There is no question that the job market is looking increasingly bleak.
Many Oxford graduates, promised opportunity and privileged status, with grand ambition allowing them to swan into any interview confident they will leave with an offer in hand, nevertheless, remain living at home. Despite the distinguished nature of their CV, they relentlessly apply to job after job in a cycle of rejection, ghosting, and reapplication.
This situation is certainly compounded by three main depressing factors: the increasing neglect of arts and humanities; the rise of the far right and the rapidly widening wealth gap across the world; and a rising culture of idolising money and corporate success. These are but a few of the problems that aspiring undergraduates face in their quest for “success.” Skewed by the hyper-capitalistic values society imposes upon its youth, our idea of a life well-lived seems to be reliant upon a comfortable salary, large house, and Netflix premium subscription. The burden of corporate ambition seemingly carried by all – not only Oxford – undergraduates is evidently incredibly difficult to shoulder: the emerging mental health crisis among the youth only goes to show that the society we live in is quickly becoming unsustainably pressurised. Even the question “can Oxford students still afford to follow their passions” plays into the insidious nature of a capitalistic mindset – is it a category error, to associate materialism with such a fundamental part of human nature as passion?
I would make the case that by following a path curated to “get a job and make money”, as a reaction to the difficulties we face, we only exacerbate the problem. This is how the market becomes oversaturated. Though at one time ability to write code was the golden ticket to wealth and status, and hordes of bright teenagers made it their mission in life to learn this skill, this is no longer the case. Necessity inevitably changes, and many very clever – now graduates – who have staked their future career on an ability to code, are left jobless, living off their parents, and stuck in a liminal space of continual corporate rejection. The “get a job to make money” mindset only aggravates the already bloated job market.
The answer must be: ignore money.
Money is the trendsetter here, and the trail it blazes burns out fast, leaving behind nothing but a yawning void of fruitless greed. I appreciate that this opinion may be seen as overly reductionist and unappreciative of the plight of those who rely on a steady job to sustain themselves. However, I believe that only by making ourselves the starving artists, the tortured playwrights, the reclusive composers can each one of us effect a change that is becoming so desperately necessary in our hyper-capitalistic, corporate-obsessed world. To dedicate yourself to a craft, to the pursuit of knowledge, or to the creation of beauty is something that can bring a deeper satisfaction than any material accumulation. There must be a pushback on materiality. Think not of your living conditions or your financial success. To strive for money, to involve it in our pursuits, is to push not only us but our future generations further into the chasm. And so, it is the artistic and cultural opportunities – concerts, writing classes, art societies, dramatic companies; even pure maths classes for their own sake, philosophy seminars for theirs, film-making, obscure-language-learning, the C.S Lewis Society – all this that Oxford affords us must be cherished and absorbed with vigour and enthusiasm, rather than the financial and semi-nepotistic opportunities that promise material success. Where else on Earth can such enlightenment come so readily at one’s fingertips?
The question must never be “can I afford to follow my passion?” Pursue only that which you love, and success – emotional, moral, human success – will inevitably follow.