The diploma cult: "a piece of paper for prestige" or real skills – and can one get by without "connections" in Bulgaria?

"Do you have a diploma?" – this question weighed more than "What can you do?" for a long time. In Bulgaria, higher education has traditionally been not just a degree, but a symbol: of a "successful person", of family pride, of a ticket to a better life. Today, however, this cult clashes with the reality of the labor market, where employers increasingly ask not only "what did you graduate in", but "what can you do tomorrow at work".

And against this backdrop remains an old, persistent question: is a diploma and work enough, or is a breakthrough almost impossible without "connections" and "a person inside"? The answer, as often happens, is somewhere in the middle – between statistics, personal stories, and a sense of justice.

Diploma as status: "not to be empty-handed in front of people"

For many years, higher education in our country was the main way up – especially for children from poorer families and small settlements. "Let's educate him" meant "let's give him a chance not to live like us". The diploma became a sign in front of relatives and neighbors: "our child succeeded".

This attitude is alive today. For many parents, the most important thing is "the child to get a diploma" – often without it being clear exactly what they will do with it. It is no coincidence that for years universities produced more economists, lawyers, and administrators than are actually needed, while technical specialties and professions "with their hands" suffer from a shortage of staff.

Young people themselves admit that they do not always choose a major out of interest – sometimes just "to have something to graduate in", "so as not to be without higher education" or "because that's what's expected". Thus, the diploma turns from a symbol of knowledge into something like a social passport.

What the labor market says: diploma + skills

Data from the ranking system of higher education institutions and analyzes by the Institute for Market Economics show clearly: in general, university graduates in Bulgaria have lower unemployment and higher incomes than people without higher education. In some areas – medicine, pharmacy, dentistry – unemployment is below 1%, and over 90% of graduates work in their field.

Experts also emphasize another thing: the salaries of people with higher education in our country are on average almost twice as high as those with lower education. That is, the diploma still matters – but not in itself. Employers have long been under no illusion that a young person will leave the university and immediately "go into full swing" in the business. A large part of the real skills are built in the workplace, through internships, courses, and additional training.

This is where the big differences between majors and universities come from. A young person with good preparation in computer science, engineering, or medicine has completely different prospects than someone who has graduated formally, without real knowledge, in an overcrowded and poorly practical major. On paper, they both "have higher education", but the market sees a huge difference.

Diploma versus real skills: when the "piece of paper" gets in the way

In recent years, one admission has been heard more and more often: "I got my diploma, but I had to start learning from scratch". This applies to both people in administration and in the private sector. There are several problems:

• some of the programs are outdated – theories and approaches are taught that have little to do with what is required today;
• too much attention to exams and grades, too little – in practice, internships, real projects;
• universities that "massively" enroll students without serious selection, and then "release" almost everyone to a diploma.

The result is a feeling that in some cases the diploma is rather a formal requirement – a "filter" in the job advertisement – and not proof of competence. That's why many young people supplement their education with courses, certificates, online programs and – most importantly – real experience, even with lower-paying internships at the beginning.

Increasingly, the "successful without connections" turn out to be not those with the most flamboyant diploma, but those who have combined higher education with real skills: language, working with people, specific technical knowledge, the ability to solve problems.

"Nothing can be done without connections": myth, truth or a convenient excuse?

The feeling that "everything is with connections" is one of the deepest wounds in Bulgarian society. Sociological studies on attitudes towards corruption show very low trust in institutions and a widespread belief that for a "good place" in the state or in a large company "one needs a person".

The truth has several faces:

• in the state administration, in municipalities, in certain regulators and state-owned companies, the feeling of "appointments on party or personal lines" is strong and often supported by specific examples;
• in the private business, however, especially in competitive sectors – IT, outsourcing, engineering production – employers are less and less able to afford to hire "our man" who does not do the job, because this directly hits the results;
• in many cases, the "connection" is not the classic "son-in-law of so-and-so", but a recommendation – a person who knows someone from an internship, project, volunteer activity. This is more of a network of contacts than necessarily abuse.

The general sense of injustice is real and not accidental – years of corruption scandals and "ladybugs" leave their mark. But the stories of people who started from low-paying positions, internships or work in small companies and gradually reached good places are just as real – without having "an uncle in the department".

What "success without connections" means today

For a young person in Bulgaria today, the picture is both more difficult and more honest than before. More difficult – because the competition is great, the diploma alone is not enough, and salaries in entry-level positions are often low. More honest – because in many areas there are already real "arenas" in which you can show what you can do: internships, competitions, projects, free markets.

Success "without connections" usually looks like this:

• a reasonable choice of education – not only "what sounds prestigious", but "where there is work and what I am interested in";
• a combination of diploma and practice – internships, volunteering, working during studies;
• building a network of contacts in a "clean" way – colleagues, teachers, people from the industry – people who can say "I know him, we have worked together", and not "he is so-and-so's".

Perhaps the most honest way to paraphrase the myth "nothing can be done without connections" today is: without a diploma in many areas it is more difficult, without skills – almost impossible, and without a network of normal professional contacts – significantly steeper. The key difference is whether "connections" are the result of corruption or of real work and trust.

The cult of higher education will not disappear soon – and perhaps this is not only bad. The question is that the diploma should not be an end goal and a status symbol, but a beginning: a foundation on which skills, character, and one's own path are built – even when there is no one "to fix us".