Graduating from university after four or more years of grueling work and deadlines is an achievement many university students look forward to. There is, however, a kind of anxiety about it and that’s not because the professional life will be harder but because everyone is competing for a few jobs on offer. The job market in recent years have been difficult to say the least and while there are reports that say the job market is vast that may not be the case for fresh graduates. Experience is the name of the game in recent years. Nonetheless, the future need not be so bleak.
With the rise in the popularity of social media, there are certain groups that benefit from that. Communication graduates are one of them. Social media is a very broad platform. It includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and many more and there is one thing that is similar with them: content. Content is something people view for their own entertainment or source of information. Many of these platforms use text, pictures and videos to showcase the content, and many of these things require skills that many Communication students are trained for such as writing, photography and videography, photo and video editing to name a few. Social media, and the internet in general, has taken a spin on traditional jobs of Communication graduates and has opened opportunities.
Education is evolving and curriculums are catering to that evolution. Students are learning more and becoming more hands on. Take Communication for example. Students are learning not only communication theory but also hands on training with activities. This then gets them as ready as possible for the real world but, of course, the real world is vastly different from the organized four corners of a classroom. Ms. Jane Cadalig who works for the Baguio Midland Courier recalls how she was able to continue journalism as a fresh graduate having to write three news stories every day for a previous newspaper and earning minimum wage. She took it with patience, until she had the opportunity to apply for her current job.
Every chapter in one’s life is scary to begin with, but over time it becomes easy and almost second nature. That’s the same thing that will happen to fresh graduates, they will be a fish out of water trying to look for a job and when they do they adapt to their new environment. Of course there are things beyond one’s control like the competition in the job market and the economy but these need not stop oneself from exploring different options. Again, the world is changing at a pace so fast it’s hard to cope with but there is something out there, something that fresh graduates can look forward to.** By Aisha Barry, Ahmet Kiran and Jeong Jihye, UB Interns
