Stepping Stone to Corporate: story of a fresher

Yes, education is fine, but we are not hiring freshers. Or, 15K/month is the highest we can offer to a fresher. These are the things I recently heard as an MBA graduate from a reputed college. It did break my heart, but also made me ponder deeply over the topic; How freshers are living their lives in this cut-throat competitive world.  

20 years of education is not enough. That is right. We all are living in a society where HRs of big companies ask for 5 years of experience for an entry-level profession. For them, experience matters the most, but your skills, knowledge, and ability do not matter at all. A fresher dies every minute from within seeing multinational companies hiring students from Top A schools but never notices their talent.
In recent times, I came across many companies that take pride in giving jobs to freshers but hide the ugly reality of overworking and underpaying them. After post-graduation, you get to get 10K a month for the same work they would have to pay at least 50K to experienced personnel. Why is this gap? Why do they want to exploit the fresh talent? Why is anyone not stopping them?

An average day of a final year student starts with career tension and ends with the same. The problem, however, is not the paucity of jobs but the quality of the same. If we look at an average job poster on LinkedIn and many other platforms, they write ‘Best in the Industry’ in the stipends section. It makes me laugh sometimes that they know very well that their offerings will not attract any student to even send a resume.

For a fresher, it is heartbreaking to see 2 out of 40 students getting placed. It is heartbreaking to see companies being audacious, or I can say shameless enough to offer less than 20K to a PG student. It is agonizing to be overworked and underpaid. But unfortunately, this issue is not being addressed at all. Because as a society, banning a comedian and knowing when are Katrina and Vicky Kaushal getting married is more important to us. For me, it is funny, embarrassing, frustrating, and heartbreaking.

To my surprise, there is yet a new trend in the corporate world these days, Internships cannot be considered as your professional experience. It is not just weird but also a shameless act practiced by a few companies. For a student, internships are the only way of gaining exposure to corporate culture and to add something in the experience section of their resume.

There is no way out unless the companies decide to break the longstanding hypocritical strategy of hiring only experienced candidates. The fresh talents deserve a chance, not exploitation in the name of low-quality jobs.

#Education #Jobs #Freshers