Argh, job hunting. Everyone hates it. But here are the two reasons for my particular brand of hunt hate. Perhaps you identify with one or both of them.
1. I don’t know what I want to do.
I have never had a clear idea of what profession I want to work in. As young as fifteen, at least one of my friends had picked A-levels that would lead on to a medical degree and ultimately a job as a doctor. Eight years later and I still haven’t made a commitment like that. But to this day I am told that my unplanned approach is not a problem. Many acquaintances have told me they still don’t know what they want to be, and up until now I did indeed feel that this was a positive thing; that I was an all-rounder with a wide range of interests.
But in an ocean of job vacancies, it helps to have some kind of destination in mind…
So far I have only one fixed requirement – that I be in London. I am pretty much fixed on getting paid as well, but even that isn’t set in stone if I come across an amazing internship. I am keen to find temp work just to get myself out of my rut but I’m far from ruling out permanent positions. Any position that requires one or more of the following interests me: fluency in French, an interest in new media, a relatively modest amount of admin experience, a passion for literature, theatre or history, or experience of radio or broadcasting. Which is why my browser quickly gets overrun with tabs all fighting for attention.
2. Every recruiter wants experience that I don’t have
I feel that I’ve managed to notch up a fair amount of work experience during and after university. I’ve had a couple of admin jobs, been a waitress, had unpaid placements in the media, worked in France and produced a play.
Even so, (and I know I’m not exactly the first to realise this) trying to get your first proper paid job is a catch-22 situation: you can’t get a job until you have the right experience, which you can only get by having the job… It is of course possible to get round this by carefully building up useful experience gradually. Trouble is, because I have never known what I want to do with my life (see point 1) the experience I have acquired is too varied; I don’t have enough in any one sector to make me a viable candidate for a job. I’m loath to do more unpaid work just to get experience, so where do I go from here?
But to end on a more positive note, while I’ve found most recruitment websites frustrating I would recommend the government’s Graduate Talent Pool where you can search for internships – crucially, including paid ones. Also worth a look is ratemyplacement.co.uk although I’ve only scanned it so far.
