College is just basic knowledge
Hoang Ngoc Phu was born in 2000 and graduated from the Department of Public Administration at a university in Hanoi. After graduating, after half a year of not being able to find a job, the new graduate from Gia Lam district decided to apply for a job as a sales person at a car showroom in Dong Da district - where Phu's cousin was working.
“After the interview, I was hired, trained in basic knowledge about cars and information about the corporation, car manufacturers... My fixed salary is 5 million VND, and the company provides lunch. Sales staff here mainly depend on sales, there are good sales people with monthly income of tens of millions of VND, and bonuses of hundreds of millions of VND at the end of the year. After nearly 1 year of working, I do not have my own sales, but I often follow my cousin during the process of negotiating, taking care of customers, selling... so he gives me half of the sales of a car sold in the third quarter of 2024", Phu said.
According to Phu, although he has not officially sold any cars, he is still interested in the job because he gets to meet and interact with many customers. The "dream" income of many previous sales staff is also a great motivation for Phu.
Do Huu Nghia graduated with a degree in Economic Law but is working as a marketing staff for a pharmaceutical company.
Nghia said that when he was a third-year student, he interned at a law firm and was assigned to review contracts that the company was in charge of. “I just read the law and compared the contracts. I found the work very boring and monotonous, so every day after my internship, I felt lethargic and uninterested in the work,” Nghia shared.
In his fourth year, Nghia asked his relatives to help him get an internship at an agricultural import-export company. Nghia was assigned to study the details of economic laws related to the main areas where the company was exporting two products: pepper and coffee. The work was not too difficult, and the company where Nghia interned even said that they would hire Nghia after graduation. However, the male graduate chose a different path.
“My best friend studied at the University of Technology, but since his third year, he has established an online marketing group to sell products for brands. The job is very interesting, working with friends of the same age, the time is quite flexible and the income is also good - these are the factors that made me decide to join this group. My family initially objected, but after half a year I worked for my friend and thanks to connections, I became an official marketing employee for a pharmaceutical company, my parents no longer had any comments,” Nghia said.
Don't be too heavy
Mr. Le Quang Trung - former Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Employment (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) said that we should not be too harsh on young workers working in the wrong profession.
Mr. Trung pointed out the benefits of working in a different field, first of all, satisfying one's passion. When one finds a career passion, young people are more determined to pursue it and are more likely to succeed.
“Working in a different field means you have to start from zero - this is a challenge but also an opportunity for you to approach other areas in society. There will be a lot of knowledge you learn in the process of learning and doing a new job,” said Mr. Trung.
Mr. Trung also believes that choosing a job in a different field also encourages each person to step out of their comfort zone, explore themselves and that process will help each person realize whether they are suitable for a "side job" or not. Even in cases where it is not suitable, each person still has valuable experiences.
Regarding some of the disadvantages of working in a different field, Mr. Trung said that this can cause workers to never use the knowledge they have learned. If you accept working in a different field, you may have to spend more time to improve your professional knowledge, this process will make you seem to fall behind your peers.
