For the past few weeks, I have been having the same type of conversation with my senior colleagues. We realised that lots of graduates nowadays are quite different from their time (and even my time....which makes me feel old..haha). The graduates nowadays seems to be quite picky in their career choices mostly based on salary and not the sake of gaining knowledge for better advancement in the future. They would prefer to go into big corporate firms or company that can pay the most rather than think about how it would help them later.

Take civil engineering as an example. As mentioned by a very senior engineer today, being in the construction engineering line pays more than being a consultant engineer. But graduates never think that the knowledge they would gain in the consultant line in the beginning of their career will make their job in future much easier even if they jump to another line of work (contractor or developer). This senior has many years of experience and worked with many contractors and developers before, but very rare he will get someone who knows the "design engineering" world which will make things much easier for everyone to understand.

Another difference with some fresh graduates today is that they "want it all". They want a nice car, they want their own place (rented of course) and they want to shop and dine like they have all the money in the world. I still recall how I started my first few years of work. I rented a small little bedroom which only fits my mattress and my fabric cupboard. And then I moved on the a bigger room but stayed with my husband (my then boyfriend). We gradually then rent a small apartment and just two years ago, we moved in to our home.

I recalled "complaining" about my salary maybe after about 3 years of working at my first job. But now I hear graduates complaining about their salary in less than a year to a year of working.

You can call me a jealous person, but all I can say now is time has changed.