The graduates struggling to find jobs - What in the World podcast, BBC World Service

0:00 You know, it's really difficult to get that first break.

0:02 You know, to land that first job.

0:04 And AI has made it difficult,

0:06 like because many entry level roles are being replaced by AI.

0:10 Almost 1000 to 10000 people are applying to one single job.

0:13 And there is a large number of jobs out there.

0:17 But then the hiring process is very slow.

0:19 Hey, I'm Iqra and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service.

0:23 Here's a fact for you.

0:25 India has the biggest youth population in the world,

0:28 367 million young people between the ages of 15 to 29.

0:33 To put that in context and to give you an idea of how big that is,

0:36 that's bigger than the whole population of the US.

0:40 But the truth is, for a lot of these young Indians, they're waiting,

0:43 waiting to hear back from their interview or waiting to land their first job.

0:48 The latest State of Working India report says nearly 40% of young

0:52 people between the ages of 15 to 25 don't have a job.

0:56 So in this episode, we wanted to hear directly from those young people to get

1:00 a sense of the situations that they're facing

1:02 and also the changes they want to see too.

1:10 Okay, so let's introduce you to the graduates then.

1:13 They're on the line right now.

1:15 Hey, guys.

1:16 Hi.

1:16 Hello.

1:17 My name is Karmanya and I'm from- I'm 21 years old and I'm from Delhi.

1:22 Currently, I am in the final year of my graduation.

1:25 Hi, my name is Bhadra and I'm 26 years old.

1:28 I am from Kerala, the southern state

1:31 of India I completed my master's in International Relations.

1:34 Hi everyone.

1:35 This is Anjali, 21 years old.

1:37 I am from Telangana.

1:38 I'm doing a master's in Central University of Hyderabad.

1:42 Now I am in first year of my masters.

1:45 Nice to meet you all.

1:46 Thank you so much for joining us.

1:48 Karmanya, I wondered if we could start with you and we'll go around.

1:52 Just tell us a little bit about your current situation.

1:56 Are you looking for a job at the moment?

1:58 I'm desperately looking for a job, and I guess it's been quite a while now.

2:02 I guess two to four months I have been continuously applying on websites.

2:07 LinkedIn.

2:08 Wellfound.

2:09 You know, every day I discover a new site for applying to jobs.

2:12 Every time I meet someone, people are telling me, you know,

2:16 you should go to this portal and apply to this job.

2:19 And all of my DMs are filled with people.

2:22 My friends telling me like sharing me with links like you should,

2:26 you can apply here, you can apply there.

2:28 It's been quite the quite the grind till now.

2:31 Yeah, I can imagine.

2:32 Bhadra, you're listening to that.

2:34 What are you making of that?

2:35 Is it similar?

2:36 Can you resonate?

2:37 Oh yes.

2:38 Of course.

2:38 I guess he just started off with his job search.

2:42 I guess it's been a year for me right now.

2:45 So I've been searching for a job for almost a year.

2:47 I graduated last May 2025, so it's almost ten months onto my job search.

2:56 I's been very hectic trying to figure out what is right,

3:02 what is wrong and it's been a crazy roller coaster ride right now.

3:07 And Anjali, what about you?

3:09 Right now, I'm not looking for any job because I'm in Masters.

3:11 I have to first complete my masters.

3:13 Then I'll go for the jobs.

3:15 Guys, you might- it might be news to you,

3:17 you might have heard about this but despite India's push for higher education,

3:22 nearly 40% of graduates between the ages of 15 to 25 are jobless

3:27 or in similar situations to some of you

3:30 guys and waiting to land their first job.

3:33 I wondered why you think that is.

3:36 One of the major reasons is the population, right?

3:39 There are like too many people and very limited seats for a particular job.

3:44 Like there is a gap between, you know,

3:45 what they teach you in college and what the industry requires.

3:48 I totally agree with what Karmanya had said.

3:52 There's a huge number of people applying to one single job.

3:55 Almost 1000 to 10000 people are applying to one single job.

3:58 And there is a large number of jobs out there,

4:01 but then the hiring process is very slow.

4:04 So it's delaying the entire career or the entire time for the candidate.

4:10 So that's one of the reasons.

4:12 And I also believe people are in search of better salaries because

4:17 the income or the expenses are increasing on a day to day basis,

4:23 especially in metro cities.

4:24 So they are also in search of better salaries so they can manage these expenses.

4:31 Anjali, moving on to you.

4:33 So in India, people are qualified,

4:36 more people are going to universities and colleges than ever before.

4:40 There are five million people coming out of education each year,

4:44 but there's not enough jobs for them.

4:46 So, you know, thinking of that idea of kind of getting your masters,

4:52 going on and doing more education.

4:54 Do you think that's making people overqualified in some in some situations?

5:00 Yeah.

5:00 We know that nowadays getting degrees is

5:03 very simple compared to getting a desirable job,

5:06 but still that is not reaching to the poor people.

5:11 We can say that many graduate people are coming

5:14 from the very not like- we can say rich families, very well educated families.

5:20 But the poorest of the poor people are not

5:23 are not able to reach these higher education institutions nowadays.

5:28 People are most like showing interest on education more

5:32 than working on are like very like simple jobs,

5:38 like, manual jobs, like primary sector jobs.

5:42 So I would like to say this, I have already worked

5:46 for two years and then I went on to pursue my master's.

5:50 So there is a certain kind of pressure from the family to study more,

5:55 to have a lot of- what you you say, degrees in your name.

5:59 So my family was pretty adamant that I had to take master's.

6:03 I could not live with a bachelor's.

6:05 So that was also there.

6:07 My parents never pressurised me, you know, to choose a particular career path.

6:11 But like, it was my aspiration that I

6:13 wanted to take up engineering from a, you know,

6:16 tier one government college in India, which didn't happen.

6:20 You know, like there's competition there also.

6:22 So now I have like this dream that I should,

6:26 you know, land a job in a pretty good tech company.

6:29 And Anjali, I wanted to ask you that question about whether you feel pressure

6:33 from your family to find a certain job when you get to that stage as well.

6:39 Yeah.

6:39 I'm facing problem with my family only actually, I want to go for job,

6:44 but my parents wants me to go for PhD.

6:47 I don't want to do a PhD.

6:51 All throughout this chat,

6:52 we've spoken about all the different issues you might be facing

6:54 in finding a job in the workforce at the moment in India.

6:58 And so I wanted to move on to AI

7:00 and how that might be affecting the Indian workforce.

7:03 The Indian government estimates that by 2031,

7:06 AI could eliminate close to three million IT and customer service jobs.

7:12 And we've seen firms like Tata consultancy firms

7:15 cut more than 12000 jobs because of AI.

7:18 So Karmanya, to you,

7:20 have you kind of had any first hand experience with jobs being cut to AI?

7:26 Is this something your friends talk about?

7:29 Is this something you're worried about?

7:31 Oh, yes, absolutely.

7:32 It is something that, you know- AI is something

7:35 that it is growing rapidly at a rapid pace.

7:37 It's like AI is changing everything right now.

7:41 Funnily enough, like I am pursuing my degree in AIML also.

7:44 So I thought like when four years back, I took this course, I thought like,

7:47 it's a booming industry and you know, you would get jobs in this.

7:52 What I have learned from the first hand experience, jobs are there.

7:56 But the thing is that, you know, it's really difficult to get that first break.

8:01 You know, to land that first job.

8:03 And AI has made it difficult, like,

8:06 because many entry level roles are being replaced by AI.

8:09 I would totally agree to what Karmanya had said here.

8:12 To apply for the jobs,

8:13 I would say- I would also like to add people are using AI.

8:16 If you don't have the right keywords, you are rejected.

8:20 If your resume looks in a certain way, you are rejected.

8:22 So I believe AI is playing a huge role in this entire job search process.

8:28 Many traditional jobs have been replaced by AI,

8:31 but like it has also created many jobs now.

8:35 Most of the tech jobs, you should have the basic knowledge of AI also,

8:40 Recently when I was going across, you know,

8:43 jobs on various platforms like LinkedIn, I found a job- like two or three jobs,

8:49 like AI based content writer, AI based video editors.

8:54 So now recruiters are also, you know, trying to hire people who know about AI so

9:00 that their work can be done a lot faster.

9:02 Okay, so we've got a sense of all the issues

9:05 that you guys are facing with the job market at the moment,

9:08 but I kind of wanted to move on to the solution side of things.

9:11 What changes do you want to see and what would make

9:14 it easier for you guys to navigate this world of work?

9:17 First of all, like the most important thing is, you know,

9:21 we should like focus a bit on our education

9:25 system because like, what I said before,

9:28 there is a huge gap between what the industry requires and you know,

9:31 what they are teaching us in universities, especially in my field.

9:34 I don't know about others.

9:36 So there should be a change.

9:38 They should, you know, give us more hands on industrial experience.

9:42 I believe a lot of education system here in the country,

9:46 they focus more on marks rather than having that kind

9:49 of- I believe right now it's not just about marks.

9:52 It's about the way you present, the way you talk, the way you communicate,

9:56 the other extracurricular activities that you have in hand.

10:00 It's what I believe that is right now important for you to land a job.

10:04 So that is one of the thing that the education system would act.

10:09 You know, I believe that they should

10:11 actually develop more than having just textbook knowledge.

10:13 I just wanted to finish by asking you all

10:16 if you all have any motivating words for each other.

10:18 You're all very similar ages going through very similar

10:22 experiences like so many other young people in India.

10:25 Do you have messages or motivating words for each other?

10:29 Yeah, just go with your like thing.

10:32 Don't like listen to your parents first

10:35 because it's your life, it's your future.

10:38 They will say like, you have to reserve a good job,

10:42 but good job in the sense, it's happiness, not the like salary or money.

10:48 Mental health plays a huge role when it comes

10:52 to job search because when it goes on continuously,

10:56 you kind of get tired because like I- it's my personal experience.

11:01 Some days I just don't apply because I don't have the energy to apply.

11:04 It's very exhausting the journey because you go through

11:06 multiple rounds and then you don't get an answer.

11:09 To have that hope that someday it's going to change.

11:11 And after all, we are in our early 20s or a little late 20s,

11:17 so we have an entire lifetime ahead.

11:19 So I think this is the kind of idea that I wake up every day.

11:23 I am still young.

11:24 I still have time to find a job, to settle, to get my dreams.

11:28 So this is the hope that I wake up every day with.

11:31 So I would like to pass it on to others also who are searching for jobs.

11:35 Yes, I would like to add like, you know,

11:38 this phase is challenging and there might be hurdles.

11:41 You may learn, you may grow.

11:43 And at last, I just want to say like, whatever the challenges are,

11:48 it's all like we have already, you know,

11:51 crossing hurdles and it is preparing us for the future.

11:54 And I hope the future is bright.

11:57 Just that.

11:57 Thank you guys, all of you, for speaking to us, for lending your time.

12:02 It's been so good to hear about all your different job search processes,

12:06 what you're all going through at the moment,

12:08 and also some of the issues you're facing in Indian

12:10 society as well and the changes you want to see.

12:13 Thank you so much.

12:14 Thank you so much.

12:15 Thank you.

12:16 Thank you.

12:16 Thank you for being with us today.

12:18 If you're a graduate in any part of the world, we want to hear from you.

12:22 So make sure you comment below, like and subscribe.

12:25 And remember, you guys can DM us on Instagram

12:27 at anytime at @bbcwhatintheworld is the handle over there.

12:31 And today's comment I want to shout out goes to Daniel.

12:35 It comes from the episode, 'How AI could help us talk to animals'.

12:38 And he says, if I could talk to animals, I would ask my pet turtles how they're

12:42 doing and what it's like inside their shells.

12:45 Thank you for that, Daniel.

12:46 That is an adorable comment, but for now, I'm Iqra.

12:50 This is What in the World from the BBC World Service.

12:52 I'll see you soon.

12:53 Bye.