Graduate (un)employment

[scotchbroth1]

Though my own DC are a long way off employment age, I can see this through myself, siblings, cousins and some friends. Yes it is a tough time for graduates to get work in the fields they have studied at university, but I find a lot are too proud to just take anything until this happens, be it bar, cleaning, hotels, retail or admin work etc. because they are 'too bright' for it. Huh, I have a postgrad and am a cleaner on minimum wage. Others of my aquaintance just claim benefits and refuse to take any of the easier jobs mentioned. Some 'universities' are truly worth going to and give you valuable skills. Others are just glorified colleges that serve to keep you sheltered for 3 or 4 years (and make money for the institutions) then people wonder why they can't get employment.

Is this a common trend?

ps, this is not meant as a benefit bash thread but more attitudes of graduates to their true self worth.

My DP took two years out after graduation, working for just 12K a year as a temp. That job led to an offer of an incredible job starting 30Kish, rising to 50-60K in 5 years.

He couldn't have got it without his degree AND work experience. You need both. I don't work now as am having a baby, and he is earning enough to support us both, but couldn't have done it without those two years as an office lackey.

tbf he has outstanding grades and graduated top class collegiate university. - But that didn't stop him taking a low paid, soul sapping job to make ends meet when he had to.

I graduated (the first time) into the 80's recession. I well remember leaning over the counter of the petrol station where I worked telling the children fromthe local secondary school "6 years of university education and you, too could have a job like mine".

I feel your pain. It gets better, eventually.

Hammy02 - I wholeheartedly agree with you too.

Its extremely fustrating when I am just about to grduate with a chemistry degree, after being told that I would have plenty of opportunities, as everyone wants people with science degrees, and am now struggling to work, luckily I have worked at my local shop all the way through university, but this isn't helping me in my career as everyone is wanting people with experience something I don't have. Which means all the rich kids are going to get the jobs that I would love, as their parents can afford to give them money so they can get free internships...

Sorry it's a bit of a rant but I have had yet another fruitless 5 hours looking for work

I found that when I graduated, the only way i could get work was through an agency.

although, you have to be careful what kind of job to go for that way - I orginally went for packing stuff and factory work (cos that was always advertised in the paper) and found that it was impossible to get the jobs.

I can't remember how i started applying through agencies for data input, but I got really high scores on alphanumeric data input, and managed to get a position at powergen through the agency.
Problem is, most people leaving uni know how to use a computer, so this skill isn't as relevant/useful as it was in 1998.

I would love someone to work for me in this shop when I am close to term, though.
anyone near sittingbourne who wants a job in November?

You are right student money goes to money, the rest of us are fucked. :(

Wrote my post and it got lost in cyberspace

Anyway, I think some graduates might not take jobs "beneath" them but you mustn't forget that a lot of employers don't want over-qualified people because they will move on as soon as they find a "better" job. Employers often want someone who will be committed for the long term.

I like the system in France where for certain degrees (eg. business, engineering,...) you have to do work experience every summer in order to graduate. This means that employers are well used to offering 3 - 12 month placements where graduates have real roles to play.

That way I had over 15 months work experience under my belt, and DH had over well 20 months, by the time we graduated. And we had performed proper roles (in projects for example) not just photocopying. We both walked into our jobs.

I graduated in 2007 with a 2:1 from Cambridge. I applied for all the jobs I could find and I wasn't too 'proud' to apply for cleaning or anything else (mostly jobs in unskilled help with the elderly or in schools). Did I get a job? Hell no: overqualified in academia and underqualified in experience. It's not 'pride' that stops graduates from applying for menial jobs, it's common sense. There's only so many interviews you can go to to be told 'no' before you realize it is not worth the bus fare and you would be better targeting jobs you've actually got a hope in hell of getting. Why would an academic degree make someone employable as a cleaner?!

I went to do further study because it was the first and only thing I got offered money for. I love it and I'm good at it, but I also love actually having money to eat and pay rent, you know?

LRD has a point, each rejection and even worse, each no reply kills you off a little inside. In the end you have no pride to lose,no faith or hope to lose and very little will to keep living.

Yes, and each rejection also depletes your money. I nearly ended up crying in front of the interviewer who told me at the beginning of the interview that they'd already found someone else that morning - I'd spent a bloody fiver getting to where he was!

I don't blame graduates for realizing they can't afford to apply for jobs they know they'lll bnever get.

I don't want a bollocks job, I just want any job I am desperate. BTW my degree isn't in art.

I really don't think graduates are too "proud" to apply for certain jobs, I'm about to graduate with a 2.1 from a very good university, and have been applying for jobs since December without success. The problem is, if you tell grad recruitment companies honestly that you're happy to apply to anything then they think you're not "dedicated" enough to one area, and if you focus too narrowly then there are fewer jobs to apply for.
And I'm not fussy when it comes to summer jobs/a job to tide me over for a year, I've applied everywhere from Poundland to pubs, but I'm "over-qualified" of course...

I have actually become ashamed of my degree.

sorry but 'studying for the right degree' is absolutely NOT everything.

If you are in an overcrowded field such as law, you may well have taken a 'sensible' degree- but so did thousands of other people.

Our university (not a top 10 one I assure you...) churns out a lot of 2:2 students every year who will (and should, given the low standard that achieves a 2:2) struggle to find employment as solicitors or possibly even paralegals.

On the other hand, I have excellent, incredibly mature and hardworking 2:1 students who are also unable to find work simply because there are no jobs. Several couldn't even find a vacation placement this year.

As for 'mickey mouse' degrees, I have one in Classics (ooooh dead languages, you'll never get work with that one, etc, etc, I've heard it all) and have never been out of work. But it's from Oxford so I guess that doesn't count?

I was lucky enough to be sponsored by my parents, who also helped me set up my practice so I have only ever worked as an empoyee for the 2 mandatory training years out of the 7 year course. I did work in the village pub from 16 to 18; waitressing and collecting glasses so I have an idea what low wage employment is like and would not hesitate to take almost any job if I found myself without any work at all.

The unemployment rate for newly qualified architects is amongst the worst of the building professions. Many of my university friends still have to work part time in low wage jobs and supplement their income with the occasional small design jobs - extensions, loft conversions and CAD work jand so on, just to make ends meet.

I think graduate unemployment is a national scandal and such a waste of the education system.

fabby, I didn't want the 'bollocks' job either, I wanted anything to pay the rent.

I ended up on course to said 'bollocks job' anyway. I bloody love what I'm doing, they pay me to study all day and with luck I'll end up in academia. But I ended up doing this because - literally - nowhere else would have me. Not McDonalds and not shelf-stacking. I know; I applied.

Why is it so hard to accept the idea that the person with academic qualifications isn't necessarily the best or most employable person for a non-academic job?

I'm pretty happy where I ended up, I feel very fortunate. But the fact remains that my degree prepared me best for fairly prestigious jobs. I don't see why I should apologize for that. It's not like I pulled a fast one by getting myself turned down from menial jobs and went cap in hand to the government for money to do something more fun that still pays the rent.

We have an over 98% employment rate for the course I run.

xstitch that's really sad.

I think it is really crap to make people feel ashamed of something they've worked hard for and done in good faith.

Imo, people often have a really skewed idea of which degrees are (genuinely) not good for employment and which aren't. DH did Ancient History and people always assume it's a mickey mouse subject ... but they have a much, much higher employment rate that, say, 'Forensic Science', which a friend did before realizing she'd been misinformed by her school and it was not helpful at all for getting an actual job in Forensics.

I remember it took me 9 months of seeking before I got an actual job and that was with a physics degree, MSc and writing up a phD. I was applying for both postdoctoral work and secondary employment. I did die a bit inside every time a job application was unacknowledged and since I has no job experiency had to put my publication list on my CV.
The low point was being rejected from Tesco and the next week a technicians job because "I didn't understand that it wasnt amresearch position".
I know SO many people who are stuck in the over-qualified under-experienced trap and this includes Oxbridge grads and PhDs.
All the summer work I had done and the waitressing job in my final year counted for fuck all.

irrespective of qualifications I was just as unemployed as everybody else.

Still it was nothing like the change from being university bound with A levels thinking the world is at your feet to struggling in vain looking for a summer job and finding there aren't any (I was in the NE for uni). Then coming back to your parents and have them think it's 1970 and that your lack of a job is simply due to laziness.

Thats bullshit re maths degrees btw.

xstitch I refer you to MrsKravitz's excellent assessment of the situation.

Please ignore people who are just trying to get a rise. You will succeed.

I am ashamed of my employment history too, all 10 years of it, it must be completely worthless. My degree was full days 5 days a week so I did do work for it. Now though I am a lazy arse only capable of working a few hrs a week.

I wish I could turn the clock back and drop out of school before even my first set of exams. Then I wouldn't have done all the work for nothing, actually not nothing, worse than nothing it holds you back.

I have come to the conclusion that I am completely unemployable but my morals won't let me stop trying.

I doubt that very much limited after several 100 failures.