Please could you help? A bit sad and desperate.

[WellAlwaysHaveParis]

I've posted about my situation before, but am getting a bit desperate now. Please could I ask for your help? I've tried to be really honest. Please could you be kind and objective? I really don't want to get flamed

My situation:
I graduated with a French and Spanish degree from a very academic university in 2015. I speak fluent French and advanced Spanish.

At university, I did several placements with national newspapers and magazines, and held several editorship positions for student newspapers, as I wanted to get into journalism. However, entry-level journalism roles have extremely low salaries, especially in London, where many are based. At university, I had planned to do a journalism master's qualification after graduating, but they're so so expensive and don't guarantee a job at the end unfortunately, so I decided against it. I do hospital radio volunteering on the weekends though, as it seems like a good way of perhaps going into media-based roles.

Since graduating, I've been trying to find a full-time job and haven't found anything. While I was looking for a full-time role, straight after uni, I worked as a self-employed private tutor and freelance copywriter in my hometown and lived at home.

In summer 2016, I moved to London to do teacher training, which I resigned from in winter 2016 due to health reasons.

To try and give myself relevant and important skills, I've started training as a Citizens Advice adviser in London in autumn last year. It's been so so useful in so many ways, and I'm so glad I've started doing it. It is voluntary though, which means it's unpaid, and ideally I need to look for paid work.

I'm also doing tuition through a couple of agencies alongside the Citizens Advice volunteering. Although the tuition is well-paid per hour, it's ad-hoc and not very regular (it stops during the school holidays etc.)

I have an assessment coming up for a Civil Service job next week, but it's for one post and I'm sure lots of people are going for it.

The problem:
I've been looking for jobs and haven't had any luck with finding a full-time job.

Everything that I'm looking at seems extremely competitive and there doesn't seem to be a clear, straightforward path to these jobs, if that makes sense.

I've had quite a few interviews over the last few months, but they haven't come to anything.

I've tried looking for jobs through: recruitment agencies (Reed, Tate, VMA Group, Love Success), job websites (W4MP Jobs, Guardian Jobs) and companies' own website.

I think I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas and guidance on how I can get a full-time job please?

I'm 26, and getting on a bit, with elderly parents, so getting quite worried.

The industries that I'm interested in are:

• Communications, PR and marketing
  
• Politics
  
• Journalism
  
• Government and Civil Service
  
• Charity sector (Communications, PR, marketing and policy roles).
  

Thanks so much

[bracken101]

I just wanted to say that I had a similar situation to you, and it's just getting a foot in the door that's needed.

In the end, after going for an interview but not getting the job, I asked for feedback and also said I was available for very short term work if they had any projects they needed doing. I was taken on for 5 weeks initially and proved my worth, contract kept getting extended, I was getting valuable experience and eventually a permanent job opening came up and I got the job.

[Judydreamsofhorses]

I’m an ex PR/comms person who now lectures in the same. I started in an admin role after graduating, moved to another admin role which involved a bit of writing, and from there moved onto working freelance for the BBC and STV as a researcher. When that got too unstable (and I got a mortgage!) I switched to the marketing/comms side, then ultimately into teaching.

None of this was my Grand Plan, and I am 44 now and still don’t really know what I want to be, but I think the key thing is being able to be adaptable and build up experience where you can get it. In my first admin job I got involved in writing company manuals and procedures, and delivering training on them - this really helped develop my public speaking skills, and also gave me examples of “published work”,no matter how tenuous and boring they were. I guess what I am trying to say in a rambling way is that nothing is ever a waste of time, you will always gain something from even the crappest job. (One of my closest friends is someone I met in that first admin job, over 20years on!)

[Jassmells]

As someone in marketing/comms I don't think your experience sounds bad but really look at how you are tailoring it towards your application. The copywriting skill is your most important one here and journalist experience you really need to push this as it shows attention to detail, creativity and (I hope) good writing skills/vocab/grammar.

Marketing and PR are hard to get into you just have to keep going. You also like public sector so consider combining the two? NHS or local council comms maybe? Where are you based? With local government devolution in the west mids and Manchester there is a new raft of these types of jobs where others have previously disappeared.

Guardian jobs, jobswm, NHS jobs.co.uk all worth a look. There is hope, keep going!

[diymania]

There are opportunities within the Civil Service that cover many of the things you're interested in - comms, politics, policy worked if you're partial to charity work then public service is along vaguely similar lines. If you have an assessment for DWP then concentrate your efforts on that. But keep looking at the civil service jobs website.

What grade are you looking at? You might only assume HEO would be a typical grad entry job, but there are many grads at EO level. And then after you've had time in the job and gained experience you can deliver good competency examples to set you up for applying for the next grade up (and so on!).

e.g......

Assistant Press Officer for Charity Commission

Assistant private secretary for MoD minister

Content editor for government digital service at Dept for International Trade

There are brilliant fast stream opportunities but they are super competitive. Whereas whilst getting an EO or HEO job is not easy, it would certainly be easier than fast stream but still open up all the many and varied opportunities the Civil Service offers.

I would echo what others have said and say an admin temp job would give you experience and chances to develop your skills. The CAB should also provide that, and if it's not be as proactive as possible and see if there's anything that you've noticed that you could suggest an improvement to and then make it happen - doesn't necessarily have to be a huge thing. Try to find things in what you're doing now where you can add value.

For your tutoring could you reach out to other tutors and see if they want to form a network to keep skills up, meet for a chat etc. That would give you a good example of collaborating and partnering, for example.

Good luck!

[Buxbaum]

If you have an aptitude for languages, have you considered GCHQ or the security services?

[MojoMoon]

Civil service jobs can take ages to get through the application and then it is currently a few months wait for your background check to be completed after a job offer. That's not even for developed/enhanced vetting. There is a general backlog. You can't start before it is complete.

So don't wait for it because it could be months and months (they are also competitive and the competency assessment is much easier if you have actual work to draw upon as examples).

So work. Get a temp job. Stop thinking about what career you want. You need a job and then once you have a year under your belt you can think about a different job.

A career doesn't define who you are as a person or make you suddenly feel complete.
It's just a fancy word for job.
Sometimes you enjoy your job, sometimes you don't. Sometimes it leads on to other more exciting jobs than the one you currently have. Sometimes you get promoted. But they are all jobs.
Have you posted your CV on the most generalist websites like indeed and monster? Don't limit yourself to one or two small recruitment firms. Just get out there.
The second job is much easier to get than the first job. And a job is much easier to find when you are already in one.

I really like my job. But I didn't even know it existed when I graduated and if I had, I wouldn't have thought I could do it or would want to do it. So jobs surprises you but you need to be in one to find out.

[PrimalLass]

I work in publishing. I wish I'd made different choices when I was your age. It's a nice to have sort of career but 20 years on the salaries haven't really changed. If I were you I would think carefully.