Fresh grad calls meritocracy a ‘lie’ after ending up jobless with S$40K debt while poly friends rake in six-figure savings
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SINGAPORE: A fresh graduate is now questioning her life choices after realising that while she spent years slogging through university, some of her polytechnic friends who went straight to work are already drawing solid paychecks. Meanwhile, she is still unemployed after completing her degree.
In a post on r/singaporefi on Sunday (Sep 7), she shared that the four years she spent buried in textbooks were the same four years her peers were busy earning their first hundred thousand. One friend in particular started out at around S$3,000 a month after poly and is now making significantly more thanks to years of experience.
By comparison, the graduate said she is sitting at zero income and staring at a S$40,000 student loan.
“It’s disheartening because I worked so hard to study, only to end up worse than before. Not even moving forward — actually going backward. Then you hear people say fresh grads are demanding S$5K to S$10K salaries. Honestly, I’d be happy with even S$3K or less, but those jobs are hard to come by. Even the government’s GRIT programme only offers around S$2.4K. It all feels so messed up,” she wrote.
“Even on Reddit, I see seniors being retrenched — but at least they’ve built up savings. For fresh grads like me, it feels hopeless. Are we supposed to just do food delivery or odd jobs to survive?”
She went on to vent her frustration at the education system, saying that if there are no jobs available, then society should stop selling the idea that “everyone needs a degree”.
“Stop telling us to get degrees,” she stressed. “To anyone considering university: think twice. Meritocracy is a joke, a lie Singapore sold. Parents will say must have Uni degree, get higher pay job. Actually, now everyone has one. It becomes worthless.”
“The world doesn’t revolve around your experiences, leh.”
In the thread, many criticised the fresh grad for being short-sighted and blaming the system instead of taking responsibility.
Some also accused her of having a “victim mentality,” with one user saying that instead of lamenting about debt and joblessness online, she should focus on upskilling, exploring contract roles, or even taking on lower-paying jobs to gain experience.
“Sorry, but you are the problem, you blame everyone except yourself, no one [owes] you a life except yourself,” another user wrote.
“Huh? The world doesn’t revolve around your experiences, leh. End of the day, the national stats obviously show that a degree is worth it,” a third remarked.
A fourth shared, “Hiring for an admin executive, and I have fresh grad candidates DECLINING interviews because it’s too far for them. Not an SME, not even in the far west or east. Seriously, all I’m reading from Reddit is how y’all can’t find a job, but in reality? Y’all have some ‘high expectations.’”
In other news, an uncle has drawn flak online after he allegedly “pointed” at a woman sitting in a priority seat and demanded that she give it up.
The incident was shared by a commuter who witnessed it on the Complaint Singapore Facebook group on Wednesday (Sep 3).
In her post, the commuter stressed that no one should feel pressured to give up a seat solely because another passenger is older.
Read more: Uncle draws flak for demanding a woman give up her priority seat on the MRT