Enter the ‘career imposters': Gen Zs flipping the script on career fulfilment

Straits Times

03-05-2025

More Gen Zs are switching careers early to chase purpose rather than conventional notions of stability. ST PHOTOS: TARYN NG, MARK CHEONG, SRINIDHI RAGAVENDRAN
SINGAPORE – After graduating with a diploma in nursing from Ngee Ann Polytechnic in 2021, Ms Suhada Wang entered a workforce gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic. She stepped in as a locum nurse, spending her shifts administering medication and monitoring vitals on the front line .
The job was stable, but repetitive. 'Every day was the same,' she said. 'I had a sense that life must be more than this.'
That sense of 'more' took shape after an 18-day budget trip to Bali in 2022. Somewhere between cheap eats and shared hostels, she was reminded of her teenage dream of working in the media industry. Nursing had been her mother's choice, but chasing stories and documenting travel felt like hers.
Travel content creator Suhada Wang made the switch from nursing.
ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
Back in Singapore, she set her sights on The Travel Intern, a local travel content platform that reflected the kind of career she wanted. With no portfolio to show, she continued working nursing shifts while saving for short trips.
Over a year, she travelled to Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, documenting her experiences along the way. This eventually made her a perfect fit for The Travel Intern, where she has worked full time since April .
Ms Wang, 25, is part of a growing wave of 'career imposters', a term increasingly used on social media to describe people, often Gen Zs, who pivot into careers they were not formally trained for.
It plays on the idea of 'imposter syndrome' – the feeling of being a fraud or unqualified – while reclaiming it to reflect agency and reinvention, rather than inadequacy.
For many career imposters , the goal is not climbing the ladder, but carving out a path that brings meaning and fulfilment.
A 2023 study by global workforce solutions company ManpowerGroup found that 97 per cent of Singapore respondents said having meaning at work was important to them. Yet, only one in five reported feeling 'very satisfied' with the level of meaning in their jobs.
The need to balance personal life responsibilities with professional aspirations (20 per cent) and lack of skills and experience (15 per cent) were other challenges the 494 local respondents polled faced in their quest for jobs with purpose.
'I wasn't happy'
The issue of graduates working in fields unrelated to their area of study was raised in Parliament in January.
In a written reply, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said the proportion of graduates working in a related, full-time job had increased from 2014 to 2023. For polytechnic graduates, this proportion rose from 71 to 79 per cent, and for autonomous university graduates, it increased from 82 to 86 per cent over the 10 years .
Graduates from specialised disciplines were more likely to enter related jobs, he added. For example, over 95 per cent of health sciences polytechnic and university graduates took up a related job, much more than those from broader disciplines.
In comparison, only about 69 per cent of humanities and social sciences university graduates went into related jobs over the 10 years.
But Gen Zs are beginning to rewrite the rulebook, trading predictability for purpose and pursuing work that speaks to them.
Take Mr Lim Zheng Wei, who graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a degree in materials engineering in 2023, but went into an unrelated field. He now spends his days tending to marine animals and corals as an aquarium specialist at S.E.A. Aquarium .
'My dad was a big influence on my decision to study engineering at university. As an engineer himself, he said it was a stable and secure profession. Hearing that growing up, I decided to study something similar,' said the 28-year-old.
But he never let go of his childhood fascination with marine life. Growing up, he watched marine biology documentaries instead of cartoons. In primary school, his teacher entrusted him with the care of tetra fish, which he took home.
They did not survive, but his interest did. He started working part-time at S.E.A. Aquarium in 2021, while still in university. 'I just thought I would keep my interest in marine life as a passion,' he said.
Aquarium specialist Lim Zheng Wei graduated with a degree in materials engineering.
ST PHOTO: SRINIDHI RAGAVENDRAN
Juggling his time between school and the aquarium, he gave tours to visitors and had the opportunity to spend time with aquarists.
'Talking to them was the turning point for me. I realised this is something I can do full time,' he said.
Ms Prasanthi Guda, head of the undergraduate careers team at Singapore Management University's Career Centre , said: 'Gen Zs have a lot more information than previous generations, thanks to the internet and resources available now. Students today can take on internships early, try different careers and explore options before committing.'
The career coach added that this gives younger people more leeway not to be limited to one industry.
'When they do that, a certain fear dissipates. You're more willing to experiment, you can make informed choices and you know there's opportunity out there, even if you don't stick to one job or role. That's why so many young people want to gain as many experiences as possible,' she said.
While some young professionals ease into a new industry by juggling side gigs or freelance work, others dive in headfirst.
Pre-school teacher Kamini Manivannan used to work in public relations.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
For Ms Kamini Manivannan, 32, the shift from public relations to early childhood education was a deliberate break to clear her mind and chart a new trajectory.
After graduating with a degree in communication studies from NTU, she spent close to three years as an account manager at a public relations firm. 'I was doing so much, ticking off KPIs (key performance indicators) and making clients happy,' she said. 'But I wasn't happy .'
The turning point came late one night as she was wrapping up her usual media monitoring tasks. Her mother walked past and asked a simple question: 'How are you?'
It struck a nerve. 'She sees me at home every day, but we hadn't really spoken in a long time. That hit me. I realised how absent I had been,' she said.
What followed was an emotional meltdown and a career pivot.
As someone who always had an affinity for teaching and spending time with children, Ms Kamini began retraining for the pre-school sector, picking up part-time jobs to stay afloat while pursuing an 18-month conversion diploma in early childhood education at the National Institute of Early Childhood Development.
Her days were packed. She worked mornings as an assistant teacher at pre-school chain Chiltern House, gave tuition in the afternoons and facilitated creative writing classes for primary schoolers in the evenings.
'At one point, I was juggling five to six jobs,' she said. Despite the long hours, she noticed a change. 'I didn't feel as low at the end of the day. I had more time for my family and I felt lighter.'
She completed her diploma in 2018 and is now a teacher at Trehaus, a pre-school in Funan mall . She is also doing a master's degree in early childhood education at the National Institute of Education.
But making a bold switch is not just about dealing with logistics or gaining new qualifications. One of the biggest challenges many young career changers face is managing the expectations of those around them, particularly family members.
For Ms Kamini, a more than 50 per cent pay cut raised concerns at home.
'My parents started to see the downsides of the early childhood sector,' she said. 'They said I studied so much, went to university, got a degree, but am back to square one, doing a diploma and earning less.'
What they struggled to understand, she said, was that salary was not her top priority. 'My main focus was finding something that gave me joy.'
Similarly, Ms Wang's mother, who had discouraged her from enrolling in media studies in polytechnic, was shocked when she wanted to quit nursing. She recalls her mother asking: 'Isn't nursing good? Doesn't it pay well?''
Still, both said their parents eventually warmed up to their decisions, once they saw that Ms Kamini and Ms Wang felt more fulfilled .
Tension between practicality and passion
(From left) Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information final-year students Kylie Tan, Isabelle Ang, Krissten Tan and Nurul Ain Nuwairah are leading the campaign Spark The Start, which seeks to spark dialogue on unconventional career paths.
ST PHOTO: TARYN NG
Raising awareness about the importance of pursuing meaning in one's work is what a group of communication studies undergraduates at NTU set out to explore through their final-year project , Spark The Start.
Done in collaboration with the Early Childhood Development Agency, the campaign seeks to spark dialogue on unconventional career paths.
'We wanted to challenge the idea that everyone has to chase something stable, secure or prestigious,' said Ms Isabelle Ang, 23, one of four members behind the campaign. The team also comprises Ms Krissten Tan, 24; Ms Kylie Tan, 22; and Ms Nurul Ain Nuwairah, 24.
As part of their research, the team surveyed 150 respondents aged between 21 and 25 to understand what drives Gen Z in their career choices. The findings pointed to a noticeable shift in priorities.
The top career motivation was personal fulfilment, cited by 57.9 per cent of respondents. This was followed by work-life balance (10.5 per cent), job security (10.5 per cent), salary (9.8 per cent) and societal impact (5.3 per cent).
To encourage further self-reflection, the team also created a career journal titled Beyond The Locker Door. It consists of nine free-form activities designed to promote self-discovery and introspection, and was distributed to 995 secondary and junior college students.
Commenting on the career dilemmas many young people face, career coach Ms Guda noted: 'The tussle between practicality and your passions is a challenge that plagues even veterans .'
It is only natural, she added, for young people to feel this tension too.
'The ideal is a healthy mix of both, but if you don't have that in your first job, it's okay. You can seek it as you go along,' she said. The key, she added, is understanding 'what to prioritise at different stages of your career'.
Furthermore, exploring different career paths is helpful in picking up diverse, unexpected and valuable skills.
Ms Wang may no longer be a nurse, but her clinical training still comes in handy.
'When I travel with friends, I'm always checking on everyone's well-being and I'm the one who knows what to do if anyone falls ill,' she said.
Mr Lim's engineering background occasionally proves helpful in surprising ways.
He once needed to transfer a cold-water marine animal from its 17 deg C habitat to another facility. The water in the holding facility was about 10 deg C more, and the team needed to cool it down quickly.
'I remembered an equation from a physics module about heat transfer,' he said. 'So, I calculated the amount of ice needed to bring the temperature down . I wasn't sure if it would work, but it did. Instead of just guessing and dumping ice in, we got it right the first time,' he added.
For individuals like Ms Wang, Mr Lim and Ms Kamini, veering off their original career paths was less a mistake than a step towards growth.
Feeling like imposters in their previous roles, they embraced uncertainty and entered unfamiliar fields without formal training or a clear road map . Yet it was precisely this sense of not quite fitting in that gave them the courage to move to spaces where they did.
Ms Shirlyn Ong, career adviser at the NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates, suggests that those looking to pivot to a new field should start by finding out the key skills or certifications required for the role and consider enrolling in courses to bridge knowledge gaps or seek volunteer opportunities first.
Such career changes often involve weighing passion against practicality – with practicality typically associated with better pay, stability or progression.
'If they were to find themselves at such a crossroads,' Ms Ong said, 'I would suggest they speak to experienced individuals in the field they are passionate about.'
These conversations could offer insight into how others made the path work financially, and uncover adjacent roles that balance both meaning and income.
For Ms Kamini, financial considerations were never far from her mind.
'Not having a family to provide for did make it a bit easier to switch careers,' she said. 'But it was still something I had to consider as my dad had always been working two jobs and I wanted to ease that burden. That is why having savings is really important.'
Today, each of them stands in a role that aligns more closely with the life he or she once imagined – one defined by meaning .
As Ms Wang put it: 'As a generation, we are really lucky. We have resources and we just have to not be afraid to try new things. Sometimes, we just have to break that barrier and give it a shot. Because you never know until you try.'
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