The Waiting Years: Bihar's Love for the Sarkari Naukri, and How Not to Lose Your Twenties to It

Part of The Student Mind, our guide to sarkari naukri preparation for students, parents and teachers across India.

I have walked these lanes many times, and I have enormous respect for what happens in those rooms. But I also see, in my clinic, what happens when the waiting does not end. This article is for those young people, and for the families in Gaya, Ara, Darbhanga and Saharsa who send them money every month and pray.

01 · The dream

First, let us respect the dream

I will not mock the sarkari naukri, and neither should you. In a state where private-sector jobs have long been scarce and insecure, a government post offers real things: a regular salary, a pension, medical cover, protection from sudden dismissal, and a respect in the village and the marriage market that few private jobs can match. For a family that has never had a salaried member, it can change the fortunes of a generation. The dream is rational. The problem is not the dream. The problem is the arithmetic, and what the waiting does to the mind.

02 · The arithmetic

The arithmetic nobody writes on the lodge wall

In Bihar's 2023 police constable recruitment, nearly twelve lakh candidates sat the written exam for 21,391 posts, roughly fifty-six candidates for every post.¹ For many state civil-service and SSC posts, the ratio is far steeper. Kunal Mangal, an economist who has studied these exams closely, found that in Tamil Nadu more than three hundred candidates applied for every vacancy advertised through the state public service commission, and that around a lakh young people across the state stayed out of work to study full-time.²

Those odds mean that for every person who succeeds, many more who are just as hardworking and just as intelligent will not. Not because they failed as people, but because there are not enough chairs.

03 · The evidence

What the waiting costs

Mangal's most important study looked at what happened when Tamil Nadu froze most government hiring between 2001 and 2006. Vacancies fell by 86 per cent, yet applications did not fall; young men simply waited longer and prepared harder. A decade after the freeze ended, those same men were earning less, had married and set up homes later, and were more likely to still be unemployed. Their parents had delayed retirement to support them.³ The years spent preparing had not been converted into skills the rest of the economy valued.

The psychological costs are just as real. In the 1930s, the social psychologist Marie Jahoda studied an Austrian village where the only factory had closed. She later argued that a job gives us far more than money: it structures our day, connects us to people, gives us a shared purpose, a status, and regular activity.⁴ A lodge room provides almost none of these. A large meta-analysis by Karsten Paul and Klaus Moser, covering hundreds of studies, found that about one in three unemployed people had psychological problems such as depression and anxiety, roughly twice the rate among those in work.⁵

04 · Why it is so hard to stop

Why it is so hard to stop

If the odds are so steep, why do so many bright young people keep going for six, eight, ten years? Not because they are foolish. Because they are human, and three well-studied forces are pulling them.

The sunk cost

In a classic set of experiments, Hal Arkes and Catherine Blumer showed that people keep investing in a failing course of action precisely because they have already invested so much.⁶ "If I stop now, the last six years were wasted" feels like logic. It is actually the past holding the future hostage. Barry Staw found that people who feel personally responsible for an earlier decision are the most likely to escalate their commitment to it.⁷

The near-miss

"Four marks short." Few sentences are more powerful. Brain-imaging research on gambling found that near-misses activate the same reward circuits as actual wins and increase the urge to play again, even though a near-miss is, objectively, a loss.⁸ A cut-off missed by a whisker feels like proof that success is one attempt away. Sometimes it is. But the brain cannot tell the difference between a genuine signal and a cruel coincidence.

The shame of returning

Going back to the village without the job feels like public failure, to parents who sold land, to relatives who ask at every wedding. So the student stays, not because the plan is working, but because the alternative feels unbearable.

The question is not whether the government job is worth wanting. It is whether you are willing to bet every year of your twenties on a single door.

05 · A better plan

A better plan: two tracks, one life

I do not tell young people to give up their dream. I tell them to stop gambling everything on it. Mangal's own recommendation to policymakers was to make exam preparation produce skills that are valuable even to those who are not selected.³ Individuals can do the same for themselves. Here is the framework I use with patients like Vikas.

1. Decide the limit before you begin, not after you fail

Write down, now, how many attempts or years you will give this, and what score in the mock tests would tell you that you are genuinely close. Decisions made in advance are far more likely to be kept under pressure than decisions made in the moment.⁹ Seeing that limit honoured is not defeat; letting go of an unreachable goal and committing to a new one is consistently linked with better wellbeing.¹⁰

2. Build a second track alongside the first

Spend two or three hours a day on a skill that pays: accounts and Tally with GST, spoken English and computer basics, teaching and tutoring (which uses everything you have studied), digital marketing, a trade course from an ITI, or a recognised Skill India course. This is not a distraction from preparation. It restores the structure, contact and purpose that the lodge takes away, and it is your safety net.

3. Keep one foot in the world

Leave the room every day. Play cricket on Sunday. Visit home without waiting for a result. Isolation is not dedication; it is a risk factor.

Free download · The Student Mind Kit

Worksheet 3: My Two-Track Pact

For anyone preparing for a competitive or government exam. Decide your limits before you start, build a second track alongside the first, check whether you still have the five things a job gives you, and set checkpoint dates with a family member. Worksheet 3 of the Student Worksheet Pack.

Student Worksheet Pack (4 worksheets)

Print Worksheet 3 and fill it in with a parent, teacher or counsellor.

Download PDF ↓

Free to print and share for personal and educational use. More tools: The Student Mind Kit.

06 · When the waiting turns into illness

When the waiting turns into illness

Long preparation is a common setting for depression, anxiety and, sometimes, dependence on tobacco, alcohol or sleeping pills. Seek help if, for more than two weeks, sleep has collapsed, the mind cannot focus on what it once could, nothing feels enjoyable, or thoughts of hopelessness keep returning. Any thought of ending one's life must be acted on the same day. A psychiatrist can assess mood and sleep, and our de-addiction service helps with tobacco, alcohol and drug use without judgement. For help with tobacco, alcohol or drug use you can also call the national NMBA helpline, 14446.

Vikas, one year later

Vikas wrote his pact: two more attempts. He enrolled in an accounts course and began teaching reasoning at a coaching institute in the evenings. He sleeps again. When he last visited, he had not yet received his final result, but he said something I want every reader in those lodges to hear: "For the first time in six years, I am not afraid of the result. Whatever comes, I already have a life."

Dr. Saurabh Kumar
Consultant Neuropsychiatrist · Healthy Minds India, Patna

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

• How many years should I give a government job exam before stopping?

  Decide the limit before you begin, not after you fail. Write down how many attempts or years you will give it and what mock score would tell you that you are genuinely close. Decisions made in advance are far more likely to be kept under pressure, and letting go of an unreachable goal for a new one is linked with better wellbeing.

• Is long preparation for sarkari naukri bad for mental health?

  It can be. A job gives structure, social contact, shared purpose, status and activity, and a lodge room gives almost none of these. A large meta-analysis found that about one in three unemployed people had psychological problems such as depression and anxiety, roughly twice the rate among those in work.

• Why is it so hard to give up after years of preparation?

  Three forces: the sunk cost ("the last six years will be wasted"), the near-miss ("four marks short" feels like proof that success is one attempt away), and the shame of returning home without the job. Recognising this loop is the first step to leaving it deliberately.

• What is the two-track plan?

  Keep the exam as Track 1, and spend two or three hours a day on a skill that pays as Track 2: accounts and Tally with GST, spoken English, teaching and tutoring, digital marketing, an ITI trade or a recognised Skill India course. It restores structure and purpose and is your safety net.

• When should an aspirant seek help for depression, anxiety or substance use?

  If for more than two weeks sleep has collapsed, focus is gone, nothing feels enjoyable, or thoughts of hopelessness keep returning, or if you rely on tobacco, alcohol or sleeping pills to cope. Any thought of ending your life needs action the same day: call Tele-MANAS 14416 or 112, and see a psychiatrist. The NMBA helpline for substance use is 14446.

About this article

Written and medically reviewed by

Dr. Saurabh Kumar

• MD (Psychiatry) AIIMS New Delhi
• Associate Professor & HOD, Dept. of Psychiatry, RDJM Medical College, Muzaffarpur
• Ex-Assistant Professor, PMCH Patna
• Consultant, Healthy Minds India, Patna

Published

12 October 2026

Series

The Student Mind

Focus

Competitive exam preparation, unemployment and mental health

Sources

10 references

• The case example (Vikas) is a composite created for teaching and does not describe any real person.
• This is not career or financial advice. Recruitment figures are as reported and change with every notification; check official commission websites. Skill courses named are examples, not endorsements.
• Written for general education. It does not replace an individual assessment by a qualified clinician and does not diagnose any condition. Illustrations are original diagrams prepared for this article.

© 2026 Healthy Minds India, Patna · Blog edition 1.0, October 2026