The Uncertainty of Life After Graduation
Walking away from undergrad life may seem solitary, but contrary to all expectations and beliefs, you are not the only one at sea. For almost everyone, the pre-graduation phase is like a cough that tickles the throat; the students are outraged by the constant need to make it big in a competitive and uncertain world, always hovering over us. Israr Karim, a fresh graduate from CSE, admits that he feels immense pressure to look for jobs but finds the market too saturated. Even with brilliant results and a whim for postgrad, he finds himself in limbo. Besides, the false impression of having a safety net of jobs with a CSE or a BBA degree also shatters as graduation approaches. Aarshi Durriya Raihan, (Junior, CSE), on the other hand, regrets choosing computer science as her major: “I chose to stick with something that could get me a steady job (according to everyone around me), but now the competition is making me feel like I am not good enough,” she laments.
This is further solidified by a World Bank report published last year. According to the report published by The Daily Star, “The share of tertiary-educated youth within the total unemployed population in Bangladesh increased to 27.8% in 2022 from 9.7% in 2013 as many struggled to find jobs that match their skills and educational qualifications.” This ever-increasing rate of unemployment leads to a nationwide calamity of mental health issues including depression, embarrassment, socioeconomic vulnerability, erosion of inner potentiality, degradation of personality and frustration, as stated in a study done by the British Journal of Arts and Humanities in 2021.
The vicissitudes of the job market and salary are overwhelming for graduates, despite having several interesting avenues to explore. Skepticism regarding the continuation of studies and the harbouring experience becomes an uphill battle, morphing graduation into an almost miserable experience.
