THE YEAR 1985 WAS AN UNSETTLING YEAR for the NTI pioneers. In April, they graduated right in the midst of Singapore's worst recession in 26 years. Ng Chyou Lin recalled, “One moment I was revelling in the warmth of getting my academic scroll and the morning after, I was feeling the chill of a quiet job market in which many companies retrenched staff let alone hired new ones.” The tale from other NTI pioneers was similar. There were few if any responses from employers to the slew of resumes sent. The fortunate exceptions were the scholars with the civil service or private companies and some of those who were hired by the companies where they spent their six-month industrial attachment.

The recession was triggered by a drop in demand for goods from Singapore's trading partners. The factories that were supposed to hire the MPE and EEE graduates had cut their production. That led to a headcount freeze, and subsequent retrenchments deepened the gloom. CSE graduates were not spared either. The construction sector, which had been growing rapidly, stagnated towards the end of 1984. There were few remaining public projects and the private commercial and residential property markets were saturated. The demand for civil engineers plummeted and CSE graduates faced an uphill task in their job search for the next three years.

The sudden and swift recession was a shock for Singapore which had been used to consistent high economic growth. Since separation from Malaysia in 1965, economic growth averaged 9.7 per cent. The only serious decline came during the 1974 –75 oil crisis. The recession crushed the rosy expectations of the NTI pioneers. It suddenly dawned on them that life was not so straightforward. Teh Keng Liang said, “A university degree did not guarantee a job. We thought that there would be jobs waiting for us given our professional degree. We were very mistaken.” Among the foreign students, some “went home”. Others remained in Singapore as they were bonded for three years due to the subsidised education. They hung on until the jobs resurfaced, thankfully, towards the end of the year.