A 21-year-old who graduated at the top of his class after spending roughly $125,000, including expenses, on his college degree said “the system is broken” after he applied for 500 jobs and didn’t get one.

Khaled Sharif, 21, earned a degree in digital media tech from Kingston University just outside London, England. He began applying for relevant roles after he graduated in 2025, news agency SWNS reported.

But despite submitting 500 applications, he said he’s had less than 20 job interviews and is yet to land a job — despite expanding his search into sales and other sectors that he “didn’t want to work in.”

Sharif, who holds UK residency through his mother, moved to the United Kingdom from Qatar at age 18.

At the time, he said he was the envy of his peers, thanks to the UK’s reputation for offering some of the “best opportunities in the world.” But Sharif said he believes his degree is not the problem. 

Instead, he said the job market is a “broken system” that is “flooded” with graduate applicants.

“It does make me really upset. It’s really stressful,” he told SWNS. “I got [a] top-of-my-class [designation], but I can’t find anything. Kingston’s not a top university, but I just can’t find anything — and I’ve applied for everything. If people got a lower grade, how hard would it be for them?”

He added, “Since I posted on TikTok about it, I’ve had people [who hold] masters [degrees] saying they can’t get anything.”

He went on, “I could easily get a part-time job in a Tesco [supermarket].” 

But he wants “to use his degree,” he said. 

He mentioned how much he spent to earn a college degree — and said, “I think the system is broken. More opportunities have to be made, but because of COVID and now AI, companies don’t want to hire. They’re looking to save money.”

He noted that he could go “back home” to Qatar — “but if you tell people you’ve worked here [in the UK], they instantly have respect for you, but it’s been really hard.”

He said he suspects that when people look into his background and see that earlier on, he went to school in Qatar, “they instantly think I need sponsorship, even though I’m a resident, so I can legally work. I don’t think they read to the end of my application to see that I don’t need one.”

Life lessons

Sharif was born in Egypt and moved to Qatar at age four. He then moved to London in 2022, with a degree on his resume that he said is “essential in my culture.”

His mom soon followed to start her business, YallaCook — giving him residency.

He believed that London was the best place to be as a “global hub of business,” he told SWNS. He said that the job search has been demoralizing for him. 

“From the 500 applications, I’ve had 10 to 20 interviews. … They all say I passed the first one, but after the second I hear back in two weeks, and they say they’ve decided to move forward with someone else,” he said.

International students studying at Kingston pay an annual tuition fee in the region of $30,000 — and with cost of living incorporated, he estimates his degree cost him about $125,000.

Having accrued work experience as a videographer and a photographer while working toward his degree, he’s continued to freelance in place of full-time employment, he said. 

He added that working for his degree “taught me a lot of life lessons but, honestly, I didn’t learn much. Everything I know content-wise is because of experience, volunteering and YouTube.”

He said that in retrospect, “I wish I [studied] filmmaking. But when I was thinking about it before, there were many fewer job opportunities [in that field] than [earning his degree]. I don’t think it makes a difference.”

As a result of his misfortune in the job market, he’s now started his own clothing brand, named Zoqué (“my style” in Arabic). 

He said that’s in order to combine his passion for presentable clothing and photography.

In the US, according to the latest figures from a variety of sources, the typical cost of a four-year college degree varies widely by the type of education, the school itself and the financial aid that may be given to the student. 

For a public college for in-state students, the cost of a four-year degree can range from roughly $80,000 to $120,000.

For a public college for out-of-state students, the cost of a four-year degree can range from approximately $170,000 to $200,000 or more.

And for a private college, costs of a four-year degree can range from about $180,000 to $260,000 and beyond.