2020 has been an unprecedented year for every industry around the world, with over-stressed health systems and heighten economic stress, which makes the hiring market challenging, including in Thailand.

The first quarter of this year started well, according to Robert Walters Thailand, a global recruitment specialist group. Though 2020 was difficult for many, Thailand saw considerable activity due to fast-moving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, insurance, private wealth, technology and transformational products and services, e-commerce, supply chain and logistics sectors, with the tech industry being the clear leader.

The Country Manager for Robert Walters Thailand, Punyanuch Sirisawawattana, said that everyone knows that digital is coming up. But the COVID-19 is actually speeding up the demand.

“If you are really specific in terms of skills, cybersecurity would be one of them,” added Punyanuch.

She said that technology professionals continue to be in high demand, and there is a limited pool of candidates in the market. This is when new graduates might be able to gain an advantage over the others in the job market since they might be more adaptive to technologies. Punyanuch said this is because they are young, and they were born with the technologies.

Country Manager for Robert Walters Thailand said the problem with the younger generation is that they tend to want to progress in their career quickly, but their experience might not be enough yet. She said they need to moderate their expectations and really spend time learning the basics.

And this is where those who became unemployed in the past year can be more competitive.

“One thing the organization needs is people who are flexible, who are willing to learn, and have high learning agility. People who are unemployed right now will not find it difficult to find a job, but they do need to show this thinking, that they can adapt to change, that they are willing to actually learn something new,” said Punyanuch.

It is not just the employees who need to adapt, the employer also needs to study the organization, to see whether the position they think they need to fill right now is important. Companies are cautious and will be even more cautious in terms of hiring and paying high salaries to one person.

The takeaway from 2020, Punyanuch said, is that, during a difficult situation, a positive attitude and resilience are the two most important things.

“And we survived last year already, together with other people as well, so let’s hope this year is going to be a more generous year for all of us”.

by Kiratikorn Naksompop Blauw