There is an inclination that some individuals choose work that are not necessarily related to their univeristy degree in some countries. I believe there are certain reasons behind their choice, and this reflect a generally negative outcome for the society. I will further develop my ideas and explain why in this essay.
Firstly, the prevalence of university establishment has made the accessibilty of higher education easier than ever; therefore, getting a university degree has raised the bar for every young adults to find a decent job in the market. In the year 2003 in Taiwan, the goverment aimed to increase education rate of citizens and thus built over 3000 universities nationwide. Everyone, even the worst academically performed student, can be accepted to a university without taking much effort. The initial intention is good; however, simply receving a degree does not equal that one would be fully prepared to be competitve and qualified to get employed in their specific field of study. Many programs offered by universities are designed to be more generic and abstract, rather than practical. Indeed, many debate that attending university can train us to solve problems by developing critical thinking, but most of the time, the skills we learned at university are hard to transfer directly to use in the workplace. This could be a waste of time and even cause financial burden to the students who are less priviledged. Eventually, when graduated from university, those students need to find a job to pay off their debt. Often finding themselves in a job that is unrelated to their field of study, and sadly, often times underpaid.
Another reason could be that in some part of the culture, young individuals are expected to meet the expectations of their parents. Attending colleges or universities could be one of the many expectations parents have. Universities are once a scarce resource that only the some of the priviledged individuals could leverage on in the parent’s generation. Therefore, parents could have this mindset that university education is the only way to get a good job in the market. However, the reality seems to be the opposite. According to one educational newsletter from BBC, in year 2025, up to of 65% of the American new college graduates failed to land a job in their desired field, and about 35% of them remain unemployed after one year of receiving a degree. That said, meeting parent’s expectations and go to college is not the only way for someone to be competitive in the job market. One should always listen to his or her heart and follow what truly interests them and turn the inspirations into long-term career.
With that being said, I believe the trend is generally more negative than positive. Universities without a clear program design and career-focused training could be a waste of time and financial resources for the students, causing them to find a job unrelated to their intended field of study. Also, attending college blindly without having the ultimate career goal in mind can be one of the reasons why they get a unrelated job afterwards.
In conclusion, working in unrelated field after graduation is a negative trend that both the individuals and the universities should pay attention to and better address the gap of academic and real-world employment.