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I, 3 years after graduation, have not yet found a job

Burning Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original

Author丨Hui Pengquan, Zhang Lin, Feng Xiaoting, Tang Yidan, Ma Shuye, Xie Zhongxiu, Editor丨 Cao Yang

College graduates are falling into endless anxiety, for their studies, for work, for love, for every stage of life.

Recently, after brushing a video titled "I: 5 years after graduation, deposit 5000, her: Master of Zhongchuan, hot pot restaurant cleaning", many netizens said that it was "very healing", "brought us courage" and "cured my mental internal friction". More than 5.37 million views also made the video the 67th place in the overall site ranking of station B.

Picture/"211 girls graduate with a deposit of only 5,000 in 5 years" video attracts attention Source/"Beijing Youth Say" Weibo Screenshot of Ran Dimension

Bend, one of the protagonists in the video, said that their original intention in creating the video was not to express the life of "lying flat" and "rotten", but to tell more people to learn to accept their current self, "it doesn't matter if you are a waste".

Of course, no one really wants to be "waste". Adong, who was waiting for the results of the postgraduate examination, told Ran Dimension that after graduating in 2021, he chose to go home to enter graduate school.

Majoring in digital media technology at Atung University, graduate students are preparing to take the new media operation direction of radio and television. As for the reason why he must enter graduate school, Ah Dong said that he wants to go back to campus, and in addition, in his life planning, talking about partners, making money and accumulating work experience are all starting from the intention of going to graduate school.

Talking about his feelings at home in the past two years, Ah Dong said that he will arrange his daily life to be more fulfilling, reviewing exams, doing housework, online part-time work and playing basketball to exercise, etc., "Of course, things such as unsuccessful revision sometimes make me very irritable." ”

"If I can't pass the exam this year, I'm going to find a job with more time to work and continue to go to graduate school while working." Ah Dong said that the 2,000-3,000 yuan he earned every month from cutting short videos part-time was the confidence that he could stay at home in a fifth-tier city for two years.

In fact, in the context of the continuous "most difficult employment season in history", like Adong, there are many college graduates who have not chosen direct employment.

In this issue of the bistro, Ran Jiyuan chatted with several young people who had graduated for many years but had not yet worked. Some of them have been in graduate school for 1 year, teaching and editing for 2 years, and have not had stable work for 3 years, but they are still "striving to go ashore as soon as possible"; Some people graduated for 7 years, saved 200 yuan, and while reviewing the exam in the library, they set up a flag of "supporting themselves at the age of 30"; Some people graduated for 5 years, went around in circles, returned to the family chicken farm to work as handymen, but they were not willing to be stuck in the chicken farm, so they taught themselves programming and dreamed of breaking out of their own sky.

As a female student of Peking University said at the graduation ceremony, perhaps her whole life must be spent in the ordinary, as long as there is a heart that is not afraid of the ordinary, it can also live brilliantly.

So, maybe you've been lost, disappointed, anxious, restless, and the only thing you need to do is keep moving forward.

01 7 years after graduation, deposit 200 yuan

Zhao Doudou | 30 years old Examination in progress

I majored in Chinese medicine in college and undertook it for 5 years. After graduating, I was only five points away from going ashore. It took me 6 years to get the medical qualification certificate that medical students should get one year after graduation, and I took the exam three times. It's been 7 years since I graduated, and my WeChat wallet balance is only 200 yuan.

But that's not the worst.

The worst thing is the period when there is no work in the first place. At that time, as soon as I graduated from university, I quit my internship in the outpatient department of a municipal public hospital without hesitation. The reason is simple, the job pays less than 2,000 yuan and commutes four hours a day. But it was this "feat" that made me an unemployed vagrant for the next year.

Due to my lack of education and experience, my job search hit a trough one after another. So, I stayed at home every day, rarely went out, and had almost no social activities. I can lie in bed all day, sometimes thinking, sometimes just in a pure daze, looking at the sky outside the window, feeling that there is no hope in life.

Source/Visual China

I also lost some of my former friends. Although they understood my difficulties, they would offer to cover most of the cost of the party and even invite me to dinner. But because of the guilt, I would consciously refuse to meet and drift away from them.

During that time, my parents often talked about the words "looking for a job." Obviously my dearest relative, but it made me feel like I was under the fence.

It wasn't until my family helped find a second job, a public health specialist at a community hospital, that I gradually came out of the trough. This job is leisurely, stable, and although the income is not much, it is enough to meet my living needs. But I didn't expect that later, under the influence of the epidemic, I became an unemployed vagrant again.

Looking back on the 7 years since graduation, I have been lost in the days without goals, like a headless fly. And without a goal, there is no motivation to work hard. Over time, I became less and less able to shake off this inertia, going from occasional "sit-ups" to "completely flat."

I'm still unemployed, but I'm not going to be sad and frustrated anymore. In my opinion, unemployed people themselves suffer from greater psychological pressure, and they need support rather than blame. And my current boyfriend happens to be the one who can support me. His presence made me no longer extremely anxious, but able to calm down and do what I wanted to do.

At the end of last year, I started preparing for the exam. In the past six months, while paying attention to the positions that match my major, I have reviewed in the library. If I don't get in, I will continue to go out and look for a job.

In short, you have to support yourself at the age of 30.

021 graduate school entrance examination, 2 years teaching editor 3 years have not been stable work

Small fish | 26 years old Unemployed youth

I am a graduate of the teacher training major in 2020, because I failed to "go ashore" in the graduate school entrance examination, so I did not directly look for a job after graduation, but wanted to rush again, but in the end "World War II" also failed to "go ashore".

I failed to "go ashore" for the postgraduate examination for two consecutive years, and my mentality was a little broken, and the whole person was in a state of "rotten". But the "concern" of relatives and neighbors made me realize that I was not even qualified to "put it on the ground", "Isn't the child looking for a job yet?" "Why is your girlfriend still at home a year after graduating?" Although it did give me a lot of psychological pressure, I didn't want to just look for a job, and my parents also hoped that I could become a people's teacher.

In this way, after failing the postgraduate examination, I joined the army of examination editors, but the teacher preparation was particularly difficult. Today's public primary and secondary school teachers are basically full, and it can even be called "retreat one into one", that is to say, after retiring a teacher, a staff will be vacated, and then a teacher within the establishment will be recruited for the society, so the recruitment quota is becoming less and less.

Source/Visual China

Therefore, while preparing for a protracted battle, in order to prevent being "suddenly concerned" by relatives and friends again, I decided to do odd jobs while preparing for the exam without affecting my preparation. So, my parents asked me to find a job as a substitute teacher in my hometown.

But for two years in a row, I still didn't get the exam. Now I'm afraid to go out and be asked work-related questions. Because once my relatives knew that I did not have a stable job, they would come to my father and tell my father that they could arrange a clerk job for me in his factory. But when I thought that my salary was only 3,500 yuan a month, or a single holiday, I felt sorry for the books I had studied for so many years, and I didn't want to be a factory sister in the future.

Now, three years after graduation, I still don't have a stable job, and I am anxious and confused about the future. But I should not give up the examination or graduate school, because now I only have a bachelor's degree, work experience is basically negligible, in the recruitment market there is really no competitive advantage, I can only "turn anxiety into motivation, strive to go ashore as soon as possible".

03 3 years after graduation, 3 years of "squatting at home"

Chirp | 24 years old Unemployed youth

I am a civil engineering graduate of the Class of 2020, but since graduation, I have not been to work. This year's plan is to prepare for the postgraduate examination while preparing for the official examination, hoping that one of them can be successfully "ashore".

I'm not really the kind of "lying down youth." In the past three years, I have had countless thoughts about getting a job first no matter what, but every time I mentioned this idea to my family, my family advised me in turn, "Prepare for the public examination first, don't think about employment." When it comes to not having a job or income, my family obviously sees it more than I do.

Source/Visual China

Therefore, in the past few years of working at home to prepare for the exam, I have not had any financial burden. My family's view is that I had chosen the wrong major and chose civil engineering, which was once "fragrant" but now "out of favor". The future development of the real estate industry is also full of uncertainty, so I should not work hard. Preparing for the public examination in one step, a stable and decent job in the future is the best policy.

In fact, three years ago, when I was recruiting in the spring of my senior year, I also got several offers, but they were basically labor dispatch jobs under state-owned enterprises. I originally wanted to just have a job. But before signing the labor dispatch, my family advised me to be cautious. In addition, the unit I can go to is not a particularly good place, so the advice given to me has become to retain the status of a fresh graduate and concentrate on preparing for the exam.

But there is always a gap between reality and ideals. In the past few years, I have failed any exams, and my status as a fresh graduate, which can only be retained for two years, has naturally expired. Last year, I was going to give up preparing for the exam, but my family started telling me, "It's better to go to graduate school." ”

It's just that at that point in time last year, there are only a few months before the graduate exam, and my graduate exam, this task falls on 2023.

In this way, my task this year is quite stressful. On the one hand, I desperately hope that I can successfully "go ashore", otherwise even if my family does not say anything, I myself will be embarrassed to "squat at home" again.

04 A young man in a small town, although he did not work, he did not accept his life

Fang Fang|25 years old unemployed youth

Since graduating at the age of 23, I have been trying desperately to "escape the town". I naively thought that "college would be a ticket to a big city and a better future." But what lay before me was the harsh reality of "unemployed after college."

My father was a step-by-step bank clerk and my mother was a housewife, and growing up in a "model family" in a small 18th-tier county in Shanxi, I was expected to "live a stable life" from an early age, that is, go to university, become a teacher or civil servant, get married and have children.

There is nothing wrong with what my parents expect from me, because this is the path that many people have walked, safe, decent, and most importantly, stability.

But in 2019, after graduating from a university in Shanxi, the major of preschool education did not have an advantage, and I was faced with two choices: "take a salary of 2,000 yuan a month to enter a private kindergarten" and "test kilometers school teacher establishment". But these two choices all point to returning to the crowded and isolated county, which is at most staying in Taiyuan, Shanxi.

"Not resigned", I finally chose to enter graduate school, and my goal was Beijing Normal University. That year, the number of applicants for the national postgraduate examination reached an unprecedented 2.9 million, and the ratio of professional applicants for my examination reached an astonishing 45:1. Before the graduate exams began in December, I knew I would "most likely not be admitted."

After failing the graduate school entrance examination, I locked myself in my room and did not go downstairs for half a year, and my parents "acquiesced" to my unconventional behavior under the fear of worry. "I still want to go to Beijing." At my unilateral request, my father finally paid 10,000 yuan to sign me up for a computer training course.

"3 months, package distribution" is the only thing I know about this course. With the idea of going to Beijing to see it, I resolutely carried my suitcase to Beijing, including accommodation for the training course, a dormitory for 6 people, and lived in a village in the remote Daxing district of Beijing, and went out for at least 2 hours.

Photo: Crowded dormitory for 6 people Source/Photo courtesy of Fang Fang

And it turns out that computer training courses under the guise of "package distribution of high-paying jobs" are more like short-term interview training institutions. They teach people how to interview, not how to code. Although after the training, I stayed in an outsourcing company in Daxing to do the most basic data analysis and collation, but I could only get a salary of less than 5,000 yuan per month.

In this way, until 2021, two years after graduation, I still live in a dormitory of 6 people, and I am reluctant to move to an urban village with a monthly rent of 1,300 yuan. In this way, I was discouraged in reality, and at the end of 2021, when I returned to my hometown, I finally "softened" in the face of my parents' wordless silence.

However, after returning home for a year, I finally decided to "accept my life" and found that the teacher editor in my hometown was not easy to take the exam. I used to dislike "stability", but now I want stability but can't, but I can only continue to take the exam.

I only hope that in 2023, I will not continue to be "unemployed".

5 years after graduating in 05, I worked in the chicken farm at home

Gangzi丨27 years old IT studying

I studied graphic design at a university in a second-tier city in the north. The reason why I chose this major was that I felt that it learned more content, including graphic design, three-dimensional animation design and image production, etc., and in the future, I can engage in advertising, film and television, media and education and other popular industries.

However, the reality is very skinny, and another interpretation of "learning more" is "learning miscellaneous". So after four years of college, I seemed to know everything, and I didn't seem to know anything. When I graduated and looked for a job, I also hit a wall everywhere, and some job opportunities did not take my turn, even if it was a low-paying job, the requirements for employees were not low. So during the internship stage, I was brushed off because I couldn't keep up with the progress of the team.

After that, although I also found some graphic design jobs, such as typing and copying some typography designs in small stores, it seemed that it was very different from the ideal job content, so I was not interested.

During this time, I went to Yangzhou for a few months to try my luck, but the situation did not change. After many blows, I got a little rotten and started playing games. Because I stayed at a relative's house during this time period, my father soon learned about my situation, so I was called back to my hometown in the northeast to help him take care of the chicken farm.

Source/Visual China

My family has two chicken farms, which are not very profitable, but they ensure that my sister and I have no worries about food and clothing, and our family can be regarded as a well-off family in the township.

My dad was a tough guy and educated me a lot when I was growing up. Now that he's older, he's still strong, but I don't want to bump into him. Therefore, in addition to helping him raise chickens at home, I also tutor my sister, who is almost 10 years younger than me, to study, hoping to help her get into her dream university.

In this way, before I knew it, I had been at home for almost 5 years, and my sister would also take the college entrance examination this year, and according to her academic performance, she would probably get what she wanted.

For me, the chicken farm at home has nothing to do with me, not only is my relationship with my father more general, but I don't want to be trapped in my hometown by a small chicken farm, otherwise what is the point of my college.

In fact, in the past two years, my sister's studies did not need my help, and I basically started to learn programming after finishing my work at home. I think that it is difficult to find a job after graduation, mainly because I did not study seriously during school, and my professional knowledge was not digested and absorbed, but I only learned the skin. So now I am not only seriously studying programming, but also deliberately reviewing university courses, and I also have some experience.

Since I was a child, I have been a smart student in the eyes of my classmates, with good writing and good at Luo Ji thinking. So when I finish programming, I can not only design, but also implement my own ideas, so I am still full of hope for the future.

06 Tuberculosis was detected by the entry body and spent 3 years to treat the disease

Aoi丨24 years old Job searching

I graduated in 2021.

When I graduated, I wanted to go to graduate school again, after all, the employment prospects of accounting majors are really not good, and the undergraduate degree is even more uncompetitive. It's just that in my senior year and my graduation year, I failed both battles for graduate school.

There is no hope of "going ashore" for graduate school, and at the beginning of 2022, I was ready to find a job and go to work. At that time, I was lucky, after submitting countless resumes, I interviewed for a company, and the moment I finally received the offer, I was very happy, thinking that I finally had a new beginning in my life, and I happily signed a rental contract and waited for employment.

But unexpectedly, there was a problem with the entry physical examination.

The entry physical examination showed that "pneumonia" and "pleural effusion" recommended CT examination. In the following 10 days, after a series of tests on CT, color ultrasound, and tuberculosis-infected T cells, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The "new beginning" of life became a joke that life played on me, and the employment was lost, and the house defaulted and threw in several months of rent.

So, most of my 2022 time was spent in the hospital with illness. Tuberculosis is not a serious disease, as long as the required treatment can be cured, but it will take a long time. After being diagnosed with TB, I was discharged after a month in the hospital. Only then and again, I went to the hospital again.

Source/Visual China

By now, my illness has healed. After the Spring Festival, I started looking for a job again. But now job search is more difficult than before, firstly, HR will inevitably ask what is going on during the two-year window, and secondly, I can't go to school recruitment in the class of 2021 now, and can only take the social recruitment channel, but social recruitment basically requires 1-3 years of work experience.

So my job search didn't go well either. At the beginning, the companies I put my resume on were still in the city, but there were very few replies. Later, I started working for a small company nearby. And I started with quite high requirements, such as looking at the company and the environment, but now my standards have been lowered, as long as I pay five insurances and one housing fund, the salary is not too low, and then the most important thing is to learn something, after all, what I lack the most is work experience.

Some time ago, I received an interview, one side passed, but the second side failed. In the end, they seemed to have admitted a competitor with a year of experience.

Although it is not smooth, in terms of job search, I will continue to work hard, first find a job, accumulate work experience is important.

*The title image and some of the accompanying pictures are from Visual China.

*In the text, Adong, Xiaoyu, Chirp, Zhao Doudou, Fangfang, Xiaokui, and Gangzi are pseudonyms.

*Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information in this article or the opinions expressed constitute investment advice to anyone

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