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Living in the countryside. Should I move to find a graduate job - and if so, how?

Hey TSR,

I'm currently a bit stuck and could really do with some advice.

I finished my studies at UCL last May and I've been living up North in Teesdale ever since. It's a lovely area, but there's next to nothing in terms of graduate opportunities - and very few people my age too. Really, I feel like I've returned from a war in which most of my generation was killed. On top of this, it's not really in commuting distance of anywhere either. Just driving to a train station is a journey enough.

So I've figured that I ought to move south - but what's the best line of action for doing this? If I try and land a job whilst I'm living up here, I'll doubtlessly be asked to interview, which means spending £80 on train tickets, just to get there. It also means that a lot of recruiters might just bin my application, since they see that I'm stationed hundreds of miles away.

All my friends currently live in London too, which I'm not keen on returning to. But even if I did, and if I slept on their floors, I could be there for months before I actually land a job. Renting a spare room is one idea - but, again, I'm worried that I'd just end up devouring my savings, even with a 1st.

Do any of you have any good advice as to what I should do here? Maybe from people who've done this before. I'd appreciate it enormously.

Reply 1

deadwing

I'm in the same position as you but I don't feel disadvantaged by employers when applying for jobs which are far away from me - I'm living in Sheffield and in the past month or so I've had interviews in four different towns and cities including London and I've got two coming up in Kent and Stratford-upon-Avon. It's all getting very expensive - I've spent £90 in the past two weeks on train fares and my uncoming trip to Kent looks set to cost £100+. :frown:

However even though I'm spending a lot of money, I think I would be spending a lot more if I moved out of my parents' house to somewhere else and had to pay for rent, food etc. I'd say stay, although if you can get somewhere free / low cost then maybe, I guess Teeside is a bit more remote from employment hotspots than Sheffield...

Reply 2

Zetland

Original post by deadwing

Ha, yes. To make things worse it's Teesdale as well, which is even more remote. Half of it looks like this, actually.

How do you find your jobs, out of interest? I'm basically relying on job-sites at the moment, although I realise I'm missing out on 92% of jobs by doing this. That's another reason for moving actually - to get a better idea of the businesses that are out there.

Reply 3

Aramiss18

Are you not able to claim interview travel expenses back if you are on JSA? As you haven't mentioned it I'll assume you haven't signed on which is your prerogative but I'd consider JSA if I were you. Or at least look into it.

Original post by Zetland

How do you find your jobs, out of interest? I'm basically relying on job-sites at the moment, although I realise I'm missing out on 92% of jobs by doing this. That's another reason for moving actually - to get a better idea of the businesses that are out there.

Job site postings get inundated with applications within minutes. I'd try aiming targeted applications to specific industry areas. A broad spectrum apply and hope tactic could end up getting you nowhere. A lot of fantastic graduate employers expect you to look for them.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

M1011

Even with a 1st! The cheek of them employers! :tongue:

On the bright side, most of the big employers will pay for your train fare when you come to interview. On the downside, may involve quite a bit of travel and may be problematic if you're more interested in SMBs.

If you can rent a room on the cheap it might be worthwhile, but bear in mind a lot of people sort their graduate job whilst at uni miles away from where they are going to work. For example, I was in Birmingham and applied almost exclusively to roles in London. It was never an issue as they paid the travel expenses.

Reply 5

Zetland

Original post by Aramiss18

You're completely right, I'm just having difficulty finding companies I want to work for. Do you have any recommendations on this front? As in, are there any websites which catalogue interesting companies that want applicants from Top 10 universities? I've only really used Google Maps so far.

Reply 6

Aramiss18

Original post by Zetland

Try Jobcrowd - http://www.thejobcrowd.com/employer - and, whilst I can't remember who publishes it, there is a list of 100 top grad employers.

Only IB and Law firms are overly fussed with whether a university is "Top 10" or whatever. You are going to have to sell yourself, your skills and your experience - not your university.

Reply 7

deadwing

Original post by Zetland

Sorry, my bad, that's a tricky one then. :frown:

Being in the right geographic area itself won't necessarily expose you to more job vacancies though..

Through Google, job websites or scouring every potential employers' that I can think of vacancies page if I'm in the mood to do something particularly boring.

Reply 8

Student552

Id agree that JobCrowd is the way to go as I think they list employers based on what the graduates who work there think so it's not just the same names as you see everywhere else