How can a young teacher make his\her way to the labor market? Nowadays this question is very actual and important, because the situation is such that most institute and university graduates have difficulties in finding a job. I am now a fifth-year-student of Salavat pedagogical college, and teaching English and German is my future profession. Time flies, and I will soon graduate college, so it is natural that I started to think about my career and the place of work, especially after my training at the secondary school, where we, the young, have run into this problem. Now I understand better why young specialists try to avoid working as teachers, and I would like you, my Reader, to reflect with me on this vital issue...

The aim of my paper is to find an answer to the questions why most graduates have problems with finding a place to work, and why do they have to work in the sphere other than educational. I dare say that now when I have returned to college from the teaching practice in a secondary school I have more experience and I know the problem from inside.

So, why is it so difficult for the young to get a job nowadays? In my opinion, one of the reasons for that lies in their being not competitive enough at the labor market. Of course, they have no experience and professional training (and where can all this come from if they are just graduates?), while the market economy makes high demands to workers. Young workers should be more independent and responsible, more enterprising and creative. But even if young people possess all these qualities, they have unstable vital foundations; they have no length of service and, consequently, experience of work. As a result, the young have a low professional status. It is clear now why headmasters do not want to take young specialists to the staff. They trust more to teachers who have worked at school for many years. But if a young person is lucky enough to be given a job of a teacher, very often he\she doesn’t get well with the staff. Sometimes young teachers can be too emotional and unstable in their behavior, which proves their social immaturity. Of course, not all young people are such, but this stereotype influences their placement negatively.  Luckily for me, the working atmosphere at school where I trained as a teacher was very positive. However, it is rather an exception than a rule.

But it is not conditions of work that worry us, young specialists. First of all, we should think how to find a job. In spite of the fact that young people are the most perspective group of a workforce, we, the young, are at risk of unemployment because of the labor market’s oversaturation. Educational institutions keep on producing teachers, though there is no place for them at schools. Even if a young specialist manages to get a job at school, sometimes he cannot work there because it may be far from his house: in another town or village. But are there any perspectives at villages’ schools? Nothing of the kind. A young teacher can’t improve his qualification there. Moreover, I think every young specialist wants to work with new technologies, and in most villages it is hardly possible.

What else prevents a young specialist from getting a job? Sometimes it may be a low level of quality of his education that makes him not competitive at the labor market. But I know that some graduates of our college can’t find a work on their specialization, and that, of course, influences their professional formation: they lose hope to make a career, and not only hope: they lose their knowledge and language skills. Would I have chosen the profession of the foreign language teacher after graduating school, if I had been aware of my future problems at the labor market? I am not sure of the answer. Today, if we ask a student of our college where he is  going to work after graduation, it won’t be a surprise to hear that some of them do not want to be teachers saying this profession is not perspective, low-paid, and risky. Nowadays priority is given to financial and material benefits, but, to their opinion, the profession of a teacher can’t give both. But I think there are a lot of advantages of being a teacher, especially now when the world crisis has caused unemployment in all spheres and more and more people are being dismissed from their work places, the teachers’ situation is more stable, and they are not afraid of losing their job.

And now it is high time, my Reader, to think of the possible ways of solution of the problems discussed above. It’s natural that we, young people, have no clear idea how to solve all these problems, that’s why it would be right if we interviewed someone who is more experienced in this sphere. Let me introduce a person who knows the educational system from inside. Nailya (Nailevna) Shayakhmetova has worked at Salavat Teaching Training College for many years, so who knows better about the fates of its graduates? Nailya Nailevna admitted the problem of labor market’s oversaturation, but said that we shouldn’t lose hope to get a job of a teacher. She told us to write a good resume and send it to schools, and we should do it immediately, long before the graduation. If there are any vacancies at schools they will invite us. But she warned that it will be more difficult to find a job in Salavat than in other towns and villages. Taking into considerations the crisis, Nailya Nailevna advises us to continue our education as full-day students of higher educational institutions.

This experienced teacher pointed out some tips which may be rather helpful when a young specialist comes to an employer for the interview. It is known that employers take more communicative, confident, creative and enterprising people. That is why it is necessary to attend some special courses, where students will be taught how to behave at the labor market, how to present themselves, fill up documents. Every summer the students of our college work as a leader in a camp. It is a very good training, but there are so many documents to fill and some students became confused as they didn’t know how to do it. Of course, it can influence how a staff will accept a new worker.

Reflecting on advantages and disadvantages of the profession of a teacher I should mention some points which make young specialists choose other jobs. The profession of a teacher is so low-paid! What can be done? It’s only up to our government to solve this problem. Everybody knows that it is very difficult to work with children nowadays, and not everyone can deal with them. So the young do not want to work at school because the process of children’s upbringing leaves much to be desired. But I think it is a rewarding job, and if it were prestigious, young people would be motivated to work with children.