i'm going to graduate in 2018, but I think i can already feel the surface of what you've already experienced. I'm not so sure what i'm going to do yet, but personally a 'job' is really the last thing on my mind. It took me many years, after JC, halfway through Uni, to really question the Singapore Education path, or maybe the 'generic' and conformist route that I had taken, but of course since I've already done it, it's too late to change this part of my fate.
"It has yielded a number of skills, skills that have found little purchase in my country" this kinda resonates with me as well. I hope i can get a breakthrough this year so I am able to not 'force' myself into a job i know doesn't suit my style. I hope that you too, continue to stay resilient in your path!!
Thanks.
If you'd take some advice, don't hope for a breakthrough. Work towards it. Understand your strengths and weaknesses, your passions and your dislikes, your preferred working environment and your working style. Find that intersection between what you love, what you're good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs. The Japanese call it ikigai: your reason for being.
Find that reason for being and pursue it with all your heart. You do not have time to waste; start searching for it now. If you wait until you graduate you will be well behind the curve. If you can't find your ikigai just yet, find something you can be paid for and plug away at the problem until you find an answer.
The reason I'm able to do what I can do now is because I knew what I wanted to be when I was 13 years old, and worked single-mindedly to achieve that goal. Without that life purpose, without a goal in mind, you'll be lost. At the very least, the ones who have been working towards a goal will have a leg up on you.
Start now. Find your life purpose. Determine your goal. Then work towards it, no matter what.