Still unemployed after nearly a year graduating!!

I am planning on doing an engineering degree. Please tell me that I won't end up like OP?

Hello all, time for a rant !! lol

Is there anyone else who finished uni in 2012 and is still looking for work? Or am I the only one??

I graduated in Environmental Health, and am aware only about 8 unis do that couse in the UK! So you would think the prospect of getting a job is high!

I have sort of given up in that field and looking at any job now (not minimum wage, call me arrogant but I aint working for min wage after spending 4 years at uni - then being stuck there for the rest of my life!)

Am not restricting myself, am happy to move anywhere in the world as long as the pay can support me.

I offically finished in May 2012, so yeah its nearly a year and am 25 soon too!

As my name says - uni is a rip off - they have even increased the fees to £9k (total joke) yet you cant get job. Why? Because we dont have experience.


Anyone in this boat feels ripped off?

People I went school with are far better off by not going college or uni!

Darn thing now is I cant even do an apprentaship!

Rant over (or commerical :P)

On the plus side, just get any old job you can tolerate

...

Which course did you do?

It's not grades that get you employed in the current day and age, it's you as a person. I'm a business student and we are always getting told that fact


Posted from TSR Mobile

Jobs are out there you just have to look

Jobs are out there you just have to look

This is why people like me should never have gone to university.

Throughout my life I have pretty much always been top of the class. Through university I did numerous voluntary things, held down a few different jobs to pay for education etc. and have pretty much everything any employer could ask for. There's sod all more I can do to be 'employable.'

And yet, I will never earn more than part time minimum wage. That's what I have settled for, that's what I'm told I need to accept.

Despite the fact that I have always worked hard, always strove to do the best academically and at work that I possibly could, the fact that I don't have the middle class network of connections behind me (coming from a background where to go to uni is comparatively rare) I just don't stand a chance.

Every year I will go through the grad scheme application process, but the chances are very slim purely because of the sheer number of applicants. I will continue to apply for 'good' jobs, and probably do more volunteering at some point, when I can afford it.

For how many years must I face living at home on minimum wage, unable to have a life? I haven't been abroad since I was 18, because I have spent all my money supporting myself and getting through education.

It would have been better not to go to university. I would now be eligible for apprenticeships - and the most I ever earned was when I was 17/18! I couldn't even dream of earning money like that now.

I don't believe that I am 'entitled' to a job, before anyone says that. I don't have 'unrealistic expectations.' I don't expect anything 'handed to me on a plate.' But believe me, any advice that you give me, I have already done, or have considered and is not financially viable for me.

If all this economy requires from me is that I sit down and accept customers telling me to **** off with a smile on my face, if that all society deems me capable of doing, then that just makes me feel that I want no part in it.

And if one more older person tells me 'you need to work for free, even more...' my reply is always 'did you ever work for free?' To which the answer is, inevitably and always, 'no.'

Please stop being so defeatist is my first thought.
The difference between 2 people coming out of uni with the same degree and same background is belief.

If you have no belief in yourself and set your sights so low, that is all you will ever achieve. It's a self reinforcing prophecy.

I graduated from a low table uni (ranked mid 70s last time I checked)
My parents are immigrants - so no middle class connections to speak of. Of my high school year, only 3 of us went to uni.

When I came out of uni, I had the same attitude as you. What's the point, I said. The climate is terrible out there, I keep hearing about increasing levels of unemployment and the insane level of competition for jobs - why should I put myself through all that hard work and rejection to inevitably come out with nothing?
I applied anyway, but I did so with doubt always in my mind. I applied to jobs that I thought were 'realistic' and got rejection after rejection.

Then I met my boyfriend (now fiance)
He truly inspired me, helped me work on my CV, helped me with interview questions and encouraged me to volunteer for a social enterprise doing data entry. It was there that I was told 'if you do something for us, we will happily do things for you' so they let me shadow them in their operations, and eventually offered me a job! I was estatic, and would have happily taken this on at £15k a year as PA/finance assistant.

My boyfriend said no - you can do better than this. What you have here is now a great experience that you can use in your interview answers that will allow you to talk more passionately about your experiences.

So I turned them down, still continuing to work free but applied for grad jobs, my confidence high after the job offer. I had lots to talk about in my applications now, and a lot more enthusiasm without doubtful thoughts weighing me down.

I ended up securing a good grad job paying £25k on my second assessment centre. I knew i had gotten the job, as I almost enjoyed it. Employers sense confidence a mile off.

What they want to see is you doing something towards your career - show passion and drive. Stop limiting yourself, throw away those negative thoughts when you feel them approaching - it's hard, I know - but they do nothing to help your situation.

Fact of the matter is, you are a good graduate from a top uni. No one can take that from you. You need to work out a plan of action to get your career on track - don't look at the end goal just yet. Set small goals for yourself, like deciding on what jobs you are most interested. Then working on your cv to make it the best it can be applicable to that career.
Get loads of people to review it.
Answer lots of interview type questions about yourself. Get feedback on your answers from other people. Go to careers fairs when they're on.

Try and sign up to small social enterprises/charities. Make opportunities for yourself by cheekily asking for more things - don't ask don't get.
Go to confidence classes and improve your self worth. Exercise and keep yourself fit, whilst applying for jobs. Treat it like a job.

I really really sympathise with your predicament, it just makes me so sad when I see recent graduates on this forum who have already given up on life before it's even properly started. I wish everyone had the support of my fiancé to give them hope when they need it most. Posted from TSR Mobile

Thank you for your kind and motivational reply.

However, sad to say, but for every one success story like yours there are dozens of people like me.

I did not start out defeatist, I have become particularly defeatist only in fairly recent weeks. I can't actually stress the insane amount of effort I have put into finding a job. Honestly, it might sound as if I have just moped around since University from the tone of my message above, but it isn't the case. I have made hundreds and hundreds of well-tailored applications to jobs all over the place. It consumes my life. Last week I just found that I could no longer do it. I'm getting a bit back on track now.

You managed to volunteer your way into a job, which is something I have tried to do repeatedly. I can't just keep going on working for free indefinitely. At some point I need money for food and stuff.

My approach has been to mix a 'scattergun' approach to anything which would be paid well enough and relatively bearable, with also putting massive amounts of effort into those applications for the really good things. To be honest I can't see how I can do anything differently, make a new plan or a new approach, because I have taken on board so much advice and I'm pretty much doing it by the book now.

As I say, thanks for giving such a long a decent reply.

And believe me I am not a negative, or 'giving up' kind of person. It's just broken me now, there is nothing more I can do. Soon it will be a year, the thought of that is unbearable, it is a tenth of my 20s that has been completely wasted. I will have nothing to show for all the efforts I have made, and my life is just set to get increasingly difficult from hereon in. There is no escape from it.

It's easy to say 'volunteer more' but to what end? Yours came good and turned into something real - but the vast majority don't.