Ms. Le Thi Van Nga graduated with a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Commerce (Hanoi) in August 2023.
Not dreaming of holding a master's degree in hand because knowing that to have a job in the right major, you need to accumulate more experience, Ms. Nga applied to work as a sales staff at a company specializing in importing household appliances located in Thanh Xuan district (Hanoi).
When I participated in the interview, I was almost the most qualified person to apply at that time. The company hired me to work, with a starting salary of 5 million VND like all other employees. Of course, to have this fixed salary, sales staff must achieve sales targets. The "soft" salary will be paid based on the sales completion ratio offered by the company, said Ms. Nga.
According to Ms. Nga, while many of her high school classmates submitted applications to more advanced job positions with salaries calculated at thousands of dollars, she was satisfied with her starting point.
After graduating from college, I always study high school, and have not had a day of practice, I think starting as a sales staff is the most reasonable position, identifying myself as a job-learner, rising up from a job-learner - Ms. Nga shared.
After nearly 2 years of working with the company, Ms. Nga is now the head of the sales team, in charge of the area of 3 districts of Hanoi City.
In 2022, Mr. Nguyen Minh Quan graduated with honors in insurance from the National Economics University.
Graduating at the right time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recruiting businesses are slow, Mr. Quan decided to find a job and work right away without having to choose the right major or salary.
Mr. Quan applied to become an administrative staff of a company specializing in logistics.
"The initial work was to process documents assigned by the department head, transfer documents to the company branch, even drive leaders to meet partners... I did all of these jobs with dedication. Every job I keep in mind is the process of learning, including driving" - Mr. Quan said.
After working, Mr. Quan realized that reducing expectations too much about work would bring stability and help workers accumulate "soft" experience.
"I used to think that just being good at studying was enough, but when I went to work, I realized that knowledge was only a part of work, in fact, it required many other factors from workers that if we did not experience, refused to learn, and did not stumble, we would never have had them," Mr. Quan affirmed.
Mr. Le Quang Trung, former Deputy Director of the Department of Employment, said that according to the forecast of the International Labor Organization (ILO), every 5 years, 30% of the current professional skills of workers will no longer be used, and must be replaced with new skills. This requires young workers to be equipped with professional skills and the skills to adapt to changes.
In the current period, young workers need to be equipped with soft skills and adaptive skills to be able to work in a 4.0 environment, with the ability to cope with situations, especially against non-traditional risks, said Mr. Trung.
The Labor Market Newsletter for the first quarter of 2025 of the Institute of State Organization and Labor (Ministry of Home Affairs) shows that the number of workers applying for unemployment benefits in the quarter decreased, but in some industry groups, the rate of unemployed people was still high.
Specifically, in the first quarter of 2025, 144,889 people submitted applications for unemployment benefits. The majority of workers who submit applications for unemployment benefits are in the group without degrees or certificates, accounting for 59.2%; those with a university degree or higher account for 18.7%; college degree 7.6%; intermediate level 6%; and 8.5% of those applying for benefits have primary vocational certificates and certificates.
