Graduated Top Honors but Parents Treat Me Like a Failure

For context, I graduated with First Class Honours, and I’ve been applying for jobs nonstop for months. Honestly, I’m already stressed enough about being unemployed without my parents constantly making me feel like I’ve completely failed at life.

Every day I’m applying, editing my resume, doing assessments, preparing for interviews, getting ghosted, getting rejected, and then repeating the exact same process again. The job market is already fucking depressing enough as it is.

But apparently none of that counts because I don’t have a job yet.

Today my dad saw me using my phone and immediately started going off about how “people your age are already working,” how other people are earning money and supporting their parents, while I’m apparently just sitting around doing nothing.

Bro, what the fuck?

I literally graduated with FCH. I did everything I was supposedly meant to do. I studied hard, got good grades, did internships, built my resume, and now I’m actively applying for jobs. What exactly do you want me to do? Walk into an office and force HR to hire me?

Then he started saying things like, “What’s the point of getting First Class Honours if you can’t even find a job?” and basically treating me like I’m some kind of failure because I didn’t secure a graduate job immediately after graduation.

And the worst part is that he has always been biased towards my other siblings. He’s constantly comparing us and hoping they’ll somehow end up doing better than me. Whenever they achieve something, it’s something to celebrate. Whenever I achieve something, suddenly the goalpost moves again.

Get good grades? Not enough.

Graduate with FCH? Not enough.

Do internships? Not enough.

Apply for jobs every day? Still apparently not enough.

At this point I genuinely don’t even want to tell my parents when I get interviews anymore. I don’t want them knowing which companies I’m applying to or whether I’m progressing because somehow everything becomes another source of pressure, comparison or unsolicited commentary.

Part of me even wants to keep my eventual job offer completely to myself for as long as possible because I don’t want them suddenly feeling proud and acting like they supported me through the whole process.

It’s honestly making me resent them.

Being unemployed after graduation already fucks with your confidence enough. I really don’t need to come home and be reminded every day that apparently my entire degree and everything I’ve done means nothing just because I haven’t found a job yet.