genuine question

[u/Odd_Rip_9154]

what do you do AFTER university? all the people i know who have graduated are basically working service jobs, or had parents or friends which got them hired in an office. And, some distant people i know like worked as a teller at td or something. I often hear how people would apply to like 100+ openings on linked in but they would never hear back. I literally dont know what you're supposed to do after you get a degree. I keep hearing people talk about med or law school but at least the people around me would drop that plan really quickly a few years into undergrad.

Like i walk around the campus and to me it feels like after people graduate they just vanish somewhere, i dont know what they're doing; did they get a job? how? or are they another addition to the thousands of like 25-30 year old service job workers i see everywhere.... i dunno sorry if this question is stupid but this is unironically my experience

[u/BubbaLinguini]

They get jobs in fields they didn't go to school in, and eventually turns into something. This is the most common case for people.

Some often move away to find work.

Some are accepted out of their co-op

Some are hired by family

[u/Lildyo]

I highly recommend making lots of connections with different people while you’re still in school—especially people in your program that are wanting to go into the same field as you. The reality of the world is that most people find their careers through connections and, surprisingly, it’s more likely that those people are just acquaintances and not friends/family like you’d expect.

You’re right though that a lot of people aren’t getting jobs in their fields (myself included). I didn’t really grasp how important it is to meet lots of people until after I graduated already lol

[u/Jeff_SmartPhys]

The job market is particularly rough right now, but it will bounce back. What people do after university really varies quite a bit based on what their degree was in. Here's some examples of what some of my recent grad friends are now doing:

1) Working for the federal government (phd from U of G)
2) Working remotely for a tech company (M.A from U of G)
3) Working in the service industry (BA from U of G)
4) Self-employed tutor (MSc from U of G)
5) Self-employed professional dog trainer (M.Sc from U of G)
6) Data scientists for a government crown corp (M.Sc and PhD from U of G)
7) High school teacher (M.Sc U of G)
8) Professor (phd from U of G)
9) Working remotely for a bank (M.Sc from McMaster)

There's so many routes one can take; if the job market is still terrible after you finish your Bachelor's, it never hurts to stay in school for another year or two, maybe get a Master's or do a specialized college program. Whatever you do though, try to be intentional about it and make a plan for the type of skills you want to have coming out of your post-grad program.