55% of Russians believe it’s very hard for a college graduate to find a job, while 20% says it’s practically impossible. Only 3% of the survey respondents think that finding employment after graduating from a university is easy.
Public opinion survey: Jobs are hard to get for college graduates in Russia
The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre asked locals about the ease of finding work after graduating from a college.
The consensus is that it’s very hard to get employed for ex-students: 55% of the poll participants think so. 20% believe it’s “practically impossible” for a fresh specialist to get into the workforce.
However, 18% of locals think that with a bit of effort ex-students are able to find gainful employment, while further 3% of respondents said it’s “easy” to find a job.
Personal experiences
Surveys aside, if you were to ask recent graduates from Russia, they would probably agree that jobs aren’t that easy to get. Most former students complain that employers want someone with experience, not just knowledge from a university and a diploma.
At the same time, students believe that the courses provided by Russian colleges and universities are not targeting the real world skills and knowledge that they would need at the workplace. The information they learn isn’t practical, but mostly theory.
In some areas except IT specialists from Russia are unable to find employment abroad, for instance, without completing a local course, as Russian women who moved abroad after marrying a foreigner found out.
USSR experience
During the times of the USSR, students were provided a place to work on graduation from the university.
The graduate would get a vacancy allocated to him on the “best marks” basis via personal selection. In other words, a student with the best marks was able to select any vacancy from the list of available placements, then the next one, and so on.
There were usually a few more vacancies available than the students in the group of graduates. Most popular vacancies were in the same city where the university was located or nearby, as well as placements at Moscow or St. Petersburg, where available.
The graduate would have to work as a minimum for 3 years at his or her allocated position without the ability to resign, unless the company’s management agreed. There were penalties in case of the person abandoning the position in favour of another job.
However, these times have passed. Now people have to find jobs by themselves once they complete a degree.
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Students can’t find a work because they had to make a choice too early. When they are fifteen they must pass exams on the basis of which they will continue their education. But when they grow up they can change their mind but they can’t change their profession. So they don`t want to work with it.
I graduated from the university two years ago. I experienced it myself and I can say it’s really difficult to find a good job right after the graduation. Of course, everything depends on the profession. Young teachers, doctors and civil service engineers don’t have problems with it, just because such specialists are in great demand now, but the rest face great problems. Every company wants an experienced worker, but where should we gain this experience? A mystery.