Janice Kwon, 25, freshly graduated with a hard-won masters degree from one of the top 10 universities in the US, headed to Washington this summer with high hopes of finding her dream job. She filled out endless applications for research positions at think tanks and consulting firms. They all seemed like reasonable jobs to apply for after graduate school.
However, after months of job hunting, she decided that the job requirements presented a conundrum -- with employers specifically wanting people with master of arts (MA) degrees, but with two or more years of relevant work experience.
"If I've spent all this time going to school to obtain an MA, how is it possible for me to have garnered the necessary experience? Also, how can I get experience if you don't give me the chance to work for you?" Kwon said.
Kwon is not alone. Unfortunately, people with a high level of education these days no longer enjoy the privileges they did two decades ago, when few went to college and even fewer made it to graduate school. Nowadays, with the abundance of bachelors degrees and even masters degrees, unemployment is on the rise for these highly educated people.
It has become a world-wide phenomenon.
One week ago student and teacher groups highlighted the problem, and accused the Ministry of Education of lifting previously strict regulations regarding the establishment of universities, allowing technological institutes to transform into private universities. This has caused the number of private institutions to soar, and swamped the country with bachelor degree graduates, forcing students to continue on to graduate school in the hope of having better opportunities in the job market.
But many experts are now questioning whether the high number of graduates holding bachelors degrees is really the key behind unemployment among fresh graduates, and whether having an MA really makes a difference for jobhunters.
According to Chiu Wen-jen (
In fact, Chiu said that even though most MA graduates have no prior work experience, they tend to expect a higher salary -- usually NT$3,000 to NT$5,000 higher than bachelors-degree holders. Under these circumstances, most companies would rather hire a bachelors degree holder for less pay, she said.
"I would say that a graduate degree isn't very important for a job in general, but it may be an influential factor in obtaining a promotion within a company," Chiu said. "At our company, managerial tasks are usually given to those with graduate degrees, but among entry-level positions, graduate degrees aren't really a focal point."
For some students however, going after a master degree initially seemed like the correct answer to their problems.
"Regardless of where I got my masters, I would definitely expect a better job than if I only had a bachelors degree. That's what I was expecting when I went back to school -- I had such a hard time finding a job after undergrad that I felt I was forced to go to grad school," Kwon said. "A lot of people had told me that an MA increases your salary, but I was really shocked to find out that a lot of places that are paying us BA [bachelor of arts] salaries."
Kay Hsu, a BA graduate from Tsing Hua University, said that she felt that masters graduates were more likely to be chosen by companies than those with bachelors degrees.
"I don't really expect a higher salary as a BA graduate even though I went to a good university," Hsu said.
But for other students, degrees are not the key.
"I don't think having an MA degree has opened that many doors for me. The name of the university has. Going to a great school will help get your foot in the door but still, it won't seal the deal," Christopher Pitoun said.
Another factor contributing to unemployment among those with a high level of education is that they are much pickier nowadays, said Chiu from 104 Job Bank.
"Of course, graduating from the University of Chicago makes me think I'm better than other people," an anonymous MA graduate from the UK said. "And of course I expect a better job than others."
Liu Mei-hung (
Chiu, of the 104 Job Bank also said that computer skills are a must and that at times a vocational certificate was more useful than a diploma.
But employers might also just be overlooking the importance of higher education as well.
"On my resume, all the employers seem to fixate on the fact that I was an economics major. They don't care that I graduated with honors, was also a history major, studied abroad, or even have an MA. No employer seems all that interested in the fact that I went through great lengths to diversify my education," Pitoun said.
"I don't know where I'd be without the economics major on my resume. Frankly, that is just sad. It's borne out of the recognition that today's corporate culture places relatively little emphasis on intellectual curiosity -- learning for the sake of learning," Pitoun added.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS