The IT job market conundrum: underemployed or underskilled?

"There are no jobs in this country."

This is the most common frustration that one might hear IT graduates in Bangladesh lament about. And the numbers, at first glance, seem to back them up. According to a report by The Daily Star, currently, graduate unemployment stands at 13.5 percent, which is roughly three times the national average.

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But then you look at the other side of the picture. According to the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), nearly 40 percent of positions in the IT sector remain vacant. Employers adhere to the belief that the talent simply isn't there. So, is it really the students who are falling short or the universities, companies, and the government who are failing them?

What Bangladesh is facing today is not simply a job crisis. It is a structural mismatch: a system producing graduates who are not meeting industry standards for companies that do not know how to value the ones who do.

The problem starts at the very root: inside the classroom. Peruse the course catalogue of almost any university computer science and engineering (CSE) course structure in Bangladesh, and you will find that it is anchored by the theory of computation, digital logic design, and algorithms. While these are subjects that are rigorous and important, the problem emerges because of what is overlooked.

Muhtasim Jawad, a software engineering student at Dhaka University (DU), says, "I am regularly juggling both my academic courses and online courses just to be ready for the job market. The current curriculum is simply outdated. On top of that, there are courses that would not land me a job. I don't see the point in studying chemical reactions or Bangladesh history when I am missing out on things that are relevant to the current world. Companies today are looking for skills, and CGPA is not the only determinant. It would have been great if what I studied in class and what the industry needs actually matched."

Rafsan Rahman Rafi, a CSE student at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), says, "The technology world is rapidly changing, but our curriculum is still stuck in the past."

"Even if the university wanted to introduce relevant courses, it cannot, as there are no teachers and no resources. For instance, cybersecurity is one of the most in-demand fields right now, but there are no teachers in our university to teach us," he adds.

Private universities are no different. Nasif Ahsan, a second-year CSE student at North South University (NSU), explains, "The whole curriculum is built around CGPA. But companies look for skills when hiring, and for that, we need to work on real projects, not just academia. The projects that we do are poorly graded and have comparatively less value."

"The biggest skill gap I observe is not necessarily technical knowledge," says Md Mubir M Chowdhury, founder of Sokrio Technologies Limited and adjunct faculty member of entrepreneurship and marketing at multiple universities, including the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), DU. "The larger challenge is the ability to apply that knowledge in real-world situations. Many graduates can answer questions they have prepared for but struggle when faced with unfamiliar situations that require judgement, adaptability, and independent thinking."

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Additionally, the arrival of AI has made everything simultaneously better and worse. Chowdhury explains, "The visible difference between candidates who genuinely understand a subject and those who can generate impressive AI-assisted outputs has narrowed considerably. Strong fundamentals and the ability to defend your own work have become more important than ever."

In the last year alone, he has had to part ways with several employees who initially showed strong promise but could not actually perform. This has compelled him to revise his hiring process as a result, which aptly exemplifies the hurdle that fresh graduates have to put up with.

Most graduates in the realm of IT will concur about the paradox of employment, wherein companies want experience, but nobody is willing to give them any. A peer-reviewed study titled "The Gap Between the Required Entry-Level Job Experience and the Opportunity for the Freshers in Bangladesh" found that most companies in Bangladesh demand two to three years of experience even for entry-level positions. Around 80 percent of surveyed fresh graduates identified this requirement as the primary reason they could not find work after graduating.

As troubling as this predicament is, employers find themselves in a rut as well. Hiring and training a fresh graduate costs real time and money — industry estimates put it at 6-12 months before a new hire is contributing meaningfully. With there being a mismatch between academia and industry, companies turn to experience as a quantifier of competence.

Mahidul*, now working as a developer at a reputed company, recalls the six months he spent after graduation searching for work. "I applied to 21 companies. 18 of them rejected me before the interview because I had zero experience. How am I supposed to have experience if no one hires freshers? It felt like the whole system was designed for me to fail."

This catch-22 was tackled in India by large IT companies that built enormous campus recruitment and training programmes, creating a direct pathway from final year to employment. This is a solution that we can possibly turn to, especially because there is a lot of talent here.

Bangladesh is ranked second globally for the number of freelancers, the majority of whom are in the IT sector. Though the freelancers are generating remittances, their contributions are all exported. After all, it is more profitable for them to work for foreign clients. Some are leaving the country altogether.

Approximately 55 percent of young Bangladeshis between 18 and 35 say they want to emigrate, and the actual emigration rate among IT-trained professionals is accelerating. The reasons are not mysterious. Entry-level software developers in Bangladesh earn on average between BDT 15,000 and 35,000 per month, which is roughly USD 136 to 318, according to salary data from Glassdoor and PayScale. A comparable role in India pays between USD 360 and 540, according to GeeksForGeeks. In Sri Lanka, a country with a smaller economy than Bangladesh, starting IT salaries run between USD 250 and 560, as reported by Ceylon Open Campus.

Mahidul recalls his first few months at work: "The salary was low, and on top of it there were many things I had to learn on the go which my curriculum never covered. The company gave us no training at all. A lot of the people who joined with me could not cope and left." Though he stayed, the question of why he had to learn on the job remains unanswered. Outdated curriculum, rigid hiring traditions, and low pay have culminated in a difficult job market.

"I do not believe any single party is to blame," Chowdhury explains. He believes that universities need to place greater emphasis on practical application and real-world problem-solving. Students have a responsibility too — a degree alone is no longer sufficient. Bridging the gap between theory and practice requires effort from both academia and industry. Stronger collaboration through internships, guest lectures, industry projects, and curriculum feedback can significantly improve graduate readiness.

*Name has been changed upon request.