Being motivated to carry on with the job hunt is really one of the biggest obstacles I’ve come across whilst searching and applying. It helps to know that you are not alone, with friends being in the same boat, but at the same time it can also make you feel equally or more helpless when you see others not having any luck either..
I am looking in rather specialist areas of employment with focus on public affairs, policy and campaigning, so I’m not casting my net that wide yet. For the time being I’m keeping afloat with a part-time job in media analysis and my partner’s salary. If it hadn’t been for that I’m sure I could not afford to stay very picky for very long. Internships have become a necessary evil in political and social science work and I’ll expand on this later.
When you read about the dire situation most of the country is in, as well as the rate of youth unemployment, it is easy to feel distressed. However, I do not think university graduates are facing disproportionate hardship in the current situation. Although we were promised that ‘the world is your oyster’ as university students, we are not the ones struggling the most and cannot begin to understand how scary it must be to face job searching without qualifications or experience.
Graduates might fall in between chairs in a way where we do not have enough experience for an entry level job in our field, yet we are over-qualified for other jobs that might be more within reach. This is where recruitment agencies might be a potential solution to help add experience to the CV. They are a separate beast in their own right but can prove to be a valuable backup.
I’m of the more pessimistic school and tend to expect things being a bit below par and disappointing, so I was not that surprised when job hunting turned out to suck a lot. What I have realised is that I need to fill my day with things to do that are not directly related to looking for and finding work. That is really one of my most important realisations in this process! Finding a new hobby (one you enjoy however geeky!), catching up with friends (unemployed or not). Without a job you are quite flexible and can then hook up with long lost employed friends on their lunch breaks and they’ve got a job so they can afford to get the coffee!
*********
On a totally unrelated note: Stopgap, a marketing agency, has a rather quirky xmas campaign where, with a couple of clicks on your part, they’ll donate £1 to Crisis the homeless charity. I’d say it’s worth taking the time: http://www.stopgap.co.uk/knitfurgood/
recession graduate 