Life after graduation

Entering the cyclone of the post-grad life brings tons of emotions, thoughts and expectations into the equation. Graduation marks the beginning of a new epoch, where an individual is exposed to various possibilities and opportunities, but this time he or she is held accountable for each of his or her actions.

In Pakistan, I have observed that once you have graduated, everyone around you seems to be desperately interested in what you look forward to doing, what your career goals and objectives are, and even questions related to marriage frequently pop up. Life appears to be a bunch of questions to which you don’t have an answer. Until graduation, one may not have pondered over these issues much, but as time flies and life moves forward, an individual is exposed to these matters and issues all at once.

As soon as we graduate, we aim to seek employment in the various multinationals operating in Pakistan, but unsurprisingly, the top 10 multinationals combined may not have enough jobs to even accommodate more than two to three per cent of the students who have flooded as ‘new entrants’ into the job market. Approximately, more than a thousand students are left unemployed, looking for jobs in whichever industry that is willing to accommodate them. Many of us select a different career path, just because there are not enough job opportunities to accommodate each of us in our desired fields.

Even after one gets employed, one does not necessarily enter into a state of ease, and further pressure is exerted at the place of work, considering the fact that now ‘responsibilities’ have replaced ‘freedom’. We are now exposed to ‘practical life’. In short, life after graduation can fall into one of the following categories: either you don’t know what you like and want or you know what you like, but you don’t think it’s okay. I would like to advise all those who are out there seeking employment or have been successful in securing jobs in large firms, to consider these words of Steve Jobs: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2015.