Fresh Graduate Gone Stale

Graduated? Excited to be finally out of university? Eager to work in the field? Living in Lebanon? Yes? Well then stop here and rewind.

Being a fresh graduate myself, looking for work isn’t a piece of cake mind you. But the never ending “why” hangs by thread, leaving young blood questioning and perplexed. Why do most Lebanese go abroad to start their career? Instead of staying right here, and investing themselves for a better national economical future.

Let’s face it, Lebanese become famous for innovations they could have achieved in their home country. Instead they are renowned and praised elsewhere, and the nationality is to be left mentioned in the last place, if any.

We on earth, deal with the famed saying: “Time is money”. Well it perfectly is, but wasting valuable and brand new resources is as important. And taking advantage of these resources will eventually comply with the saying on the long run. Companies avoid losing time by taking in and favoring freshly experienced people, leaving the others jobless, and a wasted asset. This defies the purpose of a good employee turnover, which can adequately be represented like “good blood in, bad blood out”.

Recruiters are making the task for newly graduated, much tougher than it should be. Most of them require us to work a month for free as a “trial” and this is before the 3 months probation we have to abide by.

Its either you come with experience, you work for free or you search elsewhere and try your luck.

But that isn’t the only factor getting in the way. We as Lebanese have adopted for many years now, the “Wasta” system, which is the catalyst that gets a person into a desired job position through connections with important people. This widely and commonly used in Lebanon, unfortunately.

Your expertise, university achievements, and GPA aren’t any help and prove to be useless.

So other than the corrupt government, we have a corrupt business system. And how is a person supposed to build his or her life in these circumstances, since the Lebanese lifestyle is mostly based on money, like any other economy, and how stable you are?

How can this be fixed you ask?

Well like our “flawless” government, I think this is broken beyond repair. Because the system is permanently damaged, and wiping it all out and restarting anew would be the only way to mend it, which is obviously not possible. Lebanon’s corruption is engraved and here to stay.

I, personally, don’t plan on leaving my country, but these factors are nearing me to the threshold. You’d expect the country to be full of opportunities after all it has been through.

I guess patience is the only virtue at this point, as well as perseverance. I won’t give up, not yet at least. What about you? Was it that hard when you first graduated? Do you live in Lebanon? Or should the question be “Do you still live in Lebanon?”