On The Red Dot: Graduated, Now What? - Nicholas Fheng & Dave Peter Ho

In Singapore, academic success is still often seen as the golden ticket to white-collar careers. Many parents continue to view a stable professional job as the ideal outcome for their children. Yet, today’s university graduates are entering a tougher job market - one with fewer conventional corporate openings and a growing interest among young workers in skills-based or independent careers.

But what happens when graduates take an even bolder step - trading boardrooms for workshops, wet markets, and repair bays?

This three-part series follows degree-holders who’ve taken the road less travelled. Some are driven by passion, others by purpose, and a few by the dream of building something on their own terms. Along the way, they confront social expectations, financial uncertainty, and the lingering stigma attached to blue-collar work in a degree-obsessed culture. Yet their stories also reveal new ways of defining success - not by status or salary, but by meaning, craft, and resilience.