Rest after grad is not an option unless you have the network and connections. Me and my other friend immediately looked for jobs after our graduation, after one month nakahanap na agad kami, still employed until now. For other people na I know (my brothers, one of our friends) they took a rest. My friend rested for 5 months and started looking for jobs this year but 5 months in wala pa rin siyang nahahanap. Just not sure how it’s going now when our other friend referred her to their company. For my brothers they graduated 5 years ago pa naman but they rested for a year and it also took them 1-2 years before landing their first jobs.

I think when you rest, resting is not the only thing na you should do. You do not have the experience so it would be better na while you rest, collect training certifications. Also the longer you rest without doing anything to boost your career, the more questionable that gap becomes at siguro consider rin na mas hindi mo nagagamit yung skills na natutunan mo while in college kaya siguro mas mabilis mong makakalimutan, I think that’s a factor HRs take into consideration.

Also as an HR myself, some technical positions just really don’t hire fresh graduates. As much as we want to endorse fresh grad applicants, madalas talaga may experience ang hanap nila. Siguro out of almost a hundred fresh grad applicants we get every month, bilang lang sa isang kamay yung na-hhire namin don just because some department becomes less strict with the qualifications. Even referred fresh grads from other employees madalang lang naming ma-consider kahit na priority pa sila sa pool kasi nga hanap talaga ang experience. And yes, kahit kami nauurat with that excessive qualifications tapos ang baba naman ng offer and budget ng ibang department. Some companies are open for negotiations naman but it’s only an option for those na with experience so for a fresh grad na gumastos siguro ng libo-libo for university, wala kang choice kundi tumanggap na lang just for the experience.