why is it 3am again?!?!
Well I was supposed to be getting an early night today and that hasn't worked. I was driving back to mine this evening from hanging out at George's and was inspired to write a piece about graduate jobs. I'm not really sure why. I haven't researched this really and it's far too long but I've decided it's a basis to build upon for me to create some kind of portfolio to. If any of you have any personal experiences you wish to tell me about to emphasise my observations...or contradict them, please feel free to comment.
It's a bit long so I've put it behind a cut. It will need some editing, but consider this as phase one of an article...it's the idea that now needs some objective substance, not just subjective witterings!
Six months on from graduation and I still haven’t quite figured out exactly what it is I want to do with all my years of education, or in fact whether I would like to add some more. And it would appear that I’m not alone. Plenty of students are well aware that their degree choice may not lead to direct work. Not even those who study health profession courses are guaranteed work, as some of my physiotherapy and nursing studying friends have found out.
But is there a reason behind the apparent lack of graduates finding suitable employment? Universities and colleges will tell you that there is a great employment rate of graduates into graduate jobs - but I’m not certain that is as true as the statistics make out.
Of my friends and acquaintances in the class of 2007 from UEA, I can count on two hands, those who have succeeded in taking their first step on the graduate employment ladder outside of temp work or jobs they are probably more than qualified for. And apparently I knew a lot of people at university. To be fair, many of those I graduated with have either gone on to further study in Masters and PGCE courses and even some have gone on to vocational training courses or internships with voluntary organisations. Others have decided to up sticks and travel while they’re still free to. A few have managed to tie in travel with the job of their dreams. One of my friends, Caroline, landed herself a job working for Chanel down under. Pretty good going for an English Literature graduate.
But the honest truth of the matter seems - and I don’t pretend to have carried out an extensive study, verified and supported by my old university or any such thing, these musings come purely from personal observation - most of my fellow graduates from 2007 aren’t in the jobs that they’ve spent the last three years working towards. Yes, there is the age old “well if you decided to study an arts subject then you can expect to spend the rest of your life living in a box”, but even friends who studied so called science degrees are lacking in the job department. Some were lucky and walked straight into their jobs post graduation, mostly those wanting to enter new media careers with computer science degrees.
But what happens when, you’ve studied for three years or more and yet the career path you desire want EXPERIENCE? This is the dilemma I have found myself in. I’ve always wanted to be a journalist, for the last ten years at least, however I know this is a highly competitive and difficult career path. As a result I’ve tried to think laterally for jobs where I might manage to edge into journalism or at least be in job that builds the skills I need for journalism, challenges me and enables me to save some money for further study and recognised journalistic qualifications. So with that as my pre-requisite I left my humble customer service job that had supported me so well through my studies leaving me in a better financial situation than my fellow graduates and tried to figure out how I could persuade PR companies or newspapers or anything vaguely connected to journalism to take me on. Three years of study taught me that I am a real geek when it comes to the way media, politics and culture survive together and use each other in the large melting pot of society. I love it. I want to know more about it. And thus it also means that I have a great mind for communication - the perfect candidate for PR in fact. But I’ve no experience. And I can only get experience if I get a job. But no job will employ me without experience. See my dilemma?
So while the first hurdle for many graduates is figuring out what career they want to take, it’s not plain sailing after that. Most, while trying to stay afloat with at least £10,000 debt, face having to continue study to get on that first rung, with still no job guarantee and a certainty of more debt afterwards. The second, less obvious hurdle, is making an employer believe you are worth your salt so you can get the experience you need to get the job. Work experience will no longer cut it because, experience and references sadly don’t pay the supermarket or the pub. So this needs to be paid experience. But when there are no employers offering graduates paid work experience opportunities, it’s time to turn to the supermarket or the agency to provide you with the job that pays the bills.
Universities may claim that x% of their graduates are employed within x months of graduating, but how many of them are actually in the jobs they want and how many are asking you for your store specific loyalty card?
It's a bit long so I've put it behind a cut. It will need some editing, but consider this as phase one of an article...it's the idea that now needs some objective substance, not just subjective witterings!
Six months on from graduation and I still haven’t quite figured out exactly what it is I want to do with all my years of education, or in fact whether I would like to add some more. And it would appear that I’m not alone. Plenty of students are well aware that their degree choice may not lead to direct work. Not even those who study health profession courses are guaranteed work, as some of my physiotherapy and nursing studying friends have found out.
But is there a reason behind the apparent lack of graduates finding suitable employment? Universities and colleges will tell you that there is a great employment rate of graduates into graduate jobs - but I’m not certain that is as true as the statistics make out.
Of my friends and acquaintances in the class of 2007 from UEA, I can count on two hands, those who have succeeded in taking their first step on the graduate employment ladder outside of temp work or jobs they are probably more than qualified for. And apparently I knew a lot of people at university. To be fair, many of those I graduated with have either gone on to further study in Masters and PGCE courses and even some have gone on to vocational training courses or internships with voluntary organisations. Others have decided to up sticks and travel while they’re still free to. A few have managed to tie in travel with the job of their dreams. One of my friends, Caroline, landed herself a job working for Chanel down under. Pretty good going for an English Literature graduate.
But the honest truth of the matter seems - and I don’t pretend to have carried out an extensive study, verified and supported by my old university or any such thing, these musings come purely from personal observation - most of my fellow graduates from 2007 aren’t in the jobs that they’ve spent the last three years working towards. Yes, there is the age old “well if you decided to study an arts subject then you can expect to spend the rest of your life living in a box”, but even friends who studied so called science degrees are lacking in the job department. Some were lucky and walked straight into their jobs post graduation, mostly those wanting to enter new media careers with computer science degrees.
But what happens when, you’ve studied for three years or more and yet the career path you desire want EXPERIENCE? This is the dilemma I have found myself in. I’ve always wanted to be a journalist, for the last ten years at least, however I know this is a highly competitive and difficult career path. As a result I’ve tried to think laterally for jobs where I might manage to edge into journalism or at least be in job that builds the skills I need for journalism, challenges me and enables me to save some money for further study and recognised journalistic qualifications. So with that as my pre-requisite I left my humble customer service job that had supported me so well through my studies leaving me in a better financial situation than my fellow graduates and tried to figure out how I could persuade PR companies or newspapers or anything vaguely connected to journalism to take me on. Three years of study taught me that I am a real geek when it comes to the way media, politics and culture survive together and use each other in the large melting pot of society. I love it. I want to know more about it. And thus it also means that I have a great mind for communication - the perfect candidate for PR in fact. But I’ve no experience. And I can only get experience if I get a job. But no job will employ me without experience. See my dilemma?
So while the first hurdle for many graduates is figuring out what career they want to take, it’s not plain sailing after that. Most, while trying to stay afloat with at least £10,000 debt, face having to continue study to get on that first rung, with still no job guarantee and a certainty of more debt afterwards. The second, less obvious hurdle, is making an employer believe you are worth your salt so you can get the experience you need to get the job. Work experience will no longer cut it because, experience and references sadly don’t pay the supermarket or the pub. So this needs to be paid experience. But when there are no employers offering graduates paid work experience opportunities, it’s time to turn to the supermarket or the agency to provide you with the job that pays the bills.
Universities may claim that x% of their graduates are employed within x months of graduating, but how many of them are actually in the jobs they want and how many are asking you for your store specific loyalty card?