by Stuart Clarke on Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:32 pm
I am sitting in front of my computer listening to the Artic Monkeys, considering whether they are as good as everybody says they are. I am staring because I have run out of 'job-speak' to use for another application. Can I be "flexible, vibrant" and somebody who "thinks outside the box"? This job requires a "go-getter", but how do you actually prove that?!
After three months every application is starting to look the same. Same speak, different day; a continual process of reinvention, where you attempt to make yourself stand out when in reality you have forgotten what made you good in the first place.
The most exciting part of the day is the morning post, where dreams of the perfect job are intermingled with countless bank statements and credit card junk mail. The post man it seems comes later and later every day, whistling along jovially as you wait with your anxious heart beat and sweaty palms. Grabbing the post with eager hands, looking through until I find it! This is it. This is my future...
Dear Mr Clarke,
Thank you for your application.... (Sounding good) ...unfortunately... (Oh no)... due to the high number of high quality applications... (Do I care?)... we are unable to offer you an interview at this time. Thank you for your application, and good luck in your future career... (Thanks, I'm going to need it).
Another one down & so it's back to the computer, where the process begins again.
Looking through the job sections is like a game of chance; where things sound good until you see the essentials part... must have a degree...(okay)...must have at least two years experience (oh no)...must have a science degree...(no no). Dreams are made and then shattered in the same sentence. Experience really is the key, yet how can you get experience if no-one is willing to give you a chance? Even work experience can be near-impossible to get, and how long can you do that without any income?
Now I know what you, the blessed reader must be thinking; where is this man looking and what kind of jobs is he looking for? Is he looking to edit the guardian, become prime minister, or even be Alan sugar's apprentice? Well, to begin with I had high hopes, looking in the Guardian Section and carefully selecting one or two great jobs, thinking (naively) that one will get back to me. Slowly, after about the 20th straight rejection without interview I started looking elsewhere and lowering the standards accordingly. Fish4jobs, Prospects, Total Jobs, Reed Recruitment; there are countless of these organisations to choose from, all containing strikingly similar jobs.
For media - a sector that is very competitive - sales seems to be the only way 'in', with countless adverts swamping all jobsites, up to the point where the very sight of the word 'sales' immediately puts you off. Now I am not being precious, as time has passed by I have started to be much more open to any kind of job.
'Graduate' jobs, I thought, would at least be an option. "Lower your scruples Stuart", the devil on my arm says. "Work for Aldi, for BAE, or McDonalds even. They are all well paid." And yes they are, and the programmes are generally good too. But to get on one is a 3-4 month process, against thousands of like-minded and equally 'qualified' graduates. Initial interview is followed by assessment centre, follow up interview, some team building exercises, leading onto a psychometric test or two thrown in for good measure. And then you may not even get the job.
Businesses do have to find the right person, and they do incur a large cost burden when recruiting graduates, so their approach should be thorough. But think about the poor graduate who gets to the end, to be told, "unlucky, you did well but not quite well enough."
I was told by keen career advisors to go to a graduate fair. "Put yourself about a bit", "mingle". At these places you find yourself walking around aimlessly in a suit, eyeing everybody up as competition, thinking of stalls you want to go, and when there, you are too busy smiling to ask any questions. Forget about handing in CVs - they don't want them. "Apply online", they all say. When you are sick of smiling, go to a CV clinic, where you can either wait an hour to be told how rubbish your CV is, or pay £150 for them to write one for you.
My parents and close family are confused by all of this. They thought a degree would put me on the right track to a great job, and to be honest so did I. They keep telling me about programmes they watch on the influx of graduates into the market, somehow thinking that this will perk me up a bit. It just makes me want to find another way.
My twin brother is the same as me - a business graduate from a great university. He should walk into a good job but has found that he doesn't "fit into the culture of the business..." or so the rejection letter informs him. Nobody told me it would be like this; hope followed by continual rejection. Rejection that eventually goes to the heart.
I have applied for at least 200 jobs and still no interview. These varied from jobs I really wanted to jobs where utter desperation took over. The only solace you get is a call from an agency that tells you that they are the answer to all your problems. You see agencies rule the job market now and you are guaranteed to get called from one that you have never heard of. "Describe your skills", and then you spend the next fifteen minutes selling yourself. But to what end?
I now know that when I apply for a job, 70-100 people (at least) are all going for the same position. People that have probably 3 years experience or a masters degree. There is no definitive place that tells you plainly and simply where the jobs are in one particular field, so you have to go through the sites, skimming until you find a job that (at least partly) sounds good. The biggest problem though is for all the jobs you apply to, at least 20% never get back to you, they are left like hope drifting in the air. I would like to see a time when it is made compulsory for all applicants to get at least some kind of response - but I suspect this will never happen
Now I realise that I am partly to blame for this. Perhaps more culpable than any business. There must be a reason for still being unemployed and I am fully aware of my shortcomings. Instead of taking a course at a good 'traditional' university I did English at Bangor, and although I had the best the years of my life thus far, I probably wasn't as clued up as I should have been. I had to go through the dreaded clearing, even with 4 A-levels of an A and 3 Bs. My first choice universities both rejected me because I missed out on an A for English, even though the same universities were letting my friends in on D's and other inferior grades.
Now, with meritocracy in mind, the government is trying to increase university applications, making up to 50% of college leavers attend university. In social terms university is great: The first time you get to experience life away from the family, among a diverse range of intelligent people with different and enriching perspectives. Going to university is no definitive answer though, and no guarantor of a job either. Many of my friends are still looking to join the job ladder, and I'm all too aware that we are not the only ones. I have to ask myself, would three years of employment have put me in a better position now?
I chose my course because I loved it, but I think more emphasis has to be on getting useful skills and employment. You can talk about transferable skills as much as you want, but the skills gap is not going to be shortened by a 10% increase in people taking media studies. All this does is add to the problem of credential inflation. Now I realise that employers benefit from experienced people, but talent should be given that chance rather than be blindly shunned without a second hearing. Maybe people with less experience should be given a test (hang on - wasn't a degree some kind of test once upon a time?), or a work placement at least to supplement their application. What is clear is that a degree is not enough.
And so I will return to my computer and think up of more reinventions for myself. I am a graduate in need of a break... Or alternately you might see me at a building society/bank near you, forgetting my aspirations once and for all.
Stuart Clarke