foreseen trend.
Ombao explained that the good thing about the in demand jobs for fresh graduates (like positions in sales and customer service) are not selective when it comes to what course an applicant finished because these are skill based.
Tips for finding a job
Gioca said that these are the things that employers look for in fresh graduates: communication skills, trainability, competence, problem solving and analytical skills, and tech know-how.
Behavioral skills equally matter: willingness to learn, initiative, honesty and integrity, self-motivation, and self-confidence.
According to Gioca, employers these days also list these major concerns with fresh graduates: tenure (how long do these fresh graduates intend to stay in their first job?), poor communication skills, high expectations (and less knowledge about how industries operate), flexibility issues, and unprofessionalism (can take form in tardiness and not conforming to dress codes).
Fresh graduates at a glance
According to the registrar offices of these schools in Davao, these are the number of fresh graduates this year: Ateneo de Davao University (1,434; 818 are business course graduates), University of Mindanao (about 1,251; 282 are business administration courses), and San Pedro College of Davao (750; 205 are medical laboratory science graduates).
Job seekers
Based on the January 2015 labor force survey of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Davao Region has an unemployment rate of six percent (or about 124,000 in actual number). DOLE-11 is also expecting about 13,500 fresh graduates this year all over the region.
