After graduating with a health degree, Tonyah Gift went straight into a Bermuda Government graduate trainee programme to bridge the gap between university and employment.

Ms Gift worked as a physiotherapist’s assistant for several months.

“Things were slow when I finished and they just could not keep me on,” she said. “I would have had nothing to do.”

Three months after completing the programme, she is still struggling to find a job in her field.

“I feel like a lot of other graduates are having the same problem,” she said. “In fact, most of the people I knew from the programme do not yet have jobs in their field, either.”

It was not guaranteed that they would be fully employed after completing the training, but she went into the programme feeling confident because the success rate had been high in previous cohorts.

The Bermuda Chamber of Commerce’s latest Barometer Report conducted by Narrative Research, revealed that employers’ greatest challenge is recruiting and maintaining staff.

Bermuda’s official unemployment rate is 2.5 per cent.

But Ms Gift is not experiencing that trend.

She shared her search experiences in the DisruptHR Bermuda Speaker Series, a business ideas forum held at the Bermuda College last week.

“Most jobs right now are in insurance or accounting,” Ms Gift told The Royal Gazette.

She was frustrated that prospective employers rarely bothered to call back.

She thinks that part of the problem is the vagueness of her “healthcare” degree from Birmingham Metropolitan College in England.

“I never get in the door to explain it,” she said. “When I did the degree, my dream was to get into healthcare policy formation. I am interested in healthcare management and the promotion of healthcare. I am passionate about healthcare education.”

She has heard that some companies are using artificial intelligence to sort through job applications.

“I wish companies would talk about how they choose people,” she said. “I thought there was someone in human resources sorting through applications.”

She has reworked and revamped her résumé, taken a part-time job, and is even soon to take on a second one, neither of which is in her chosen field.

Ms Gift feels that going back to school would be an expensive undertaking, and she does not want to leave the island to seek a job.

“A lot of us had the opportunity to work abroad, but we came back to Bermuda because we wanted to make change in our own country,” she said. “Even if I did move away, I would first have to save and have a steady income to do that.”

Sharing her story at DisruptHR was a positive experience for Ms Gift.

“I am now exploring many new connections,” she said. “I got a lot of positive feedback.”

Another DisruptHR speaker, Mikal Minors, talked about why he chose to stay in Bermuda when there were clearly better opportunities elsewhere.

Mr Minors runs a software development company called Better Digital.

“I do not have a rational reason for why I stay,” Mr Minors said.

In January, a poll by Narrative Research found that almost a quarter of Bermuda residents were thinking about leaving the island, primarily because of concerns about their financial future.

Mr Minors said Bermuda needs to create more financial opportunities for its people.

“I need to be able to grow my status,” he said. “I need to feel supported in the things that I am doing. There also needs to be a culture that is bigger than me, that I can be a part of.”

He said the community also needs access to local legends that inspire.

He said events such as DisruptHR help to check some of these boxes.

It was his second year taking part in the event.

“This platform created so many opportunities,” he said. “It gave me something to point to to say, yes, I’m competent, I’m capable.”