MANILA, Philippines - ?I?m sorry, sir, I can?t accept this job,? the barely twentysomething fresh graduate nervously coughed up the words as he handed back the employment contract to the astonished recruiter, ?My dad said I shouldn?t accept a salary that?s less than P20,000 a month. He?d rather give me a larger allowance.?

Another new graduate worried about time. ?Will the hiring process take only one day?,? the young man asked. ?I?m really in a rush.?

Scenes like these have veteran recruiters shaking their heads in alarm. In the distant past, when they themselves were new graduates hoping to land their first full-time job, they came for interviews on time in neatly pressed corporate attire, resumés in hand, eager to prove themselves at the slightest opportunity.

Now fresh grads who leave the sanctuary of the academe?at a rate of 300,000 a year?seem to think they have all the aces in a job market that registers a 7.8 percent unemployment rate as of January 2007, according to the National Census and Statistics Office.

Gilbert Camasura, director of Corporate Social Responsibility for the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), presents more grim statistics. ?Out of 100 applicants, we hire only 10, although we?d like to get 70 to 80 percent. The no-shows (candidates who say yes to a job interview but don?t physically show up) are 30 to 40 percent.?

And yet, paradoxically, Camasura continues, ?applicants believe that at any time, they can land a job at a call center. They think that if they can?t dictate the terms in the job they?re after, they can always go to a call center.? They just want to be comfortable. After three months, if they don?t like the job, they leave.?

Even the call center and business process outsourcing industries, which post a high demand for agents, suffer a high attrition rate. Says Jocelyn Pick, managing director of Profiles Asia Pacific, ?Out of 100 applicants, they only hire one to five who are good in English.?

Patrick Ledonio, placement manager of JobsDB Prestige, has a couple of theories to explain this attitude, based on the average of 60 daily interviews he and his staff conduct. First, the basic fundamentals of ?sipag and tiyaga (industry and perseverance)? hammered into his generation 20 years ago are no longer as entrenched in today?s youth. Second, many parents gauge their children?s employment success on the basis of the investment put into their education.

Ledonio elaborates on this:: ?During our time, in the 1980s, one semester roughly cost P3,500. My first job in 1987 paid P6,000. Now, overall expenses for one semester range from P40,000 to P65,000, making a graduate-applicant hard-pressed to accept a monthly salary of P8,000 to P10,000, knowing how much his parents spent on his studies.?

Then, when an applicant does sign on the dotted line, the corporate structure, which dictates the amount of time it will take for him to get promoted, becomes a disincentive, prompting him to shift from one job to another. Ledonio illustrates: ?In the call centers, for example, a team leader handles 50 agents; so the agent who wants to become a team leader has 49 others to compete with. Or in a company sales department, a sales staff will have to beat eight or nine of his colleagues before he or she can become manager. When they see that the career path is long and arduous, employees tend to be adventurous and look for other opportunities.?

With the rapid turnover that Ledonio describes as ?four people leaving to one person being hired,? the one thing that recruiters look for is something all-too-rare: sustainability.

?It costs the company money to recruit and train people, only to lose them after,? he points out. ?A candidate?s capabilities and credentials become secondary to the main criterion: will he stay and be loyal??

Confirms Camasura, ?When we hire fresh graduates, what we have in mind is a three-to five-year career path. We just don?t look at job performance but at leadership qualities?those who can be good leaders for the company.?

Leadership in the long-term calls for more important character traits and useful, timeless skills.

All the recruiters interviewed agree that communication skills, oral and written, in both Tagalog and especially English, are paramount.

Self-confidence or the lack of it can make or break an application. Camasura explains, ?The candidate must always believe that he can make it and that he has the capability needed. He should also be willing to learn and explore. This is important, especially for college grads because many opportunities will be available to them.

?We also look at attitude, drive, and motivation. What motivates the person to really work? We look at the person?s eagerness to further enhance his skills beyond those that he learned in school.?

Ledonio also probes into parental upbringing which can play a role in motivation. ?If the applicant?s father is a military officer, then he could have a sense of discipline. If he came from a broken home, then he could either have a drive for independence or he could react emotionally to situations. All these manifest in the interview.?

Camasura also asks situational questions, where the applicant?s resourcefulness and creativity are tested.

?Be creative and think out of the box. Show how you can handle a situation or how you can apply a certain tool or knowledge learned in school. A typical graduate would simply give me an answer of yes or no. But there are analytical and critical thinkers, who would go out of their comfort zone, consider other possibilities, and come up with good solutions.?

In his interviews, Ledonio takes a look at the new graduates? extra-curricular activities. ?If he was into artistic ventures, then he would be very articulate and confident in meeting people. If he was with the English debating club, he would be good in communications. If he was into sports, expect him to have discipline and be a team-player.?

Pick advises new graduates to be amply prepared before going after their first job. She says, ?On-the-job training exposes job candidates to real-life work. They also have to be taught how to network because not all jobs are advertised. They need to do their homework, too, and learn in advance about the company they?re applying to, its mission and vision.?

Camasura believes that ?the Filipino is a global worker. Filipinos have always been tapped for jobs all over the world, regardless of gender or level of education.? With that in mind, he offers Career Placement Conferences that teach students essential career planning skills. ?They?ll know how to project themselves during interviews, how to prepare their resume, how to build a good image. We want to help the academe and school-based organizations build up their graduates and manpower. We help them do self-talk. They have to be able to say, ?Kaya ko ito. Magaling ako.??

For job opportunities, call JobsDB Prestige at 914-8000.