There comes a time in everyone’s life when one wonders where one is heading. If you could go back to school, college, or university – would you have worked that little bit harder? Would you have taken maths lessons more seriously? Would you have taken an economics degree instead of a history degree? Some people have been sat at a desk, every weekday between the hours of nine and five for years and years, when they come to wonder if this is all life has to offer.
I’m at a time in my life where its decision time once again. I’ve worked hard for three years at university, striving for good results in my Journalism and Media course. But on graduation, employment has been hard to come across. The media is the ultimate industry for “knowing people”. If you want to get involved, you’ve got to have the right contacts in the right places. It’s made doubly difficult when you don’t live anywhere near the likes of Manchester, Liverpool, or London. Opportunities are scarce.
Should I keep plugging away for that career in a big newspaper, or at a top news broadcasting corporation (BBC, Sky)? Should I look for training, with a direct route into another industry? It would probably be a faster, easier process. Am I passionate enough about journalism to spend the next few years continuing to grow? I still need to learn shorthand, study media law, and find my way into a tough industry. Will volunteer work be the way forward? Or should I look for work now, money now, and a direct career now?
The fact is that having these questions in mind worries me. I have always been certain of my career and life goals. So why after just a few months of unemployment do I find myself thinking of heading for a different route?
It could well be a panic attack because I’m witnessing old school friends cruising into jobs, and I want to follow suit. Maybe I’ve simply had a change of heart. In recent months I’ve applied to more jobs and more businesses than I care to imagine. What happens if I’m offered a job in a sector I never planned to work in? I think I’d be foolish to pass over the opportunity and stick with being unemployed. But how can I give everything to a job if I’m not passionate about it? If two weeks into the job I’m offered a role writing for a newspaper…what happens then?
I’m young enough and enthusiastic enough to learn something new. I’m driven enough to train in a new industry. If I’m given a shot at a job in a company, I’ll do everything possible to work hard and repay my employer for giving me a chance. My concern, however, is: will I turn into one of the previously mentioned; a person sat at a desk, every weekday between the hours of nine and five for years and years, when one day I come to wonder if this is all life has to offer. “Boy oh boy should I have bided my time and gone for that dream job in the media.”
I don’t know. Nobody will ever know if they have taken the right path. Not for sure anyway. For me, it’s looking like a first-come-first-serve basis. Whoever wants me can have me.
So to speak.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
7 tips for the unemployed graduate
I’d like to consider myself an expert on the subject. As my covering letter has stated on many occasions – I am a quick learner. And four months is ample time to learn how to live and cope in the world of the modern unemployed grad.
So is it really all Jeremy Kyle mornings, daytime telly afternoons, and lazy evenings? Is that what I’ve amounted superfluous amounts of student debt for? Let’s look on the bright side. After all, we’re young, talented, bright, eager individuals who clearly have something going for us.
Here are my tips on what to do when in the dreaded “between uni and work zone”. Some are career orientated, others are less so – but I believe they are all beneficial.
1. Get fit
• There are no excuses now. This doesn’t necessarily mean joining a classily expensive gym, or even to feel the need to go out on a morning run 5 times a week. Because the reality of the matter is: it isn’t going to happen. I, like most, have got up one morning, convinced that ‘this is it’ – I’m going to eat my five-a-day, go running daily, get fit, and stay that way! Two days later – back to square one. We can’t be bothered.
Walking. It’s the way forward. Quite literally. Don’t mope around in front of the TV. Don’t sit on your backside scoffing crisps and chocolate, claiming to be depressed. Head out for a walk. Clear your mind. Think about what you are doing, reflect on what you have done, and rehearse an interview in your head. By the time you get back – it’s surprising how many things are going on in your head. Get them out there, bring any such thoughts to the forefront of your mind.
2. Apply Apply Apply
• You’ve got to broaden your horizons. You’ve got to open as many doors as possible. I have lost count of the amount of application forms I’ve filled in since returning from university. Ok, I still don’t have a job, but this isn’t for lack of trying. An employer will be pleased to see the effort you put in. In broadening my horizons, I have come across companies I never knew existed. I have thrown my name and CV around more companies than I care to think about. But each form I fill in, each interview I attend, each piece of feedback I receive – I learn something new.
Even if you land a job you don’t want to make a career out of; at least you’re earning some cash, adding to your CV, gaining more contacts, getting out of the house, and I generally believe it is easier to find a job once you’re already in one.
3. Spend time with your family
• You’ve been through the Kevin and Perry age of teenage monstrosity, and you’ve completed the pub crawls in town too many times to care anymore. When I first went off to uni in summer 2006; I didn’t come home until Christmas. Then Easter, then summer. When I did come home, I generally spent most my time either working or socialising with my mates.
What my family have done for me – moulding me into the person I am today, financially supporting me throughout life, taking me on holidays etc – it has all too much gone over my head without a thought.
But now, I have no money to go out with mates, and I haven’t any work to do – my family are the only ones left. They don’t cost anything, you don’t need to spend money to be with them, and they understand you and want the best for you more so than anyone else. Talk to them, laugh with them, get to know them again. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending lots of time with my brother and sisters again. When we were younger we were never apart. As we grew up and went to uni, or left home respectively; we grew apart – but now there are no excuses. And we don’t need them. It’s like the old days again. And when I’m working and all grown up for real; these days may not come around again.
4. Network
• Building contacts is the biggest ally you can have when searching for that dream job. If you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account – where have you been? Get back in touch with old school mates, university colleagues, ex workmates etc.
I recently got in touch with an old college friend of mine. To my shock, he is now a cameraman for the BBC. Quite a good contact to have in my opinion.
Having friends in the right places, and “it’s who you know, not what you know”, are very important ways to find your way into a job. They can’t necessarily offer you a job – but they can inform you of a possible opening, or give you hints and tips for how to get involved in an industry.
Knowing people and being friendly with people is essential. You never know, one day it may be somebody approaching you to see how you got involved in your career.
5. Volunteer
• This can involve community projects such as youth volunteer work, or it could be fixing your Nan’s fence. Keep active! Keep your mind ticking. Be helpful. What comes around goes around and all that. You may even learn a new skill. A CV looks a hell of a lot better with “volunteered when unemployed” on it, than “sat around doing nothing when unemployed”.
Offer your services free of charge in the industry in which you studied. As I studied journalism at uni, I wrote some articles for the Community Press in Barrow. It kept my journalist brain and skills alive, I was helping a community, and I gained many contacts which will undoubtedly come in handy in the future.
6. Learn something new
• Not necessarily an essential – but learn something new. Stop yourself being depressed, and on a one track mind. Learn a language, read a non-fiction book, attend a night-school class. You may like it, you may not. At least you’ve tried it.
This generally goes for the employed as well. It prevents tedium kicking in. Get a hobby, learn something different, embrace what life has to offer – it’s what it’s all about.
You may even learn something that you would like to make a career out of.
7. Plan
It may not work out as you plan – it improbably won’t. But make a plan on where you are heading. What do you intend to do next? Where is that heading? Where do I want to go? How will I get there? Research your industry. Get to know companies in your area. Weigh up the possible outcomes of your plans going awry.
Plan your personal life as well. What do you want out of life? Personally, I want to see as much of the world as possible. I don’t want to do it in a ‘gap year, cheap as chips style’, however. So I have made plans on when I want to do it, how I will do it, and where I want to go.
So the world doesn’t come to an end when unemployed. The possibilities this world has to offer are endless. There are so many opportunities to get involved with something. You just have to go out there and find it. Show employers that you are active, prove you are the hard-worker that your cover letter undoubtedly states.
So is it really all Jeremy Kyle mornings, daytime telly afternoons, and lazy evenings? Is that what I’ve amounted superfluous amounts of student debt for? Let’s look on the bright side. After all, we’re young, talented, bright, eager individuals who clearly have something going for us.
Here are my tips on what to do when in the dreaded “between uni and work zone”. Some are career orientated, others are less so – but I believe they are all beneficial.
1. Get fit
• There are no excuses now. This doesn’t necessarily mean joining a classily expensive gym, or even to feel the need to go out on a morning run 5 times a week. Because the reality of the matter is: it isn’t going to happen. I, like most, have got up one morning, convinced that ‘this is it’ – I’m going to eat my five-a-day, go running daily, get fit, and stay that way! Two days later – back to square one. We can’t be bothered.
Walking. It’s the way forward. Quite literally. Don’t mope around in front of the TV. Don’t sit on your backside scoffing crisps and chocolate, claiming to be depressed. Head out for a walk. Clear your mind. Think about what you are doing, reflect on what you have done, and rehearse an interview in your head. By the time you get back – it’s surprising how many things are going on in your head. Get them out there, bring any such thoughts to the forefront of your mind.
2. Apply Apply Apply
• You’ve got to broaden your horizons. You’ve got to open as many doors as possible. I have lost count of the amount of application forms I’ve filled in since returning from university. Ok, I still don’t have a job, but this isn’t for lack of trying. An employer will be pleased to see the effort you put in. In broadening my horizons, I have come across companies I never knew existed. I have thrown my name and CV around more companies than I care to think about. But each form I fill in, each interview I attend, each piece of feedback I receive – I learn something new.
Even if you land a job you don’t want to make a career out of; at least you’re earning some cash, adding to your CV, gaining more contacts, getting out of the house, and I generally believe it is easier to find a job once you’re already in one.
3. Spend time with your family
• You’ve been through the Kevin and Perry age of teenage monstrosity, and you’ve completed the pub crawls in town too many times to care anymore. When I first went off to uni in summer 2006; I didn’t come home until Christmas. Then Easter, then summer. When I did come home, I generally spent most my time either working or socialising with my mates.
What my family have done for me – moulding me into the person I am today, financially supporting me throughout life, taking me on holidays etc – it has all too much gone over my head without a thought.
But now, I have no money to go out with mates, and I haven’t any work to do – my family are the only ones left. They don’t cost anything, you don’t need to spend money to be with them, and they understand you and want the best for you more so than anyone else. Talk to them, laugh with them, get to know them again. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending lots of time with my brother and sisters again. When we were younger we were never apart. As we grew up and went to uni, or left home respectively; we grew apart – but now there are no excuses. And we don’t need them. It’s like the old days again. And when I’m working and all grown up for real; these days may not come around again.
4. Network
• Building contacts is the biggest ally you can have when searching for that dream job. If you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account – where have you been? Get back in touch with old school mates, university colleagues, ex workmates etc.
I recently got in touch with an old college friend of mine. To my shock, he is now a cameraman for the BBC. Quite a good contact to have in my opinion.
Having friends in the right places, and “it’s who you know, not what you know”, are very important ways to find your way into a job. They can’t necessarily offer you a job – but they can inform you of a possible opening, or give you hints and tips for how to get involved in an industry.
Knowing people and being friendly with people is essential. You never know, one day it may be somebody approaching you to see how you got involved in your career.
5. Volunteer
• This can involve community projects such as youth volunteer work, or it could be fixing your Nan’s fence. Keep active! Keep your mind ticking. Be helpful. What comes around goes around and all that. You may even learn a new skill. A CV looks a hell of a lot better with “volunteered when unemployed” on it, than “sat around doing nothing when unemployed”.
Offer your services free of charge in the industry in which you studied. As I studied journalism at uni, I wrote some articles for the Community Press in Barrow. It kept my journalist brain and skills alive, I was helping a community, and I gained many contacts which will undoubtedly come in handy in the future.
6. Learn something new
• Not necessarily an essential – but learn something new. Stop yourself being depressed, and on a one track mind. Learn a language, read a non-fiction book, attend a night-school class. You may like it, you may not. At least you’ve tried it.
This generally goes for the employed as well. It prevents tedium kicking in. Get a hobby, learn something different, embrace what life has to offer – it’s what it’s all about.
You may even learn something that you would like to make a career out of.
7. Plan
It may not work out as you plan – it improbably won’t. But make a plan on where you are heading. What do you intend to do next? Where is that heading? Where do I want to go? How will I get there? Research your industry. Get to know companies in your area. Weigh up the possible outcomes of your plans going awry.
Plan your personal life as well. What do you want out of life? Personally, I want to see as much of the world as possible. I don’t want to do it in a ‘gap year, cheap as chips style’, however. So I have made plans on when I want to do it, how I will do it, and where I want to go.
So the world doesn’t come to an end when unemployed. The possibilities this world has to offer are endless. There are so many opportunities to get involved with something. You just have to go out there and find it. Show employers that you are active, prove you are the hard-worker that your cover letter undoubtedly states.
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Life and Times
I am one of the 40,000 unemployed graduates in UK. Long gone are the days when a graduate was the product sought after by booming businesses in the biggest cities. Projects and salaries used to be thrown mercilessly at the feet of those departing the world of studenthood.
Please excuse this rolling fleet of clichés, but, for the 40,000 – gone are the days of sleeping till noon, partying till dawn, all-night library outings, and the enslaving hours that facebook takes out of your life.
Perhaps many of us were sheerly ignorant of the outside world. At university, for three years, one thinks one is grown up, independent, living on ones own. £3000 loan is granted each year which covers course costs, and almost £4000 each year is granted each year as student loan (or ‘spending money’ as it became known). The words ‘interest’, or ‘tax’, don’t mean anything significantly important.
Wherever you go, students are everywhere. People your own age, with dreams, aspirations, hopes, and fears which match your own. You think: ‘I can hack this outside world malarkey.’
Throughout my final year of study (by which point, it was ‘study’, and not the cliché-ridden student life as previously mentioned), the country was sinking into an unfathomable financial crisis. Of course I was aware of this; but the sheer audacity of it improbably slipped my mind.
Since leaving school in 2004, I have always maintained a working position. During my college years, I worked part-time in the Early Learning Centre; when I returned home from university each summer, I worked in a kitchen and even as an assistant builder. During my final year of study, I took a job in a bakery for some extra funds. Throughout this time, in retrospect, I was both naïve and ignorant to the fact that the recession was as bad as it truly turned out to be.
Whenever I was in college, or returning from university, or indeed at university, I always found it easy to find employment – and thought with a degree under my arm, it would be just as easy once graduated.
I was told relentlessly throughout my childhood how important it was to get good grades, work hard, and go to university. After all this I will be in the grand predicament of having to choose between two or three thriving companies of which to work for.
Reality hasn’t been that fair to me though. While I did the late nights, random parties, and days on end watching DVD box sets; I always worked hard. There was never a lecture unattended, or a group meeting cancelled. Essays were always completed on time, and I was always on first-name-terms with the community careers advisors. I always wanted to succeed, and I always worked hard. My ignorance, however, probably slopped out as I presumed too much. I presumed I would walk into a glamorous job, I presumed I would be on a gobsmacking salary, I presumed I would be straight onto a clear and prosperous career path, and I generally presumed that all would be rosy and well.
It isn’t.
But it’s ok.
I have kept on working hard: researching, networking, emailing, applying, speaking, speculating, asking, praying, hoping, and writing. Amongst other things.
Although it does sliver into insignificance, people constantly tell me: ‘It will be alright. Something will come along eventually.’ And I do believe they are right. I am a firm believer that you can do pretty much anything if you put your mind to it.
But for now, the hunt continues. I just need something good to come along. And hopefully 39,999 other graduates won’t spot the job advertisement.
Please excuse this rolling fleet of clichés, but, for the 40,000 – gone are the days of sleeping till noon, partying till dawn, all-night library outings, and the enslaving hours that facebook takes out of your life.
Perhaps many of us were sheerly ignorant of the outside world. At university, for three years, one thinks one is grown up, independent, living on ones own. £3000 loan is granted each year which covers course costs, and almost £4000 each year is granted each year as student loan (or ‘spending money’ as it became known). The words ‘interest’, or ‘tax’, don’t mean anything significantly important.
Wherever you go, students are everywhere. People your own age, with dreams, aspirations, hopes, and fears which match your own. You think: ‘I can hack this outside world malarkey.’
Throughout my final year of study (by which point, it was ‘study’, and not the cliché-ridden student life as previously mentioned), the country was sinking into an unfathomable financial crisis. Of course I was aware of this; but the sheer audacity of it improbably slipped my mind.
Since leaving school in 2004, I have always maintained a working position. During my college years, I worked part-time in the Early Learning Centre; when I returned home from university each summer, I worked in a kitchen and even as an assistant builder. During my final year of study, I took a job in a bakery for some extra funds. Throughout this time, in retrospect, I was both naïve and ignorant to the fact that the recession was as bad as it truly turned out to be.
Whenever I was in college, or returning from university, or indeed at university, I always found it easy to find employment – and thought with a degree under my arm, it would be just as easy once graduated.
I was told relentlessly throughout my childhood how important it was to get good grades, work hard, and go to university. After all this I will be in the grand predicament of having to choose between two or three thriving companies of which to work for.
Reality hasn’t been that fair to me though. While I did the late nights, random parties, and days on end watching DVD box sets; I always worked hard. There was never a lecture unattended, or a group meeting cancelled. Essays were always completed on time, and I was always on first-name-terms with the community careers advisors. I always wanted to succeed, and I always worked hard. My ignorance, however, probably slopped out as I presumed too much. I presumed I would walk into a glamorous job, I presumed I would be on a gobsmacking salary, I presumed I would be straight onto a clear and prosperous career path, and I generally presumed that all would be rosy and well.
It isn’t.
But it’s ok.
I have kept on working hard: researching, networking, emailing, applying, speaking, speculating, asking, praying, hoping, and writing. Amongst other things.
Although it does sliver into insignificance, people constantly tell me: ‘It will be alright. Something will come along eventually.’ And I do believe they are right. I am a firm believer that you can do pretty much anything if you put your mind to it.
But for now, the hunt continues. I just need something good to come along. And hopefully 39,999 other graduates won’t spot the job advertisement.
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