Study this major, work in another major - The problem of orientation

Pressure to work in the wrong field

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hang (born in 2000), from Nam Sach town, studied at the Faculty of Human Resources Management, Trade Union University. When she registered for university, she had almost no career orientation, only based on her own academic ability. The pressure from her family to go to university made Ms. Hang not hesitate to pick up a pen and choose a career, a university that she was sure she would pass.

During her studies, Ms. Hang was not really passionate and did not have a plan for what she would do or where she would work after graduation. Therefore, after graduating, she struggled for several months in Hanoi to find a job. She did not dare to set a goal of getting a job in her field, but only needed a suitable job. After that, she accepted a job as a sales person for a fashion store.

After that, Ms. Hang became more and more frustrated because the job did not match her major and the income was only enough to cover daily expenses. She even had to live in a cramped boarding house with a friend to reduce the burden of expenses. There was a time when Ms. Hang tried to return to her hometown to find a job. However, with her major, Ms. Hang could hardly find a job in any unit, except for working as a worker in a company. Therefore, she still accepted her current job in a different field.

When she was in high school, seeing that the school had a French subject, Nguyen Thi Hong Vinh (born in 1988, Kim Thanh district) registered to study. She simply thought that many people were learning English, so learning French might open up more opportunities.

After graduating from high school, Ms. Vinh passed the entrance exam to the Faculty of French Language and Culture at the University of Foreign Languages ​​- Hanoi National University. After studying for 1 year, Ms. Vinh realized that her major had little "room to perform", so she invested time and effort to transfer to the Japanese language teaching major at the same school.

After graduating, Ms. Vinh went to work for a company specializing in brokerage and training Japanese for people going to work in Japan. At this time, Ms. Vinh still had the opportunity to use her major, which was Japanese. However, not long after that, she decided to quit her job and join her husband in trading outside.

Currently, Ms. Vinh is managing a restaurant in Hai Duong City. All of her work has nothing to do with the major she spent 4 years studying in Hanoi. At this time, business is not very favorable, so Ms. Vinh is quite stressed and tired. Part of the reason is because she does not have much experience and has never studied restaurant management or food preparation.

Working in a different field or profession, especially for those who have graduated from university, is not uncommon. However, it is worth mentioning that there are people who, after graduating from university, cannot find a job in their field of study and accept simple jobs for manual laborers. An officer working in the training department of Tinh Loi Garment Company Limited said that in the company, there are many people who have graduated from university but work as workers in departments such as sewing, ironing, cutting, etc. When applying for jobs in these departments, most of them will not declare that they have attended university, possibly due to concerns about qualifications, psychology, etc.

Wrong orientation

Ms. Nguyen Thi Xiem, Director of the Youth Employment Service Center of Hai Duong province, analyzed some reasons why students after graduation work in the wrong field or profession. That is, some social sectors only need a certain amount of human resources, but training schools annually supply more workers to the labor market than society needs.

A large number of students graduating while waiting for the opportunity to find a suitable job in their field of study need to have a job immediately to earn more income, so they accept to work in a field other than their field. And when there are not many job opportunities, they fall into a vicious cycle of working in a field other than their field of study and cannot get out.

One of the reasons why workers after graduating from university or college have to accept working in a field other than their field of study is due to incorrect career orientation. In the process of choosing a school and a field of study, students choose according to trends, friends, or hot fields of study. After 4-5 years of training, they graduate and find that it does not suit their interests, strengths, or they are not interested in the job, so they change jobs and work in a field other than their training.

In fact, there are many universities opening up. To meet the enrollment demand, many schools have lowered their admission quotas. Therefore, many students only need to graduate from high school with average academic performance to have the opportunity to study at university. Many families with the mentality of wanting their children to study at university do not hesitate to invest in their children's education. This makes the number of people studying at university increase.

The actual demand for human resources in the labor market is contrary to the above. Currently, businesses only need a lot of unskilled workers, workers with elementary and intermediate training. The demand for recruiting workers with university degrees or higher is very low. According to the assessment of recruitment needs by the authorities, recently, each year, businesses in Hai Duong only recruit about 2,000 people with university degrees or higher. And businesses only recruit people based on specific criteria, meeting the job requirements, not based on university degrees. Thus, job opportunities for university graduates are limited, causing the rate of people having to work in a field other than their major after graduation to increase.

Learn and adapt

Looking at the current reality, finding a suitable professional job for students after graduation is quite difficult, especially in the context of state agencies and administrative units streamlining their apparatus and human resources, and businesses only recruiting many unskilled workers and apprentices. Therefore, in addition to the factor of correct career orientation, students after graduation need to know how to learn more and adapt to have a job that suits their needs.

Graduated from the English language department of Thang Long University, Bui Ba Long (24 years old, Ninh Giang district) did not work in his major. Currently, Long is a software programmer at Just.Engineer Company Limited.

When he was a student, when he interned at some companies, Long realized that jobs related to the English language industry were not suitable for him, and that English translation was a bit too much for him. At that time, he met many friends working in the information technology field, so he was interested in pursuing this job.

Mr. Long said: “I started this job from zero, gradually learning from colleagues and self-studying online. Information technology knowledge is very broad, but focusing on a certain area to learn and follow the job requirements will help you learn faster.”

Currently, after more than 1 year of working, Mr. Long's income is more than 10 million VND/month. At Just.Engineer Company Limited, the salary is not based on the degree or the field but on seniority, qualifications, and ability to meet the job requirements. "My company has many people who graduated from finance, economics, commerce... working for a long time and the income is also quite good. I think it's okay to work in a different field, but you have to learn more and adapt well," Mr. Long added.

Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thanh (26 years old, Kinh Mon town) has two university degrees but still works in a different field. However, knowing her own abilities and trying to adapt, Ms. Thanh has found a job that is quite satisfying in terms of both expertise and passion.

Ms. Thanh graduated from the Academy of Finance in 2020 with a degree in accounting and economics and law. After graduating, she worked in several places, and in 2021, she decided to return to her hometown to find a job to be closer to her family. Luckily, Ms. Thanh got a job related to the local Youth Union activities.

Compared to her university friends who worked in the right field, Thanh's current income is much lower. However, Thanh understands that her choice is due to many factors and she has constantly strived to learn more skills to serve the job, so everything has gone smoothly. And she has found joy, not placing too much importance on working in a different field.

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Some suggestions for proper career orientation include: Overcoming family career orientation and not following trends; learning about different careers; identifying your strengths; listing factors that influence your career; learning about the skills needed for the career and not being afraid to seek out opportunities to experience.