"It's not what you know, it's who you know."

Is the above statement true? is it really the case that in the current state of affairs I, along with everyone else who cannot find work, have a better chance of gaining employment thanks to someone I know opening the door for me?

As painful as it sounds I'm starting to believe it to be true. You see, out of the few tiny rays of light that I have in my personal quest for employment, the brightest one was introduced to me by my own father.

I'm not saying that I'm not happy that my family were able to suggest to me an opportunity, no matter how small that opportunity may be at present.
However, I chose to move back into my family home after university with no job in place, what about people who aren't in my fortunate situation?

What about those who didn't return to live with their parents? It can be assumed that they will all be living somewhere paying rent and bills; so, what can be done to help them?

The answer to these questions I simply do not know. What I do know is that I've been unemployed since July, and unable to even get a job stacking shelves. I also know I've applied for nearly 300 jobs and if I wasn't fortunate enough to have the family that I have, I think I would have probably found it very tough to survive financially in this climate. Worst of all, I know I'm not alone in my predicament, as there are, according to official figures, nearly two million people unemployed in Great Britain.

It sounds incredibly despairing, and the problem is simply what can be done? It's not that help hasn't been asked for, it's just that help cannot exist at this time.

The System

I've recently been thinking that the education system is a good place to lay blame for every graduate who cannot find a job. Why? well, the education system (in my understanding) works as follows;

Join school aged 3-5 years old (Nursery - Pre School)
Move through the years to aged 16, by which point we collectively have been through a number of tests to determine our intelligence, and lessons which should have hopefully taught us to read, write and do arithmetic (In varying levels of success I should add)

At 16 years of age you take your GCSEs, when you receive your results you make one of your first "grown up" decisions, you either stay in the system or you leave the system.

Those who leave after GCSE level will in many cases will find themselves in either a trade industry (Plumbers, Builders and so on) or in the public services (Armed forces etc...) Admittedly these are both still education systems of sort, as you learn a huge amount and gain invaluable skills to help you on your path.

However, for many (including myself) you stay in the education system and move on to Sixth Form (AKA College) here you begin to specialise, get a slightly higher graded piece of paper and supposedly plan for University.

So, you've done your A-levels (NVQs etc..) and you have two choices, get a job or go to uni where, "Your employment chances will become much greater, as employers love degrees."

You go to university, learn a lot about life and yourself, and get another piece of paper with your name on it. The problem is, for the majority, the system finishes here, graduate courses aren't for you, and you haven't trained to be a Architect, Doctor, Lawyer, or one of the other fine professions that will give you a job by the time you have completed the course.

As a result, you find yourself, having spent the best part of two decades in the education system, lost and feeling all alone thinking, "I've got a degree, why can't I get a chance, I know I can do it, all I need is that one shot."

It's that feeling of helplessness that I know I've had and I'm sure nearly each and every one of you has had at some point or another.

Is there a way to change this? I keep seeing politicians talking about rising unemployment rates and genuinely think that there is nothing beneficial they could do for me (the graduate).

Maybe if I had taken an exam similar to the American SAT exam instead of A levels I would have had a better chance of getting into a first rate university and along with that I may have had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do for a job.

Or maybe the degree that I received from the university I went to has absolutely nothing to do with anything, maybe this feeling of helplessness that the unemployed get is really just another part of the system, there are two questions raised, they are; At what stage will you experience it? and how will you cope?

Talk to your friends and family, they will tell you that they have all been in this situation before.

Job Fairs - Will you be my answer?

Last Wednesday I visited my first job fair in nearly five years. The last job fair I had visited was while I was at Sixth Form.

I find the whole concept of the job fair rather odd to be honest, a market place for employers in basis. Chances are, if you've been to a job fair before, you can at least in part predict which organisations will be represented. The Armed Forces for one are frequently found recruiting at the job fairs. Similarly are the public services (Police, Fire Ambulance).

While I have no problem whatsoever with these organizations recuruting at job fairs, they aren't the sort of jobs that I'd like to do. I've thought about the Emergency Services, and I came to the conclusion that my path in life doesn't lie with them. I've had the Armed Forces try and recruit me before, but the idea doesn't interest me as a potential career.

At this particular job fair I visited I admit to spending roughly Thirty seconds at the fair itself, I entered seeing if there was a stall that might interest me and found that I was greeted by; a) the aformentioned public services, b) a number of universities and c) a small number of banks and insurance services who were merely trying to gain new customers, not new staff.

Did the experience dishearten me? Not particularly, from previous job fairs I felt as though I could guess at what to expect, and I was right. The target audience for this particular fair wasn't the graduate field from what I could tell. As a result, never mind, something else will come along before too long I'm sure.

The Job Interview

Earlier today I had a job interview, my second interview since I started applying for jobs all three and a bit months ago, the job in question that I had applied was for a receptionist, a position which, should I be successful shall be very grateful for, however, I'm not going to lose sleep over it (I have far more important subjects to loose sleep about.)

Anyway, the point of this article, every interview is exactly the same. Is this a revelation? not really no. So what's the point in writing about it? Well, its good to be prepared and it's something to talk about.

Job interviews are a very peculiar occurrence, for starters, the layout for an interview; (in my experience as someone who has been both an interviewee and interviewer) follows the layout of...

A welcome from the reception area, usually, "Hello, welcome, please take a seat so and so will be with you in a moment, would you like a drink?"

This is followed by the interviewer (AKA so and so) entering the reception area and greeting you then leading you to the interview room.

Once in the interview room the candidate is met with a small barrage of questions such as; "Why did you apply for this job? What do you think you can bring to this role? and something specific to prove that you have read the job description.

After this exchange the interviewer poses the question which I'm beginning to believe really is the highlight of the interview for the employer; "Is there anything you would like to ask us? AKA Do you have any questions?"

The employer loves this question as it means two things, firstly, (Interviewers thoughts ahead) "The interview is now as good as over, I can have myself a nice cup of tea and a biscuit." (or a similar snack) and secondly, "Chances are I'm going to hear a new question, which is nice as the questions I've been asking have become a bit boring to hear."

May I just note that I'm not criticizing any interview that I've ever been a part of, I'm merely generalising in summation.

The odd thing is how much job interviews resemble quiz shows, there's a prize at the end (A Job), several contestants all trying to win said prize (The Job) and a number of rather trivial questions that stand in the way of the contestant (Interviewee) and the prize (Brand new Job).

I think I'd like to see a new take on the interview, doubt it will happen though, even when I'm the employer.

So it's back to the job hunt for me (for the time being at least).

You can expect to hear from me within the week.

Is a degree a bad thing?

I recieved an email on Tuesday evening stating that I had been unsuccesful in my application to work in a DVD and Music shop. This email re-ignited a question I had been asking myself recently, "Does possessing a degree act detrementally when trying to find employment?"

Now I can't prove whether it does or not, however, this particular store, like its competitors possesses my beloved "Graduate Training Schemes" with the intention of turning fresh faced graduates like myself into future store managers.

At this point I'd like to make it clear that I have absolutely nothing against Graduate Training Schemes as I know of a number of major retailers who recruit their next potential C.E.Os in this very fashion.

Back to the point in hand, my rejection from this DVD and Music store read that, "applications to our website has been very high, and the quality is of an exceptional standard."

This to me raised more questions than answering, the application form in question was automated, and, apart from the odd sentence where the candidate stated in twenty words or less why they would be an exceptional candidate the application form was restricted to ticking boxes.

If you're wondering what questions were raised, they included "Did the employer believe that I was lying when I said I possessed an expert knowledge in film and music? (Which I genuinely do, ask my pub quiz team)"

The key question for me was "Did I become less employable when I stated that I had a degree?"

What does the degree have to do with it?

Remember the statement I referred to in my last post, "Graduates can expect to earn up to 20% more in wages than a non- graduate"

Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't help but feel that when faced with the best part of possibly a hundred applications, those with degrees may be among the first to go. After all, would you hire someone for a part time shop position if you thought they could get a "Graduate Job" and leave after two weeks?

I wonder what my chances for part time employment would be like if the next time I was to convieniently forget to mention my degree when sending in my C.V.

Graduate Life

Recently, I graduated from university. Congratulations I hear you say, however, not all is as rosy as it could be, you see, I, like many of my peers graduated during an economic downturn which is being described as the worst crisis since 1929 when the Wall Street stock market crashed.

This is causing many companies to tighten up their budgets, meaning that whereas in previous years they could have had "Graduate Training schemes" this year they can't.

Couple that (the thousands of financial workers who lost their jobs) with the amount of students who became graduates this year and you end up with a rather large number (I don't know the precise number so I'm not going to guess).

The thing that gets me is the old saying that if you are a graduate, your chances of finding a job are much higher than if you are not a graduate (You're also meant to be paid 20% more) that said, at this exact moment in time I have applied and been turned down for roughly 130 jobs which I have been applying for since July.

None of these jobs are high powered or well paid, they are all work experience or interships. The exact sort of role which an individual in my position (arts and media graduate) should be applying for in order to get that first foot on the ladder.

Reading this you may be thinking, "Maybe his C.V. is poor". Well, no it's not really, the only work experience I cannot put on my C.V is having worked behind a bar. Every year I was studying at uni I had a job, (I was an active member of my Students' Union too.) and in the Summer holidays I also found office employment where I did everything from answering the phone and buying lunch to leading meetings and giving presentations.

So I wouldn't say I was inexperienced for the sort of role I am applying for.

Am I alone in my predicament? No. Sadly I'm not.

Out of all my friends who graduated from University this year, about half a dozen now have found themselves employment which can be counted as "Graduate level"

Some of my friends are stacking shelves in their local Supermarkets, others are working in Bars.

The ones that have found employment either spent time on work experience placements during their course which meant they were offered employment after their course had finished, or like me, they spent their spare time in the Students' Union and eventually became elected to a postion of Sabbatical staff.

So far, I've been offered one job and two interviews, all of which I declined. The job was to drive a mini-bus, and the interviews were for a morgage adviser and a job in IT Recruitment.

What was wrong with these jobs? Well, I'm not a fan of driving at all, and the career prospects would have led me to being a bar manager, which isn't what I want to do. If you met me for five minuites you would be able to tell I would be a horrible morgage adviser and the IT job.

The IT job seemed interesting but when I asked the lady on the phone "What does IT Recruitment involve?" and she replied "You start on £25k and it'll rise to about £35k after a year.." I knew it wasn't for me.

If I'm going to do a job, I'd like to know what the job involves. At this stage if she had said "Making tea, fixing people's problems and doing things that other people haven't and won't do" I'd have told them I'm an expert in that field with 3 years experience (I am too!)

So, I've decided that I'm going to keep this blog as an update of my stuggles to find employment and my experiences as an employee, as I fear it maybe a while before a find a job worth keeping.