One could describe the job market outside of university as bleak. Your laptop might be littered with job applications that may never be answered and multiple tabs are open, often filled with LinkedIn job openings you may never quite “qualify” for despite being qualified.
Even with the completion of my undergraduate degree looming just around the corner — in the next few months — I cannot help but feel that there’s nothing for me in the job market. Despite being overqualified for minimum wage jobs, I feel as though, in this economy, it’s the only viable option.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is slowly starting to become more of a looming threat than a distant reality within the job market, narrowing graduates’ opportunities to slim pickings, resembling a Hunger Games-like atmosphere, with everyone competing for a minimum wage job.
Every time I search for a job within my skillset that matches my degree and passion, I am left with job applications encouraging me to apply to train AI for the job I want to do myself. Redundant, isn’t it?
Although students are encouraged to pursue higher education, such as undergraduate and master’s programs, this does not seem beneficial in a job market that appears to be less interested in not what you know, but rather who you know.
Networking is a vital component in job-searching. It pays to know people. A degree may get you in the door, but it is the networking that often leads you to apply in the first place.
Despite retail jobs not aligning with what most university graduates are looking for, they are most often what we settle for while we search for jobs that align with our degrees.
The unemployment rate among youth aged 15 to 24 years reached 14.7 per cent in September 2025, according to Statistics Canada. Yet, youth are still pressured into signing up for first and second degrees, with a job market where getting hired is as challenging as completing an IRONMAN competition without any training.
Your undergraduate degree also translates into spending thousands of dollars and often requires students to sign up for student loans in order to bare the crippling tuition fees. We are past the understanding that a degree promises employment after completion. Thousands of dollars and years’ worth of work were once the building blocks to success, and we live in an environment that often pushes the narrative that a degree still promises employment. This just isn’t the reality anymore.
The reality now reflects the sobering truth that it’s not so much what you know or how much you know, but your ability to successfully network with people who are either going into your desired field or already have experience in the industry you’re looking into. Some of the most successful people know it’s unfortunately not always how much you know, but your ability to make connections.
