Does a University Degree Guarantee a Job in 2018?

It seems many other factors, such as networking and work experience, are more important than degrees when finding work nowadays.

I don’t know about everyone else, but when I was a little kid, I took almost anything my parents said as gospel. I thought my life would end up being a mirror image of theirs. They would often tell me about their early years, and I would hear how they both went to university and, straight after, walked into teaching jobs.

This was how I expected my life to go for a long time. My thought process was just that: "Well, this is how my parents did it, so this must be how the system works."

As it turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The fact is, times have changed. A university degree today, doesn’t actually guarantee anything. Only a couple of years ago, the Sydney Morning Herald published an interview with Graduate Careers Australia strategy and policy advisor Bruce Guthrie, who said "demand for graduates has dropped away". The days of walking out of uni into a full-time job appear to be long gone… and that’s a very scary thought.

Competition is very high in the current age. Malcom Turnbull even stated recently that too many students are completing law degrees. If that’s the case, what would make an applicant for a job in law special anymore?

I’m sure that almost anyone completing a university course right now would be no stranger to the word, "networking". I hate it. Of course, I do get why it’s mentioned; in this day and age it is really important. But when I’ve spent my whole life thinking, "get in, get a degree, get out," and all of a sudden discover that degrees are only a percentage of what makes up a successful job application, it’s difficult not to feel disheartened. I think the concern comes back to the age-old issue: I need connections to get the job, but I need the job to make the connections. It’s a real pickle.

"Internship" is the other word that gets thrown around a lot. I don’t know how it happened, but I was lucky enough to score one recently. Yet, I still don’t feel like it’s given me much of an advantage. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learnt heaps and I’m grateful for the opportunity. However, completing an internship seems to be the bare minimum nowadays. I might have started the race, but it feels like I’d have to complete at least one more internship or work experience placement just to have a chance at finishing it.

In 2015, the Foundation for Young Australians reported that it takes about 4.7 years to find a full-time job after graduating from a full-time degree. This means, hypothetically, I am going to spend more time trying to get into the industry than the time I spent studying said industry! Personally, it’s insane how much pressure I feel from this notion, and I believe many of my peers share this concern.

I love that I’ve grown up in the new millennium and I probably take for granted all the advantages that come with it. I’m not suggesting this generation of students is the unluckiest group of people to have walked the earth.

But the fact is, it’s tough finding a job. However, it’s not impossible. It’s just that the actual weighting of a university degree has taken me by surprise.

Graham Mitchell Elphick is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. See more student contributions here.

Photo: iStock.com/fotosipsak