A Concerned Future Graduate

Is getting a higher qualification will secure you a better employment?

It seems like it when I was not pursuing my post graduate degree. I was under qualifications for the jobs I wanted. So I decided to save my salary to pursue Master's Degree in Multimedia Design. During the first week into my first semester, I felt like I could make my dreams come true.

I am in my last semester now about to graduate in six months. My graduation project is about UX design because it's my career aspiration after leaving university. I have little confidence about my qualifications. I think I wasted my money and my parents' savings for an overpriced degree. The learning experience wasn't fantastic. There were a lot of hit and miss during the learning process. During my independent studies, seems like what I am paying to learn at campus can be learned at home.

Forming a friendship at campus is artificial. Everybody is busy with their assignments. We talk with each other, occasionally, if we have group homework. We converse around school topics and our struggle looking for a part-time job. I have become more of a skeptic person than what I used to be. I aim to be a high achiever not because I believe it would help for a better employment but because my family and I have sacrificed a lot financially.

My teachers praised me for being able to think ahead of the other students during my graduation project. It doesn't boost my confidence though. In fact, it makes me more skeptical about my skills. Probably the teachers are suggested to praise any works of the students.

I consulted with them about the scope of my UX design. The teachers said that the outcome of my course is creating a designer not a developer. So I just have to create until prototype stage and a presentation in any format I am familiar with. My project will be considered a finished product if it is clear for a developer to carry out to the next process.

All seems easy and doable. But, I don't think in working environment it would be this easy. I am sure a developer will have some degree of involvement during design process. There are some process in the real world that isn't reflected in the class. I can say this because I had some experience in web design. Even back then, a programmer had some involvement in the design stage. So that the final outcome of the website would have a design aesthetics and functionality.

I am tired of studying. I like being in class and being a student. I like learning new things. What's the point of learning if I can't use my currently acquired qualifications to get a job?

The future is bleak.