What did you do immediately after graduating?

[Tryingtoslim]

So I’m in my final year of uni and at a loss at what to do next year once I’ve finished. I am early 20s so fairly young but would love to hear from everyone

I cycled through a few minimum wage type jobs (McDonald's - managed three days, call centre - three months and then retail for nine). I applied for loads of graduate jobs at the same time and took the first one that gave me an offer as I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up working in corporate tax and really enjoy what I do.

I think it's definitely helpful to have something to do while you're looking for graduate jobs as it gives you something to talk about at interviews plus allows you to develop some skills. I'd say it's even more important if you didnt work whilst at university.

Having said that my younger sister has never had a job and instead focussed solely on applying for graduate jobs and she found something without too much trouble.

Got some sleep.

I've been hibernating since graduation which was in November.

Immediately after exams went to Glastonbury. Then had a holiday after graduation and started work. I'd been applying for grad jobs throughout my final year.

I had done a Year in Industry during my (biochemistry) degree so knew I wanted to be a scientist but not in academia. So I did PhD, then postdoc before getting a job working in Pharma. DH (physics degree) did a masters then PhD then moved to the private sector as a software engineer. All of our siblings went abroad after graduating for a few years, some for professional jobs, some to travel. SIL never came back!

What is your degree in and where are you studying? Have you had the opportunity to work during your degree? Take advantage of your university's careers service and milk round to find out about opportunities. Your first job doesn't have to determine your whole career, just find something you find interesting and after a couple of years you can look again once you've got some experience and know what you like or don't like.

I started exercising, painting and taking time to myself while my husband supported me. 4 months after graduation he made me pregnant and I never worked in my life. I don’t know if my biomedical degree will ever become useful in my life and I sort of regret wasting 4 years of my life studying something that I don’t use. I should have took the time those years to acquire new skills.