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.