The Vishal Mega Mart meme is more than a joke it's the truth for 70% of Indian youth facing underemployment. Here's what this says about jobs in India today. If you’ve spent time on Indian Twitter or Instagram lately, you’ve likely come across the viral “Vishal Mega Mart meme.” It usually features a blurry man standing in front of a showroom with the caption: “MBA in Finance. Now working at Vishal Mega Mart.”
What started as a joke now feels like an uncomfortably real snapshot of the Indian job crisis. Behind the memes is a truth few want to admit: Too many young Indians are overeducated, underemployed, and disillusioned. And that’s not a punchline.
The Meme That Hit Too Close to Home
Originally shared to poke fun at the gap between education and employment, the meme exploded because it touched a nerve. Young people saw themselves in itnot just metaphorically, but literally. According to a CMIE 2024 report, only 30% of Indian graduates work in jobs aligned with their education. The rest are either unemployed, working in unrelated fields, or stuck in low-paying roles despite high qualifications. In fact, India’s youth unemployment rate currently stands at 45.4%a staggering number in a country that brands itself as the world’s next economic superpower.
Degrees ≠ Jobs Anymore
India produces nearly 1 crore graduates every year, yet most of them struggle to find jobs that match their education level or salary expectations. Many end up working in retail, delivery, or low-tier admin jobs roles that don’t require a degree at all. Why does this happen? It’s the deadly mix of:
A skills mismatch (what colleges teach ≠ what employers need)
The lack of entry-level opportunities in the formal sector
And the overwhelming demand-supply imbalance in job markets
The Vishal Mega Mart meme isn’t just a cultural artifact it’s a symptom of deep structural issues in India’s hiring ecosystem.
The Rise of “Educated Underemployment”
Underemployment is when you have a job, but it doesn’t match your qualifications or aspirations. And it’s rampant in India. A Bain & Company report from 2023 noted that 70% of Indian job seekers under 30 are either underemployed or in temporary, unstable work. That includes graduates with degrees in commerce, engineering, and even MBA holders. They aren’t unskilled. They’re misplaced. That’s the real tragedy. They were promised success through education. What they got instead was a customer service role at a hypermarket chain for ₹12,000 a month.
The Emotional Toll: More Than Just Numbers
Beyond the stats and resumes, there’s a human cost. This generation is experiencing:
Delayed independence
Mental health struggles from rejection and stagnation
And a growing distrust in the system that educated them but didn’t prepare them
We laugh at the meme, but every time someone forwards it, another young adult sees themselves reflected in it and not in a funny way.
The Way Forward: What Needs to Change
India’s job market doesn’t just need more jobs. It needs better alignment between talent and opportunity. Here’s what must change:
Curriculum overhauls in universities to include industry-relevant skills
Widespread access to vocational training, apprenticeships, and certifications
Employers embracing skills-first hiring over pedigree-based recruitment
And government-backed incentives to generate meaningful white-collar employment, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities
Additionally, startups, MSMEs, and mid-sized firms often ignored in hiring conversations—need more visibility and support to become engines of employment.
A Wake-Up Call for All of Us
The Vishal Mega Mart meme may live in a carousel of internet humor, but it’s rooted in a painful reality: A generation full of ambition but short on opportunity. It’s a call to action not just for policymakers and educators, but for HR leaders, founders, and recruitment professionals to think differently. If we continue measuring growth only in GDP and unicorns, we’ll miss the slow erosion of human potential that’s happening quietly, behind glowing degrees and unpaid internships. So, the next time you scroll past that meme, pause for a moment. Laugh, maybe. But also think about the engineer behind the cash counter, the MBA updating inventory, and the designer working night shifts at a BPO. Because they don’t need your sympathy. They need a system that actually works.
Watch this video for some shocking insights about the same- https://youtube.com/shorts/W1Jm6o0MR60?feature=share
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