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This article explores the employment experiences of government scholarship graduates from one master's degree programme at a flagship university in Kazakhstan. Analysis of interviews with graduates of a master's degree programme designed in response to a national policy agenda shows that graduates encountered numerous challenges transitioning from university to work despite obtaining a degree from a top Kazakhstani university. The key challenges included limited employment opportunities, hostile attitudes toward younger graduates, difficult working conditions and employers' misunderstanding of the new master's programmes. We argue that despite significant government financial investment in education, a weak enabling support system hinders graduates' career advancement and results in job mismatch and underutilization of skills. We suggest that policymakers need to shift debates on human capital development and graduate employability from supply-side factors to a more comprehensive model in which graduate employment is supported through the collaboration of the higher education system, industry, policymakers and graduates themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]