Breakdown of Banyak lulusan baru masih mencari magang sebelum mendapat pekerjaan tetap.
Questions & Answers about Banyak lulusan baru masih mencari magang sebelum mendapat pekerjaan tetap.
Banyak means many / a lot (of) and directly quantifies the noun that follows:
- banyak lulusan baru = many new graduates
Indonesian does not need a word like of in this structure. You just put:
banyak + noun
Examples:
- banyak orang = many people
- banyak masalah = many problems
If you want to say many of the new graduates, you could add a determiner like para or lulusan baru itu, e.g.:
- Banyak dari para lulusan baru… = many of the new graduates…
- Banyak dari lulusan baru itu… = many of those new graduates…
But in everyday use, banyak lulusan baru is usually understood as “many (of the) new graduates” from context.
On its own, lulusan is number-neutral — it can mean a graduate or graduates, depending on context.
In banyak lulusan baru:
- banyak forces a plural meaning → many graduates
- So lulusan here is understood as graduates (plural).
Indonesian usually shows plurality with:
- Quantifiers: banyak (many), beberapa (some), semua (all), etc.
- Reduplication: lulusan-lulusan (graduates), though that’s optional and often unnecessary when there’s already banyak.
In Indonesian, adjectives normally come after the noun:
- lulusan baru = literally “graduate new” → “new/recent graduate(s)”
So:
- lulusan baru = new / recent graduates
- buku baru = new book
Baru lulusan is not natural as a noun phrase. But you can say:
- baru lulus = (someone) has just graduated
- Dia baru lulus. = He/She just graduated.
So:
- lulusan baru focuses on the person as a recent graduate.
- baru lulus focuses on the action of having just graduated.
Masih means still, indicating that an action or situation is continuing.
In the sentence:
- masih mencari magang = are still looking for an internship
Position:
- It usually goes before the verb or adjective it modifies:
- masih mencari = still looking
- masih sakit = still sick
- masih di rumah = still at home
Putting masih right before mencari clearly shows the action of searching is ongoing.
In mencari magang, magang is used as a noun meaning internship.
Indonesian often uses the same root word as:
- a noun: magang = internship
- a verb with ber-: bermagang = to do an internship
No article is needed because Indonesian doesn’t have a/an/the. So:
- mencari magang = looking for (an) internship
(context supplies the idea of “an”.)
If you really want to make it clearly singular in a teaching context, you could say:
- mencari sebuah magang = looking for an internship
But in natural Indonesian, mencari magang is perfectly normal and idiomatic.
In Indonesian, mencari is a transitive verb that directly takes an object, without a preposition:
- mencari = to look for / search for
- mencari magang = to look for an internship
- mencari pekerjaan = to look for a job
- mencari rumah = to look for a house
You don’t say mencari untuk magang; that sounds influenced by English. The preposition untuk is not needed because magang is already the direct object of mencari.
It can be sebelum mereka mendapat pekerjaan tetap, and that’s also correct. But Indonesian often omits repeated subjects when they are clear from context.
The full logical structure is:
- Banyak lulusan baru (mereka) masih mencari magang sebelum (mereka) mendapat pekerjaan tetap.
The second mereka is clearly referring to the same “many new graduates”, so it’s natural to omit it:
- … sebelum mendapat pekerjaan tetap.
= before (they) get a permanent job.
This kind of subject omission is very common and sounds natural.
Both mendapat and mendapatkan can mean to get / obtain / receive, and in many contexts they’re interchangeable.
In this sentence:
- sebelum mendapat pekerjaan tetap
- sebelum mendapatkan pekerjaan tetap
Both are acceptable and natural.
Subtle tendencies:
- mendapat is often slightly shorter, more neutral.
mendapatkan can feel a bit more “active” or formal, or used when you add a second object:
- Dia mendapatkan hadiah dari temannya.
- Saya mendapat/mendapatkan pekerjaan baru.
In everyday speech, you will hear both. The sentence with mendapat is already fine and idiomatic.
In Indonesian, descriptive words (adjectives) usually come after the noun:
- pekerjaan tetap = permanent job
- pekerjaan = job/work
- tetap = permanent/fixed
Other examples:
- rumah besar = big house
- orang kaya = rich person
- harga murah = cheap price
Tetap pekerjaan would be incorrect as a noun phrase. The correct pattern is always noun + adjective.
Indonesian doesn’t mark tense (past/present/future) the way English does. The time reference comes from context and from words like sudah, masih, akan, tadi, besok, etc.
Here, masih mencari magang suggests:
- an ongoing or continuing situation:
- “are still looking for internships”
- or in a more general truth sense: “still look for internships (before they get permanent jobs).”
So the sentence is normally understood as something like:
- “Many recent graduates are still looking for internships before getting a permanent job.”
Whether it’s about “right now” or a general trend depends on the larger context, not on verb forms.
Pekerjaan tetap most commonly means permanent job, as opposed to:
- pekerjaan kontrak = contract job
- pekerjaan sementara = temporary job
Related expressions:
kerja tetap
- more colloquial; kerja is a more informal version of pekerjaan
- also understood as “permanent job”
pekerjaan penuh waktu = full-time job
- penuh waktu = full-time
- focuses on hours worked, not on permanence
So:
- pekerjaan tetap → status: permanent vs temporary
- pekerjaan penuh waktu → schedule: full-time vs part-time
The sentence is talking about the permanent vs non-permanent aspect, not full-time vs part-time.
The sentence is neutral and standard:
- Vocabulary like lulusan baru, magang, pekerjaan tetap is common in both spoken and written Indonesian.
- The structure is clear and not overly formal.
You can use it:
- in everyday conversation
- in news reports
- in essays or formal writing
In very casual speech, people might shorten or slightly change it (e.g., banyak anak baru lulus masih cari magang…), but your original sentence is perfectly natural in most settings.