Employment Or A Battle For Identity; Stories From Crossroad

Employment Or A Battle For Identity: While enjoying the last few hours before my weekend ended and the next morning’s office schedule began, my phone lit up with a notification from my cousin sister. “Hey! Is there any vacancy for work-from-home opportunities?” At first, I thought she was pulling one of her usual pranks, but the next message followed quickly: “It’s urgent.” I set aside my half-open bottle of nail polish and leaned into the chat.

Shreyashi Roy, a first-year English Honours student at Bhawanipur University, is my cousin. Being the only child in her family, she has always been pampered and protected, treated like a princess in the household. But while she was showered with affection, the constant restrictions suffocated her. She was not allowed to return home after 10 p.m., not permitted to step out alone, and was always urged to “eat healthy” and “stay safe”, rules familiar to almost every only child in a conservative Indian household.

Yet this cocoon didn’t define her completely. Shreyashi had medals and trophies in karate, a discipline that, for her, was a way to breathe freely. She excelled in academics and dancing, but the carefully curated path her father, a professor at Calcutta University, envisioned for her, teaching, felt like a cage. When I asked her what she truly wanted, she answered with just one word: “Freedom.” To her, that freedom meant a job. A job was not about earning money but about carving out an identity outside the confines of her family’s expectations.

Shreyashi is not alone. Another cousin of mine, from the same city, had a different story. A cricket enthusiast who once dreamed of becoming a sports journalist, he suddenly announced his decision to become a Medical Representative (MR). Surprised, I asked him why. His answer was sobering: “My uncle has worked in this field for years. I know it’s not my dream job, but it feels safer. If journalism fails me, who will support my family? This road feels less risky.” Both cousins represent two ends of a spectrum—one seeking employment as an escape, the other sacrificing passion at the altar of security. In both cases, the job becomes less about choice and more about compromise.

The Larger Dilemma: Youth and the Job Chase

These personal accounts mirror a wider reality. Across India, young people, fresh graduates or even undergraduates, are often caught in a dilemma: to chase passion, to pursue higher studies, or to settle for a job that promises stability.

Unfortunately, there is little concrete data on how many students directly enter jobs after senior secondary or graduation. What is certain, however, is the growing anxiety around employability. According to the India Skills Report 2024, only about 51% of Indian youth are considered employable by industry standards, even though millions graduate each year. This gap between degrees and skills pushes many students into hurried job decisions, sometimes as a survival mechanism, sometimes just to escape family pressures.

Placements: The Shiny Bait

Adding to this confusion is the placement promise dangled by institutions. For many students, the decision to pursue higher studies is shaped less by academic interest and more by the assurance of a job at the end of the program. But how real are these promises?

Top-ranked institutes like IITs and IIMs often boast stellar statistics, but cracks appear beneath the glossy brochures. For instance, IIT Bombay’s 2023 placement rate was about 92%, with an average salary of ₹23 LPA, while IIT Delhi reported 88% with an average of ₹21 LPA. Yet, stories circulate online of IIT graduates, especially from core engineering branches, remaining unemployed for years.

Similarly, the IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore) routinely report 100% placements, with median salaries hovering between ₹25–30 LPA. But at IIM Trichy, nearly 1 in 7 students remained unplaced in the 2023–25 batch, and only 27% secured packages above ₹20 LPA. Several graduates had to settle for modest-paying roles, struggling to repay education loans.

The story doesn’t end with the IIMs or IITs. At NIT Calicut (2024–25), the placement percentage dropped to 72%, even though the highest offer touched ₹43.2 LPA. On the commerce side, Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) celebrated over 520 job offers in 2025, with a highest package of ₹36 LPA, but not everyone made it to the “dream job” category.

Even institutes renowned in niche fields face this gap. The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), ranked among the top for journalism and public relations, paints a contradictory picture. Its brochures promise strong industry linkages, yet major recruiters in print and broadcast, ABP, NDTV, Zee, Jansatta, ANI, rarely show up for placements. Instead, year after year, Prasar Bharati hires in bulk, offering contractual roles with modest stipends. For many students, it becomes less of a launchpad and more of a compromise.

The pattern is striking: institutions sell “100% placement” dreams, but the reality often depends on the fine print, who gets placed, at what salary, and in which role.

Where Does This Leave the Students?

Today’s youth face a two-fold struggle, Internal pressure from families who equate secure jobs with stable futures and external pressure from institutions and markets that reward only “market-ready” skills. In this tug-of-war, dreams often get silenced. A sports journalist becomes a medical representative. A karate champion sits through English Honours lectures. An IIT engineer works outside his field.

What we must recognize is that placements, while important, cannot be the sole measure of success, either for institutions or for students. Employers increasingly demand skills, adaptability, and creativity over mere degrees. At the same time, students need more structured guidance, career counseling, mentorship, and real-world exposure, to bridge the gap between aspiration and employability.

As I reflect on my cousins’ stories and the larger placement maze, one thought lingers: India doesn’t have a shortage of talent, it has a shortage of direction. Our institutions continue to project placement as the ultimate goal, yet fail to prepare students for the uncertainties beyond campus. Families, too, shape career choices less around interest and more around fear.

The result? A generation that is educated, ambitious, but deeply conflicted. Perhaps the real value of an institute should not be measured in placement percentages or salary packages, but in how confidently it equips its students to chase their own definitions of success, whether that is in a newsroom, a cricket stadium, a corporate office, or on a karate mat. Until then, the placement “promise” will remain both a lifeline and a trap, a shiny bait in an ocean where many young people are still learning to swim.