Graduating for what?

June has come, and many graduations of 2023 are over. Around 3 million students got their bachelor’s degrees this spring, and almost another million are completing their masters, not to mention the PhDs. 

Even though graduation is a big celebration for students and their families, there are many concerns for the 2023 graduates. One of the biggest issues new grads face is finding a job. The world is still struggling with the aftermath of COVID-19, and many companies have frozen their hiring or even laid off some of their employees. Many fresh graduates will have to spend more time interviewing for a job than they initially planned to. One of the graduates I had a chance to speak with said that only three people out of sixteen in his program graduated with a job, and others are still actively searching. He himself found an opportunity after sending over a hundred and twenty applications. The whole process took him almost a year. 

Even though it got more challenging for many students to find a job, they learned to reposition themselves and are open to looking at a broader range of jobs in related fields. And even if that was not their first choice, the ability to adapt to the fast-changing unstable environment is a great skill they will learn through the job searching process. 

And the problem is not the lack of jobs. One of the big issues is that companies are laying off thousands of their workers, and now new grads will have to compete with one another and those who recently lost their jobs.

Nevertheless, the hiring process is still active, and graduates are not losing hope in finding a good and stable first employer. 

By Mary Zakharova