What is the cost of finding your first job in Nepal?
Are you looking for a job? Tired of finding one?
Well, let me remind you that Nepal is not for beginners. And here, unlike the viral memes, by beginners I mean the freshers — recent undergrads or graduates who just completed their bachelor’s or master’s and looking out for a job in the market.
My dear friends, I think I must share my experience with you, the experience about what was the cost of finding a first job. And by first job, I mean First job, not dream job. Through this blog, I will share what effort, time, money, and strategy it costs to get your first job in Nepal.
This is strictly not for those who are preparing for Loksewa exams or have their own house in Kathmandu to live a calm life while looking for good news without any urgency.
Context: We live one a country where even the top colleges don’t manage placements for students.
Let’s Begin.
For many, the path to securing that first job begins right after completing a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The dream is straightforward in Nepalese families: finish your education, enter the job market, and start earning a comfortable salary. But for most, especially those from middle-class families in Nepal, this journey is anything but simple.
The Pressure Cooker of Expectations
In a typical Nepali household, expectations run high as soon as the final exam is over. Parents eagerly await the day their son or daughter will start contributing financially, perhaps imagining a monthly salary in the lakhs or at least Rs. 80,000 in the beginning, especially when you have passed from IOE Pulchowk Campus with a full scholarship and lots of awards. These expectations are well-meaning, fueled by love and hope, but they can also be blinding.
The pressure to fulfill these dreams of family members can weigh heavily on a young graduate, making it hard to voice doubts or concerns and prevent youth from taking long-term risks like Startups that take time and have no guarantee.
The Harsh Wake-Up Call
The moment of truth comes when these graduates step into the job market. Armed with degrees and high hopes, they soon confront the stark reality: Nepal’s job market is challenging. Even top engineering colleges like IOE Pulchowk don’t guarantee placements. There are few internship opportunities that students need to find themselves, and most colleges don’t offer any support for them.
For middle-class youth, this means diving into the job hunt with little more than determination, a resume, and a degree in hand.
There is a cost to getting a job. As you know the fact that you must give something to get a lot of things. In Nepal, it’s just the opposite, you need to give a lot to get small things.
The degree, skills, experience, the ATS score of the resume do not have any value in Nepalese in the market. All it matters is “your salary expectation”. It took me a long to realize this fact. Until I realized this, I was compelled to spend a cost, a cost to get my first job. This might be the cost of getting a first job for every fresher. Let us see what is the exact cost.
The Hidden Costs of Job Hunting
1) Time: The First Investment
Finding the right job takes time — often much more than anticipated. In my case, it took six weeks of intense self-reflection and research to figure out what role would best suit my skills and interests. Our education system, unfortunately, doesn’t always equip us with a clear direction, leaving many of us as a jack-of-all-trades but masters of none. This period was a mental marathon, filled with self-doubt and endless questioning.
I have good technical skills and excellent business skills. This is because I also got the “entrepreneurial ghost” during my college days. Note: this ghost is still within me, it never goes away. Only the other ghosts will understand this, if you don’t, you can move to the next line.
It again took me another 1.5 months to apply, give interviews, and finally get selected. In total, 3 months was the cost — time cost. People say it could be shorter if I had good connections and someone referred me to some company — called the reference in the corporate world.
Well, I want to tell the truth to you, I have an excellent network. I know the people from minister levels to the biggest business tycoons. But unluckily, I am not a rich kid. So, it does not work in all cases.
2) Job Applications: A Numbers Game
Once I had a clearer idea of what I wanted, the next step was applying. I sent out over 500 applications, each tailored to the job I was applying for. I edited my resume more than 20 times, trying to perfect it.
Despite my efforts, I was invited to just over 20 interviews and received no offers. The process was exhausting, and the constant rejection took its toll on my confidence. Every interview went so well until they called me for a final question — ‘what is your expected salary?”. I, being proud of my excellent resume full of skills that I gained by bunking engineering classes considering this same time, replied with “around 1 Lakh” initially.
3) Interest: The Passion Game
After weeks of applying for roles that aligned with my interests, I began to lose hope. The endless cycle of sending resumes and attending interviews without success was demoralizing. My initial excitement faded, and I found myself lowering my salary expectations from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 80,000 to 50000 and finally 40,000.
In the end, I accepted a job in business development — a field of interest that was third on my list of preferences (my priority of interest was Product Management and my second priority was Business Analyst, all in junior positions). My field of interest was slowly sacrificed as I realized that “I have to join whatever I get a job for”, my expected salary slowly decreased and my hope for companies like Google, Microsoft, and Adobe, slowly died.
4) Approaches: Adapt and Overcome
Throughout this journey, I had to constantly adapt my approach. Initially, I relied on LinkedIn job postings, but with little success. I then turned to personal connections, messaging people and connections on LinkedIn, but received only a 1% response rate. Then I started looking for jobs on other Job posting sites like Merojob and Jobjee.
Desperate for a breakthrough, I began reaching out directly to companies through their LinkedIn pages, even if they hadn’t posted any job openings. This unheard approach, surprisingly, finally worked — I received a call from a company within hours and was hired the same day.
Bingo, I found a new way of finding a job that was never seen in any YouTube videos i.e. messaging on LinkedIn pages of companies.
5) Salary Compromise: Top-Down Approach
Even after securing the job, I had to make compromises. The salary was lower than I had hoped, but with the promise of an increase after three months, I leaped. The thought of a future salary bump kept me going. After all, everyone told me to join for whatever the salary may be, because I am a fresher. But I remember my friends of the same level and some less smart than me getting their first job packages having monthly salaries of more than 1lakh IC( Indian Rupees) i.e. 1.6 NPR.
6) Financial Costs: The Price of Persistence
Job hunting isn’t just about time and effort; it also requires money. I spent around Rs. 6,000 on transportation alone ( Indrive and buses), not to mention additional costs like food and rent. These expenses add up quickly, further intensifying the pressure to find a job as soon as possible. In my case, my room was in an area where buses were not found, I used ride-sharing apps to prevent delays in interviews.
7) Rejections: Habituating Failure
The rejections were the hardest part. I was turned down by some of the biggest names — Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Discord — as well as by countless national companies. Each rejection felt like a personal failure, chipping away at my self-esteem. But every “no” also brought me closer to the “yes” I needed. Later rejections started to seem funny. I used to check emails every hour expecting an offer letter and only finding out 5 to 10 rejections every single day.
I never gave up, I kept applying to Google, Microsoft, and everywhere possible.
8) Hostel: A new stay and a lifestyle
I used to live with my sister and brother in Chyasal before I joined the job. But the area where I got the job is too far from my room. I must change 2 buses daily to reach the office and again 2 buses to get back ( also a walk to get to bus stand). This made me shift to a hostel near my office. I paid 14,000 NPR initially to get admission in the Hostel and must pay 11500 every month to stay. This increased my cost of living as I was paying nothing at my flat where my sister and brother are living.
Conclusion: The Real Cost of a Job
In total, it took me three months, over Rs. 30,000 in expenses, hundreds of application rejections, infinite optimism, many sad days where I was laughed at after speaking about my salary expectation, and numerous setbacks to finally land a job. The journey was far from easy, but it taught me invaluable lessons about persistence, faith, belief, and the true cost of achieving your dreams.
For anyone embarking on a similar journey, know that the road ahead will be tough. But with consistency, the right strategy, and a bit of luck, you’ll find your way. And when you do, the struggle will have been worth it.
Don’t give up, 1 in 100 will work, and sometimes that one can be your first attempt as well. Never stop. Don’t believe that the reference from big company people only works in getting a job, a random CEO might also find a spark in you.
I want to tell you that this was the struggle I faced even though I did my bachelor’s with a full scholarship in Nepal’s number one engineering college IOE Pulchowk and have some international volunteering experiences and awards. I also ran my organizations during my bachelor’s and organized my international and national level events. I have average programming skills but good business skills. My resume was minimized to fit into 1 page as it was too long with lots of skills and projects.
But still, the struggle I faced made me believe that none of the above matters in Nepal. And this is the reason why youths are leaving Nepal in mass in search of good opportunities.
I don’t know the exact reason behind it. Some say that big companies don’t pay enough. Some say startups are not paying interns. Some say businesses are at a loss. Some say only Nepotism works. But I have no right to say what exactly is the reason without having enough proof and facts.
All I can say is that there will be a struggle. You need to Fight hard if you are fresher. After getting 1 to 2 years of experience, hopefully, you will earn enough.
I also want to add that I was a startup guy, and never thought that I would do a job in my life. But the situation hit differently. Family to see, money to make, and lack of time. The main thing, no support and capital for startups led me to sacrifice my dream for a few first years at least.
But hopefully, I will someday come up with a blog on “The cost of starting a successful startup in Nepal” as well.
Till then See you.
Nothing is easy. The Job, the startup, the abroad study, Nothing.
Please add things from your side as well in the comment. The feedback, or some more costs that you paid during your first job search. This blog has only the intention to inform my juniors of struggles. I want to help them and motivate them not to give up. That‘s it.
So, please add more messages for them, if you have any.
If you reached here, you must have loved this blog😅. One extra cost that I did not mention is “feeling lonely at the hostel”, haha. When you go away from family and work the whole day f**cking day hard, the only thing you miss is talks with family. But you are alone at the hostel and can’t even talk loud, play music, or dance as you do in your home. You come home, you get a little time to listen to music or work on a personal project, you sleep and wake up and run again to the office.
That’s it.
Good Luck and Thank You for your time.
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