The August Travel Book
Dude Where's My Career
Introduction
Whoever said The camera never lies' had clearly never seen my graduation photo. Beaming into the July sunshine, modelling a faux fur-trimmed gown and clutching a fake plastic degree (the real thing arrived weeks later), I'm doing a pretty convincing impression of someone who's got it all worked out. But I so haven't. Behind my smile lurks a guilty secret. In three years studying Psychology at Durham University, where I attended a measly six hours of lectures a week, I had done absolutely nothing about my career. Nada. Zip. Zero.
Need proof? Some stats from the day I graduated:
- Visits to the university careers service: 0
- Careers brochures collected: 0
- Careers presentations attended: 0
- Potential careers being considered: 0
- Jobs applied for: 0
- People who thought I would ever write a book about careers: 0
I had no idea that things were about to get much, much worse. Nobody warned me that within a couple of weeks of living back at home, my confidence would evaporate and my self-esteem would nose-dive. No one told me I would spend the summer working as a very grumpy Office Angel', or that when autumn arrived I would still be no closer to knowing what I wanted to do with my life.
This is the book I needed then.
Chapter 1: In at the deep end
Every year, thousands of graduates discover that life after graduation is a serious case of sink or swim'. If you're drowning, take heart. You're not the only one…
Life after university is like…
a) a bright sunny day
or
b) a bright sunny day when you've got the mother of all hangovers?
If you answered b), you're clutching the right book. You're one of thousands of graduates who finish uni without a clue about what they're going to do next. They say they feel overwhelmed, uninspired, depressed or just plain baffled.
Ringing any bells?
Some of you may have made it as far as attending an employer presentation or two but left feeling disappointed that the job didn't sound a bit more, well, fun. Some of you may have rocked up to a one-to-one with a university careers adviser but walked away feeling irritated when they couldn't pull your dream career' out of thin air, magician-style. Others may have managed to dodge mention of the word career' completely, bodyswerving every recruitment fair, presentation and sinister-looking leaflet that came your way. I'll stress about all that boring stuff after graduation' you told yourself. After all, why spoil your last year of studentdom stressing about a time you never really thought would arrive?
But Graduation Day did arrive although it felt more like Judgement Day. And now, you're suffering the worst comedown of your life. You have little or no decent work experience under your belt, no career plans in the pipeline and your CV is shamefully bald. Good lord, what were you doing for the last three years? Anyone would think you'd just been partying...
To earn some cash, you're serving cappuccinos, stacking shelves or stuffing envelopes. That's if you're even out of your pyjamas and earning at all. Meanwhile, you've assured everyone it's under control. But, privately, you're bricking it. You know you need to make a plan, but haven't the foggiest idea where to start. And you'd trade anything for everyone to just stop asking.
As if that's not bad enough, perhaps you're back at home, where your parents are driving you nuts. Every family function has turned into open season for your relatives to offer streams of unsolicited advice about careers that would bore you to tears. A couple of your most organised friends are already on their first step along a glittering career path and are busy earning big bucks. Left behind, you are broke, directionless and trapped on a hamster wheel of self-loathing.
Other careers guides are written for the super-motivated graduate. In other words, the person who actually needs them the least. You know the type: while you spent your uni summers doing bar work in your local or serving strawberries at Wimbledon, they were busy beefing up their CV at an international investment bank in Berlin.
This book is different, because most graduates aren't super-sorted; they're just like you...
“I'm still unemployed and I was at Oxford!
It's pretty embarrassing that I still haven't found a proper job especially since I graduated from Oxford, which is considered so prestigious. I want to get into journalism but so far I've only looked for jobs on the careers and graduates pages on the Internet, which has given me the impression that there aren't that many vacancies out there. I'm trying not to get too down about it but I can't help thinking that if I'd been more organised about the job hunting much earlier on, the last few months could have been avoided.
Hannah Gilkes, 21
2:1, English Language and Literature, University of Oxford”
“There are so few jobs I actually want
Since graduating I've found it really hard to find advertised jobs that I want to apply for. I look in the paper and on the Internet and all the jobs seem to be sales-based but I'd like to get into the business or finance sector. I'm fluent in Spanish and I have a business degree surely that makes me a decent candidate? But I haven't had much luck yet.
Daniel Davis, 23
2:1, Modern Languages (Spanish) and Business Management, University of Manchester”
Dude Where's My Career by Tanya de Grunwald is published by Summersdale (paperback; £8.99). It is also available through amazon.co.uk and all good booksellers.
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