By Mindy Tan
Younger Singaporeans are more likely to switch careers within the next five years, especially those from the government, engineering, and information technology sectors.
According to HR firm Kelly Services, 60 per cent of those surveyed in Singapore expect a career change within the next five years; 63 per cent of Gen Y (aged 18-29), 59 per cent of Gen X (aged 30-47) and 44 per cent of baby-boomers (aged 48-65) fall within this category.
On an industry level, 73 per cent from the government sector anticipate a career change, followed closely by engineering (72 per cent) and IT (71 per cent).
Some 900 workers in Singapore were polled for the index which covered 30 countries."We are seeing a surprisingly large number of people who are actively considering the critical issue of whether they should change their careers and make a fresh start," noted Melissa Norman, Kelly Services managing director for Singapore and Malaysia.
"For an earlier generation, a change of career would have been something of a crisis, however today, it is seen as a reflection of shifts in demand for different skills and occupations, as well as changing personal interests on the part of employees."
The top factor driving career change was a "need for higher income" at 32 per cent; "personal interests changed" and "better work-life balance" came in at 25 per cent.
One sign of the shifting attitude to career interruption is that 68 per cent expressed belief that they could resume their career at the same level after taking a break for maternity or paternity leave, illness or an extended holiday.
Baby boomers were the most confident of resuming their career (70 per cent), compared with 69 per cent of Gen Y and 66 per cent of Gen X workers.
When looking for a job, 68 per cent of respondents said the best indicator of a person's talent was their work experience, followed by performance in the job interview (18 per cent), and job references or education (tied at 7 per cent).
A further 96 per cent recognised that it was either "extremely important" or "important" that qualifications and skills be upgraded to progress their career.
This was in line with the 83 per cent who said that the most important element in a person's career was experience (83 per cent) versus formal education (16 per cent).
87 per cent of the respondents have aspirations to advance to an executive position.
With talent scarcity and mobility on the rise, Ms Norman noted that more organisations are providing up-skilling, training and development programmes as part of their talent attraction and retention initiatives.
"With talent mobility on the rise . . . the workplace of the future must now evolve to be just as virtual as its employees have become. To accomplish this, management must develop a higher level of comfort in workforce virtualisation," she concluded.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
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