Youth employability is a fundamental socioeconomic challenge in Iran's major cities, particularly given youth unemployment rates exceeding 25% and a NEET rate above 30%, indicating that expanding job opportunities alone is insufficient. This study aims to identify and explain the effective components influencing Iranian youth employability from a lived-experience perspective, extracting core themes and developing a conceptual framework based on qualitative field data analysis. The research employs a qualitative approach, utilizing phenomenological method and thematic analysis based on Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-stage model. The statistical population includes all 18–35-year-old youth residing in Iran's major cities (Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz) who face employability challenges in technical, digital, non-cognitive, and socio-economic domains; 84 participants were selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation and snowball method. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, validated through triangulation (interviews, observation, documents), with 88% coding agreement and adherence to Lincoln and Guba's criteria (credibility, transferability, dependability). Analysis of 452 initial codes yielded 35 basic themes, 10 organizing themes, and 3 global themes. The final model illustrates a dynamic employability cycle consisting of four core competencies: Individual Competence (soft skills, personality traits, metacognition) as the internal foundation; Professional-Technical Competence (specialized knowledge, digital literacy, entrepreneurship) as the executive tool; Social Competence (teamwork, negotiation, networking) as the communicative bridge; and Cultural-Global Competence (cultural intelligence, diversity acceptance, social awareness) as the expansion horizon. These competencies interact synergistically, conceptualizing employability as a dynamic process within the education-labor market gap in Iran's major cities, thereby highlighting the study's contribution in localizing and integrating various dimensions of Iranian youth employability compared to previous research.