Employment or entrepreneurship after graduation?
In this post, I will be sharing the pros and cons of fresh graduates joining employment or venturing into entrepreneurship after graduation.
You will also find some suggestions on how to overcome the downside of both employment and entrepreneurship.
This is a long post because I am trying to put in as many details as possible. With the hope that young graduates can have a better idea of both employment and entrepreneurship after graduation.
Table of Contents
- Joining employment after graduation
- Pursuing entrepreneurship after graduation
- Employment or entrepreneurship after graduation?
- Final thoughts
Joining employment after graduation
Traditionally, fresh graduates will be looking for employment after graduation.
It is like the normal process of a person’s life: go to school, then go to college and then get a job.
I myself had been through this normal process. I considered myself lucky to be absorbed into employment a few weeks after graduation.
From that employment, two years later I moved into different employment. In total, I spent more than 15 years in full-time employment.
Along the journey, I found the pros and cons of employment as below.
Pros of joining employment after graduation
1. You get paid on time
When you join employment, you will get your salary on time. Which is usually by the end of the month.
So, you can have peace of mind that by the end of the month, you will have money in your bank account. As long as you are still employed, you will receive your regular paycheck.
You can then start to plan ahead with things you wish to do with the money:
- get your first car
- buy your first home
- pay your study loan
- get yourself a cool new smartphone
- buy your loved ones a nice dinner
- kick start your investment
- save for your business
The stability of a regular paycheck makes financial planning much easier and more predictable too.
This could be one of the most important reasons why fresh graduates join employment.
2. You get employment benefits
I shared in my earlier post that, aside from fixed income, another big advantage of employment is employee benefits.
When you accept the offer letter, at the same time you are eligible for the many employee benefits offered by the employer.
Some of the employee benefits are:
- EPF and SOCSO
- paid leaves (medical leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, annual leaves, birthday leave, study leave)
- medical, optical and dental benefits for employees and sometimes covers spouse and children
- Group insurance coverage for employees and sometimes covers spouses and children
- Health screening package
- Performance Bonus, Year-end bonus
- Allowances, overtime claims, incentives and awards
The immediate benefit from most of these employee benefits is that you get to save money. Because your employer will pay for you (and your family).
While some benefits such as bonuses, allowances and incentives are providing additional cash to the employee.
3. Predictable working hour
Employment offers an employee a predictable working hour.
Usually, it is stated clearly in the offer letter mentioning the working hours required. In most cases, the standard working hours are:
- Monday to Friday
- 9 am to 6 pm
Of course, there are times when the employer requires the employees to work overtime to complete certain tasks.
In which the employees will receive overtime payment or time-off based on the company rules.
Again, there might be some profession in which you are required to spend more than the required working hours stated on the offer letter, just for the sake of completing the task.
Or, perhaps to have a better result such as to achieve more sales.
Basically, in a normal situation, other than these working hours, you are free to spend the rest of the hours and days.
4. Learning and getting support from team members
When you accepted the offer letter from a company, automatically you become part of the big family.
As a part of the company, you also work together with the other employees in the company. This means, you have your own roles and your responsibility is to take care of the task under that role.
All team members are working together to achieve a common goal.
So, you have a team to support you whenever you need help, suggestion or guidance. Which is a good thing when compared to running your own business alone where you plan, execute and face challenges by yourself.
5. Exposure to the real working world
Employment also gives you the opportunity to be in the actual working world.
Where you liaise with people from all levels, within the company itself and with those related to the company.
This can include:
- Co-workers, superiors, subordinates
- Customers
- Prospects
- Vendors
- Dealers
- Competitors
- Private and Government agencies
In my opinion, employment can be a complex place especially if you work in a large corporate. There are many things that you can only learn when you are actually in the complex circle itself.
Personally, I think this complex environment can be a great learning space to be exposed to the real world.
6. Opportunity to climb up the corporate ladder
Employment also comes with great opportunities. I have seen ex-colleagues successfully climbing up the corporate ladder.
Even though the process is not easy and might take some time, it is definitely possible to climb up the corporate ladder.
So, employment can offer a faster way to get famous in your organization and your industry too.
When you are famous and wanted, you will also see the money roll in your way.
7. Opportunity to build a contact network
Employment also offers a great opportunity to build a contact network.
This is especially true if you are in the sales profession where you get to meet and mix with many professionals from different companies.
I remembered in my early days when my ex-boss shared that to never throw away any contacts including prospects who rejected our proposal. Because you will never know someday you will offer the same prospects with a different type of service.
Even if you are not in the sales profession, you still can build your contact network within the same organization.
Don’t be surprised if some of these customers or suppliers can become good friends. Or perhaps offering you new opportunities.
In a short, with employment, you get paid while you gain experience.
Cons of joining employment after graduation
And now, the downside of full-time employment is as below:
1. You need to follow instructions
When you join full-time employment, you must be ready and willing to follow instructions.
The instruction can be from your board of directors, CEO, managers, superiors, co-workers and customers.
But from my own experience, it is never easy to get people to follow instructions. Most of the time, they are not willing to follow instructions because they think they have a better way to complete a task.
The unwillingness to follow instructions will create a lot of disharmony and conflicts in an organization.
Here are some suggestions to make the following instruction part easier:
- Take things easy. Always remember the company pays you a salary for executing a certain task. If you want the salary, just be patient and follow the given instruction.
- Voice out the opinion in a proper way. If you really can’t follow the given instruction, then you will need to voice your reason to the right person. Perhaps you have a better solution to the problem.
In my opinion, if you know you are someone who is not willing to follow instructions, perhaps employment is not the right place for you.
2. Limited time for own venture
An employee working full-time usually has limited time for his own venture. Mainly because of the commitment needed in his full-time employment.
After all, everyone only has 24 hours in a day. Minus that with time for sleep, and transport to work, you are only left with a few hours of personal time.
But, most probably you are feeling drained out at the end of a demanding and tiring working day.
And weekend usually is reserved for leisure and relaxation activities to rejuvenate your body before another demanding workweek. Even if you have some free time, your mind and body might not be willing to cooperate to work on some serious own venture.
So, an employee under full-time employment really has limited time for his own venture.
Here are some suggestions to spare some time for yourself and your new venture:
- Only work within one’s working hours. This means, planning your work and task properly. And make it a habit not to bring work out from the office.
- Venture into something you are interested in, rather than looking for quick monetary gain.
- Set up a schedule and stick to the schedule for your own venture.
Above all, create a realistic plan for both your employment and your own venture. And when dealing with time, don’t be too hard on yourself.
3. Surviving office politics
Working together with others in an organization also means that you can’t run away from office politics.
From my own experience, I know there are people who resigned from their well-paying position not because of not being able to perform or not enjoying what he is doing, but because of office politics.
Sometimes, office politics can be really ugly and scary. That is why office politics can be a big disadvantage of full-time employment.
Since one can’t avoid office politics in an office, here are some suggestions on how to make the best of it:
- Stay firm and has a clear stand to avoid office politics. Others might still want to drag you in. But, when you stay firm, it limits your involvement in office politics.
- Keep work to work. And make sure you keep things private and confidential, aside from always having a black and white on the given instruction or tasks completed.
If worse come to worst, you can always look for new employment. I believe there are still offices with minimal office politics.
4. Facing job insecurity
A corporate worker also can’t run away from job insecurity.
From time to time, there will be changes in an organization because these companies need to remain competitive. Some of the factors contributing to these changes are:
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Company restructuring
- Adoption of digital ways such as automation and artificial intelligence
These changes often result in retrenchment, which is a dreaded word in the world of employment.
Since an employee can’t run away from job insecurity, there are ways you can tackle job insecurity:
- Learn new skills. When you have more skills, you have a better opportunity to contribute to the organization.
- Willing to take up new challenges. During a tough time such as company restructuring, be ready to be relocated.
- Have an emergency fund ready. An emergency fund helps to ensure you are financially secure until the next opportunity.
Just remember that you must be prepared to face job insecurity. So, when the time comes, you can handle the situation better.
For that, you can read my post on how to deal with retrenchment where I shared how I survived two retrenchment exercises.
5. Might get complacent
Another downside of full-time employment is that you might get complacent.
What I meant here is that, after some time under full-time employment, with a stable paycheck and employee benefits, you might feel heavy to step out of your comfort zone.
Especially those involved with uncertainties and high risks such as starting out a new venture.
So, security from full-time employment might make you feel complacent.
And here are some suggestions to tackle complacency at work:
- Have a life outside of your work. Make sure you have a favourite pastime to come to after working hours. Have a plan to turn this hobby into something big someday.
- Don’t stay too long under the same employment. Look for new opportunities with new challenges and better pay too.
- Request to transfer to other departments or relocate to an office at a different location. When there are new faces, a new place and a different role, chances are you are feeling excited and ready to conquer the world.
To be honest, after spending a few years in employment, it is easy to get complacent at work. Especially if you continue in the same working environment.
So, it is important to always have a plan to improve yourself. And take responsibility to inspire yourself.
Pursuing entrepreneurship after graduation
From my observation, there is an increasing number of fresh graduates venturing into entrepreneurship right after graduation.
And I believe this trend is going up and will continue to soar further.
Personally, I don’t have experience in entrepreneurship except for this personal finance blog. But, I have nieces and nephews who are venturing into the business after graduation.
Occasionally, we chit-chat about life as entrepreneurs. On top of that, my husband is into business himself, but that was after years of full-time employment.
So, from my observation, these are the pros and cons of entrepreneurship:
Pros of pursuing entrepreneurship after graduation
1. Possibilities of unlimited income
With full-time employment, you roughly can estimate your annual income. Even though there is a yearly increment and bonus, there is still a limit to it.
But, with a successful business venture, you will reach the possibility of unlimited income. In other words, you have the possibility to earn as much as you wish.
2. Satisfaction from running your own business
Secondly, as an entrepreneur, you get satisfaction from running your own business.
There is even greater satisfaction if you are doing something you love and you are getting paid for doing it.
3. Freedom to do things your way
Another advantage of joining entrepreneurship is that you have the freedom to do things your own way. Or at least, you have choices on how to run your business.
Which, in employment, most of the time we have no say or limited say in how to do our work.
4. Energetic and full resources
As a fresh graduate, I believe you are energetic and filled with burning energy to showcase your ability to the world.
One of the best assets that a fresh graduate can have is the energy and time to pour into their new venture.
Compared to those with family commitments, fresh graduates definitely have more energy and time to invest in a new venture.
5. No office politics
Another great advantage of entrepreneurship over employment is you don’t have to face office politics.
In my opinion, office politics greatly affect our desire to perform and to move forward in employment.
I can say that there are people who are willing to do anything to win office politics for their own benefit.
In fact, many employees look for other opportunities not because they don’t like their job but because they can’t stand office politics.
So, with entrepreneurship, you don’t have to waste energy on things like workplace politics.
Cons of pursuing entrepreneurship after graduation
1. Financial support to start and run your business
As an entrepreneur, most likely you will need financial support to start and run your business.
Even if you are just planning to start a blog which I am doing, you still need money for:
- hosting plan
- domain name
- everyday needs (food, laptop, mobile phone, broadband)
For fresh graduates, the easiest way to get financial support is from their parents. But, many are not willing to ask for help from their parents.
Here are some suggestions to overcome financial support for your business venture:
- Fund it yourself. Calculate how much you need for your business venture. Then, start with a full-time job and have your venture as a side business. From there, save a big portion of your salary for your business venture.
- Apply for term financing from crowdfunding platforms such as Funding Societies Malaysia.
- Apply for a small business loan from your preferred local bank.
- Look out for government schemes such as Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd. This early-stage start-up influencer not only provides monetary aid but also provides commercialisation, coaching and other necessary assistance.
In my opinion, the easiest and most viable way for financial support is from your parents.
For further reading on getting financial resources for your entrepreneurship, you can read this article Startup Funding Malaysia – Guide for getting cash for your start-up or SME in Malaysia. It offers quite a complete list to fund a new business in Malaysia.
2. Lack of working experience
As a fresh graduate joining entrepreneurship, a lack of working experience can be a great disadvantage. Because how the real working world works can be quite different from what we learn from books.
From my own experience, the working world can be quite cruel even for those with many years of working experience.
The lack of working experience can be causing you to face a lot of bumps along the way. And these bumps might slow down your entrepreneurship journey.
Here is my suggested solution to overcome the lack of working experience:
- Take up part-time work. If you are still an undergraduate, challenge yourself to take up part-time work during weekends or temporarily work during semester break.
- Delay entrepreneurship. If you are a fresh graduate, delay your entrepreneurship plan for a year or two. Get yourself full-time work and experience the real working world before you do full-time in your own business.
With the above suggestion, you are not only equipped with useful working experience but also an opportunity to save up capital for your own business.
3. Feeling isolated or lonely
If you start your business venture as a one-man show, you might feel isolated or lonely. Especially if you need input or suggestions to run your business venture.
Besides, you might feel demotivated to work or to continue your business venture because you don’t have anyone to report to.
These are my suggestions to overcome the feeling of being isolated or lonely throughout entrepreneurship:
- Work with a partner. Instead of a one-man show, work with a partner who shares similar interests and values.
- Choose to venture with something you are passionate about. If you love what you are doing, very likely you are motivated to do it.
- Learn and contribute to the community. Join a discussion group or forum related to your chosen line of business.
Life as an entrepreneur can be very challenging and rewarding at the same time.
Employment or entrepreneurship after graduation?
If you ask me, I would say it is rather hard to decide whether to opt for employment or entrepreneurship after graduation.
Because both employment and entrepreneurship after graduation have their pros and cons.
But if I must make a choice between employment or entrepreneurship after graduation, I will choose to go into employment first.
Mainly is just to have the experience of being in full-time employment.
I strongly believe the experience gained during employment will definitely benefit a smoother entrepreneurship road ahead. While at the same time, also build something on my own during my spare time.
Final thoughts
From the above sharing, I hope you have a better idea of employment or entrepreneurship after graduation.
I would say everyone is unique and different. There are some who prefer employment over entrepreneurship. While there are others who would try out a business venture right after graduation.
If you have the financial support and the right entrepreneurship skills, it might be a good idea to start your business right after your graduation.
But, still, personally, I still think it is a good idea to mingle around in the employment world for a year or two. Just to gain the actual experience, to see and taste the real working world before starting your own venture.
To my readers, are you a fresh graduate considering employment or entrepreneurship after graduation?
Or, are you currently in employment and wondering if you should take the entrepreneurship path? Perhaps, you are a young entrepreneur planning to go into employment?
Maybe you are someone with years of experience either in employment or entrepreneurship.
Feel free to share your view on employment or entrepreneurship after graduation.
