In today’s India, preparing for government jobs has become one of the biggest traps for young people. Indian youth are running behind government jobs blindly, without questioning whether this path makes sense or not.
Everyone already knows that the success rate of government job exams is less than one percent, yet millions of young people continue to spend their most important years preparing for these exams. This clearly means that if one hundred people prepare, ninety-nine are bound to fail. Even after knowing this reality, Indian youth are unable to think clearly and are wasting their prime years of life chasing a dream that statistically will not work for most of them.
The biggest reason behind this problem is the lack of independent thinking. Social conditioning in India is so strong that young people do not even question whether the goal they are chasing is right or wrong. Most of them are simply copying what others around them are doing.
When everyone in the neighborhood, college, or family is preparing for government jobs, an individual also starts doing the same thing without understanding his own interests or abilities. This herd mentality has created a situation where almost every young person has the same dream.
If Indian youth truly had independent thinking, everyone would not be chasing the same career. People have different skills, talents, and interests, yet the majority are running in the same direction, which naturally increases competition to extreme levels.
Success becomes very difficult when millions of people run the same race. A race with fifteen lakh participants gives you very little chance of winning, but a race with a thousand or two thousand people gives you a much higher chance of success.
This simple logic is ignored by most young people. If someone truly wants to be successful, they should go in the direction where fewer people are going.
Ironically, big things look difficult, but very few people attempt them seriously. That is why doing so-called unrealistic things like building a company, starting a startup, creating content, or writing a book is often easier than doing “safe” and realistic things, because the crowd is not there. Mediocre paths attract the masses and become brutally competitive.
The uncomfortable truth is that many people chase government jobs because they want to avoid hard work in the long run. In Indian society, hard work and honesty are not respected the way they should be. A farmer or a private-sector employee who works hard and earns honestly is treated as an ordinary person, but someone who earns money through corruption or misuse of power is given great respect.
This broken value system pushes young people towards government jobs. They believe that once a government job is secured, life is settled forever, with fixed income, power, and social respect, even if there is very little real work involved.
I personally met a friend who recently got a job in the post office. When I asked him about his working hours, he casually told me that he goes to work when he feels like it and skips it when he does not. He said this confidently, as if it was something to be proud of.
In our society, if someone says that their job requires very little effort, people admire it and call it a great job. But if someone says that their job requires hard work, people call it a bad or useless job. This mindset explains why young people do not respect effort and skill development.
Because hard work and risk-taking are not valued in Indian society, innovation struggles to grow here. Creating new technology or building large companies requires years of dedication, effort, and risk.
Countries like the United States and China have become global hubs of technology and innovation because their societies value hard work and respect people who take risks. Young people there start businesses at a young age, experiment, fail, learn, and try again. In India, risk-taking is discouraged, and young people are advised to stick to safe and conventional paths. As a result, innovation remains limited and potential is wasted.
Indian youth are currently wasting their most productive years sitting at home and preparing for government exams. During this time, they earn nothing, contribute nothing to the economy, and bring no real change to society.
I know someone who has been preparing for a teacher recruitment exam for the last five to six years. He is now thirty years old and has not earned even a single rupee in his life. His parents have grown old and still work in the fields, yet he continues to wait for the exam to clear. If he genuinely loved teaching, he could easily teach in a private school, but teaching is not his passion. What he really wants is the government job tag and the social respect that comes with it.
Most young people today are not truly interested in the work they choose. They are only interested in the label of a government job. They have been conditioned to believe that life without a government job is meaningless. This belief is completely false.
A government job is not life. Money, skills, and value creation are what truly matter. One can live a good life without a government job, but it is impossible to live without money. Income can be earned in many ways if the mindset is right, even through small businesses or simple work, but people refuse to accept this truth.
If an exam is not clearing after several years, the smartest decision is to stop and rethink. If those same five or six years were invested in learning skills, working in the private sector, starting a business, or creating something of value, most people would be in a far better position today. Youth is the time to work hard, take risks, and build something meaningful. Wasting this phase sitting idle and waiting for a government job is one of the biggest mistakes a person can make.
Indian youth need a serious mindset shift. Government jobs are not the only path to dignity and stability. Chasing skills, money, and value creation is far more important than chasing job tags. Countries become powerful not because their youth prepare for government exams, but because their youth build, innovate, and create. Until Indian youth understand this truth, they will continue to waste their potential and their most precious years behind a dream that works for very few.