According to the latest poll by WCIOM, half of Russians don’t work in the profession they chose to study and spent years learning. Only 51% of respondents work in the specialty, which is stated in their diplomas.
Working in profession: Why not?
It takes 5 years in Russia to complete what is called “a higher education”, since bachelor’s diplomas are believed to be useless when seeking a job. You need to have a degree of magister in Russia. So, why half of Russians don’t work according to the chosen profession, after having spend 4 or 5 years studying it?
The recent poll by WCIOM reveals the answers.
- 28% of respondents never worked in the specialty they have chosen and studied for years.
- 6% of survey participants worked in a different field for less than one year and 16% — under 5 years.
- 48% have worked in a different professional field for over 5 years.
At the moment of taking the survey, 47% of respondents didn’t work “by specialty”, while 51% were employed in the field in which they have been educated.
Related:
- Professions and occupations of Russian women
- 62% of Russians believe it’s impossible to run an honest business in Russia
Additional training
- 29% of respondents who “don’t work by specialty” work without getting any additional training or self-education.
- 37% took courses to re-qualify.
- 33% learned new skills and gained required knowledge by themselves.
The three options appear balanced, with some people picking jobs that do not require additional knowledge, while others put effort in self-education, and only one in 3 people upgrades qualifications. In Russia, having a degree is important when looking for a job, but having a degree in the chosen field is not compulsory. Employers and HR departments are happy to consider candidates who have been educated in a different sphere, as long as they went to a university and managed to complete it.
Having a degree seems to be a prerequisite to getting a job, but not having the diploma to match the industry is acceptable. It’s obvious by the fact that 47% of workers are employed in a different sector to their originally chosen profession.
Related:
Why Russians choose a different field to their profession
The top-3 reasons why the majority of people work in a different field are inability to find a job by profession (30%), higher wages (24%) and finding another trade that is more enjoyable (20%).
6% of respondents couldn’t find employment without having some experience in the field. The same share of survey participants wasn’t happy with the working conditions or schedules.
Some Russian women explain that the reason why they don’t work by profession they studied for 5 years is because they had to choose it too early in life, when views and interests are pretty fluid. Several years later when they discovered what they enjoy, they are close to completing the degree and it’s impossible to change specialties.
WCIOM didn’t provide statistics by gender, possibly for a reason. It’s well known that Russian women with small kids struggle to find professional employment, because the legislation allows them to take unlimited sick leave when the children are unwell and the employer is obliged to pay them full wages. This is why, until the kids are at middle years of school, women are at disadvantage when seeking jobs.
Young women who are not married are also at disadvantage: Employers think they are going to get married and have kids soon, which means the company has to pay for 1.5-year maternity leave and keep the position for the mother to return to.
Consequentially, it’s females that often are forced to take jobs that don’t match their education.
Advisory groups talk about similar matters for years, but governments are not listening. – Bond high/ secondary school certifition to voluntary/ public work (only one existing, at least in my country). Who deny to do cannot complete high school. – Ban automatic higher education. Make compulsory at least 3 years pause between secondary school, and higher education. (Same stands for driving license.) – Ban general misguided HR expectations (like need a diploma to get work, even a different one). – Maternity leave: Need a re-integration program (missed re-organizations, technical advances, co-worker changes) and/ or advised to allow part-time work (10-12… Read more »
This situation about the profession is really important, especially for women. Unfortunately, many people have to work not in the specialty due to lack of vacancies or something else. I think this problem should be solved as soon as possible
I don’t know if it’s good or not but often in Russia the profession for which you study and your real profession are not the same thing. Sometimes, it’s because people can’t find working places sometimes parents choose their speciality at the university for them and they aren’t happy with it. I hope that people will work in the proffesion they studied for more often because otherwise higher education may seem a waste of time
I’d like to say that education gives nothing except diplomas. Self-education is much more important and only it will be able to help you to reach your purposes. Employers need professionals with working experience as a rule. Your diplomas don’t interest them. They are interest in what you can do and your experience in this sphere.
I think it’s kind of difficult to find your own way when you are in your 18. In Russia young people are always under the pressure from society and even from their own parents, so they choose the profession for diploma and not for the education. And even after getting the diploma you won’t get a job, because companies will require huge work experience but you couldn’t get it, because you didn’t have a diploma before. It’s something that happened to me, so I can relate to this information for 100%.
Really. Higher education in Russia is formal. During the educational process there is no internship in the companies of the real sector of the economy. In addition, diplomas of people over the age of 40 years show the qualification of “engineer”. This is a universal qualification for any office clerks.
People don’t work in the professions they studied just because it was chosen by parents and not by children themselves. People have a lack of motivation to study and to specialize in one thing instead of many. I’m a lucky person to work in the speciality I’ve chosen almost 20 years ago.