Applying off-campus, especially in this job market, has been a greater battle for the past couple of years. As AI ATS and other “AI methods” have entered application filtering, it is even harder for employers to notice good employees with good skill sets. HR who put random skill sets they hear from their technical colleagues lead to job descriptions like “we need db, machine learning, UI/UX designing, in a nutshell, everything,” and all for a 12-hour unpaid intern.
Desperation and Its Impact on Mental Health
The “12-hour unpaid intern where you do literally everything” sounds cruel from a sane point of view, but students and freshers still apply to them, thanks to desperation.
Peer pressure, placement panic, news about layoffs, and a tough job market for freshers all cause individuals to doubt their potential. This can lead to a spiral of low self-esteem and self-doubt about their abilities, preventing them from thinking clearly and leading to anxiety attacks and breakdown episodes.
The thought of "I know this internship is terrible" yet still applying for it can really disturb your peace of mind. It feels like you're heading towards failure, making you more vulnerable and desperate.
The Art of Writing Unrealistic JDs
HRs… I don’t know what they’re doing half the time. And most startups and mid-size companies that don’t have a proper hiring workflow just let HR handle the JDs. And oh boy, the descriptions are wild — “Node, API, REST API, React, Vue.js, Angular” — all for an entry-level or intern role for UI/UX designing. BRUH.
And this leads students and freshers to juggle skill sets half their life, trying to tick every box, and in the process they don’t specialize in a single skill — basically ending up learning none properly at the end of the day.
HRs should actually sit down and have a proper talk with their tech colleagues and ask them “even if the market is sad right now what skills a fresher really needs to have”, and then write the JD based on that.
The market is bad, sure. But that doesn’t mean students should turn into “do everything” machines just to survive it.
Unrealistic expectations from companies shouldn’t become unrealistic pressure on ourselves.
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