18/07/2025
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ฑ
Imagine before you sits a golden box, glimmering with the promise of everything youโve ever wanted. Inside it lies the cure to your every struggleโthe food to fill your hunger, the home to shield you from the elements, and the key to a life youโve only dared to imagine. But its front bears a lock, forged from something stronger than steel. You try everything: force, finesse, even desperationโbut the box refuses to open. Just as you begin to lose hope, your fingers brush against a small note tucked underneath. In faded ink, it reads:
โThe box contains the key to itself.โ
And so, the paradox is revealedโhow can one unlock the box when the very thing needed to open it is trapped inside?
This is the same challenging reality faced by many freshly graduated studentsโwhether from high school, college, or vocational programs. They're often encouraged to โgain experienceโ to become employable, yet many companies already expect some degree of prior experience. It creates a cycle that can be difficult to break. Like the golden box, the system can feel out of reach. This isnโt necessarily a reflection of individual shortcomings, but rather a mismatch between expectations and access.
Just to be clear, entry-level job listings do exist. Employers post them across job boards and career websites, and some are explicitly marked โopen to fresh graduates.โ But the issue is deeper than a scarcity of listingsโitโs the sheer volume of graduates competing for them. According to the Philippine Statistics Authorityโs Labor Force Survey, youth aged 15 to 24 make up the largest segment of the unemployed population. In July 2024, this age group accounted for nearly 43% of total unemployed persons, with a youth unemployment rate soaring to 14.8%โmore than three times the national average. The numbers are stark, but they only hint at the discouragement felt by thousands of hopeful applicants entering a system designed to reward experience they have not yet been given a fair chance to earn.
Even when graduates manage to find roles labeled โentry-level,โ theyโre often met with disheartening requirements: 1โ2 years of relevant experience, specialized skills, or previous internships in the field. It creates a system where the line between โentry-levelโ and โjuniorโ is blurredโwhere the first step becomes the last.
Soโฆ is there really no chance? Are we just bound to the system?
Well, not entirelyโthough the truth is uncomfortable. The real key isnโt always education or merit; itโs connection.
Many young professionals find jobs not through job boards, but through people: professors who vouch for them, relatives who pass along rรฉsumรฉs, classmates who refer them internally. In the current system, networking is currency. And those who began building it earlyโthrough internships, campus involvement, volunteer programs, or even just having relatives in the right circlesโare often the first to cross the line from โapplicantโ to โemployee.โ
What we commonly call โexperienceโ is often just the accumulated result of access. Not everyone had the time, support, or resources to take unpaid internships during school. Not everyone studied at institutions with industry partnerships or alumni pipelines. And not everyone grew up in an environment where โWho do you know?โ was a question with an easy answer.
This doesnโt mean hope is lost. But it does mean we must rethink how we support early career development. Many schools already include On-the-Job Training (OJT) in their curricula, which helps introduce students to real-world environments. However, more can still be done to strengthen the link between education and employmentโsuch as expanding industry partnerships, mentoring programs, and job placement support. At the same time, employers must recognize potential alongside experience, and society should avoid framing unemployment as a personal failure when it often reflects broader systemic gaps.
The golden box can openโbut not if we keep demanding that job seekers hand over a key they were never given. The fix is not in telling people to try harder. It is in redesigning the lock, breaking the grasp of the working paradox.
Opinion by Eudaimon | TMF
Artwork by Lawrence Almaden | TMF
