Being a final-year student myself, I feel like I am capable of providing insights into this topic. I am pursuing my degree in business studies from Narsee Monjee Institute in Bangalore. I have only a couple of months to myself before I start working in corporate. We have all heard about the fact that students face a lot of pressure but what kind of pressure it that we actually face?

I thought the problems I faced in school were hard but oh boy was I wrong. College has showed me what real problems are and I’m sure it is going to keep getting worse as the years go by. Now coming to the topic at hand. Previously, during our parent’s generation when they were in college, for a job all they needed was a degree. A degree is meant to land you a job at an entry level and it fulfilled its purpose. Fast-forward a couple of years to now, a degree is not even enough for you to land any kind of job. Companies are expecting 2 years of work experience for an entry-level position. I’m in college, how am I supposed to get 2 years of work experience? This is not just the problem for my degree or my field. All my engineering friends also go through the same thing. The job market is so cluttered and bad that no matter what course or field you pursue there is a high chance of you ending up jobless even after paying a huge sum of fees to the college.

With the rise of AI, no one knows for sure if their jobs are safe or not. Students at this point are doing other certifications and extracurriculars in hopes of landing a job. People keep telling us to not just rely on our degree, but do something along with but they do not give us any suggestions. They do not seem to understand that at 17 18 19 years of age, you cannot be sure of what you want to do in your life. The institutions also do not put in efforts to facilitate the students when needed, this results in the reduction of their longevity in their consistent efforts being put in.

I am 100% sure not everyone wants to get a degree and work at a 9 -5 for the rest of their lives, but in India, it has become a norm for all students to pursue a high-paying degree and do a post-graduation and work for the rest of your life. I understand the fact that having corporate experience is important and job security is a must but at the same time it is not right to force a child to decide his future when they’re just barely 20. I am in my third year and I still do not know what to do, the same is the case with the rest of my classmates. There are so many options for things to do but choosing the right one is very difficult. People think we have it easy with so many options lying around but it is these ‘options’ that are giving us the trouble. Being forced to choose one and pursue it for the rest of your life is not an easy task.

A lot of people keep telling me my degree is useless; and that you are going to end up a beggar in the near future but they do not give me any advice. They keep criticizing every degree and it lowers our self-esteem. No one knows for sure if they’re going to get placed in good company after their graduation, everyone’s just figuring out life as they go. All kinds of degrees in this country get criticized by people that did not have to go through the same problems. In addition to this, family members keep asking you what your plan is and you have to put on a façade by saying you’ve got everything figured out

Another problem in this country is the rising applications of people in engineering colleges and workspaces. Every middle-class child has been forced at least once to pursue engineering in college and the number keeps on increasing. The majority of the students in engineering colleges are not there because they are interested in it, it’s because their families have asked them to pursue it. The entire field has been oversaturated and the students are not getting placed due to extremely high competition. Recent studies illustrate that there is around 48% unemployment among engineering graduates and in my opinion, this would sustain and keep growing more in the future because the unemployment rate for engineering students last year was around 38% to 40%. For students in the business and arts field, the unemployment rate is around 30% and 40% respectively (approx. figure as per my calculation).

College is meant for exploring your interests and extracurriculars but we cannot afford to do that because we are expected to have thousands of other achievements under our belt to be even considered for a job interview. The students’ morale is already very low, in addition to that, the family pressures they face back home, the teachers inducing toxicity during classes and the fact that even a job is not guaranteed after a degree, these factors do take a tool on the students and does affect them negatively. 

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