People graduating this summer - are you happy or sad?

Graduation can be a bit of whirlwind of different emotions. Are you happy to finally be finished and pleased with your results? Sad to be leaving uni and maybe moving away? Or just relieved that it's all over?

What are you looking forward to most about graduation?

I recently graduated and have felt the burden of "unemployment depression".

I am glad to have finally finished education, but I find it very difficult to even get an office job.

Going back to do a PGCE PCET has become a serious alternative if I do not see any progress this year. Heck, I even applied to the Royal Navy, for goodness sake (something I never thought I'd do after University)!

Graduation can be a bit of whirlwind of different emotions. Are you happy to finally be finished and pleased with your results? Sad to be leaving uni and maybe moving away? Or just relieved that it's all over?

What are you looking forward to most about graduation?

I can certainly empathise with this. I've felt lost and like I possess a lack of purpose now that the full-time education phase of my life has finished. Even though my days are not all to different from when at University (I studied a humanities subject so few contact hours) I think that without a job or future degree on the horizon I'm feeling a little lost. I missed the grad-schemes and so have been applying for many graduate jobs but it is somewhat frustrating having to wait 4-6 weeks for a response only to be rejected.

In hindsight I would have ensured that I focussed more attention on preparing/applying for jobs throughout my final year instead of purely focussing on my studies. With that being said, I'm now going to undertake a masters degree in September which I am quite excited about! Over the course of the next 12 months I intend on making myself more employable by networking and pursuing work experience opportunities.

I would say don't despair, I'm sure there are lots of us in this situation. I have two friends who've graduated last year and still unemployed, though to be fair they haven't tried hard to find graduate level employment. I hope you find what you're looking for!

I do agree with this also. The past 3 years in university, I could have engaged in extensive work experience also and do regret it now. So, admittedly, me not being able to find a job is my own fault (to an extent).

When did you apply for your masters?

I have got so much going on at the moment with so many alternative options that I keep holding back applying to a teaching post-graduate course.

Unfortunately my careers services centre at University was less than impressive to say the least. My one hour meeting with a specialist was essentially browsing the prospects website and taking a personality test to discover I'm an INFT or whatever it was.

I applied last week and recieved an offer within a couple of days so was pleased about that.

Is it free to apply for a PGCE? Perhaps you could apply and have it there as an option, the worst I suppose that could happen is you have to reject an offer or don't recieve any offers. I know how you feel, it's quite overwhelming when there are so many different options available!

Oh I see. I am so tempted to apply to a PGCE and cannot keep getting it off my mind but then other things keep popping around in my head also. It is hard to be decisive at this point haha.

Sorry to hear you're struggling to find a job, @AnEvolvedApe. I'm sure if you keep trying you'll get where you want to be eventually. Would you specialise in primary or secondary if you decided to go with the PGCE?

Katy

I would like to do Secondary PGCE but I lack the correct GCSE requirements for the Welsh Standard (I have English at C and Maths at E, but need B for both). Henceforth, why I have a limited choice at present.

Oh, that's shame. Maybe you could re-do those GCSEs at a college and try to get some relevant work experience at the same time?

I'll miss my uni- I'm going from distance learning for my undergraduate to campus based for my Masters and I'm very apprehensive about it!.

It's only natural to feel wary about such a big change - but try to see it as an exciting new challenge!

Have you checked out what support services your university offers? Here at Staffs we have some excellent facilities and services for disabled students, as well as student support groups - http://www.staffs.ac.uk/study/disabled/support/ - it's quite probable that these will be in place at whichever institution you're off to.