How do you find a graduate job? Help please! sorry it's a bit long

[lunavix]

My dh has recently finished his degree, and has applied for a few graduate schemes but hasn't got anywhere with them. He was interviewed then turned down for one, asked back twice then turned down to another, and the rest have declined (although has hasn't applied to a huge amount).

I'm starting to worry as his current job won't be forever, and while it's convenient to us it isn't ideal. He's got a good position, and he's been fulltime since his third year (the work experience one) but because it's his families company and in a field he isn't remotely interested in it might not make for brilliant future prospects. Plus they're planning on selling so his job will not always be guaranteed and he wants to make his own mark.

Neither of us are happy where we live either, and want to move either further up north or abroad - dh is adamant he wants to move abroad, although I do worry as he's adamant he wouldn't move to australia (where I lived) as it's too far... yet he'd move to Japan. Hmm. Anyways.

I'm really worried we're going to get stuck in a rut. He seems to be having some sort of post-uni crisis, he wants a 'cool' job in a great industry yet neither has any experience nor a clue what he wants to do! He keeps on about how he wants something like in a record company.. or for a music label! But he's been turned down for the graduate jobs and we can't afford to move to london and have him starting out making coffee...

I'm trying to be supportive, asking him what he wants to do, to which he replies he has no idea. The jobs he had call backs for were in areas we'd like to live but ultimately not in industries he'd overly enjoy, but at the end of the day he has to work. I have once or twice told him that he'll end up needing to find just any job... but like with the years work experience he was turned down by the 5 or so he'd applied for, and had to work for his family else would have had nothing. I'm worried this will happen again, as he has now told me the intake for septembers graduate jobs has gone...

I have no idea what to do to help. To be honest, I just want a half decent standard of living for our kids, and a decent school nearby! We need to get out of this area. I think the lack of working in his 'dream' industry (ie music, and I think it is just a left over from teenage dreams tbh) would be made up for by working somewhere new and exciting such as somewhere in europe, and we're both keen to travel - but how on earth do you find a job abroad, and would they take someone who isn't bilingual?

Sorry this is so long.. I'm starting to get to the end of my tether wondering if we will ever get out of here...

ok here's the deal. Employers can sniff a mile off if a grad isn't interested in their industry really. He has to make some choices and the record industry is well-nigh impossible. Also he should expect that if he goes for a cool and trendy job he'll need to be in one of the major cities (London esp for media) and be paid peanut crumbs. He'd start on less than he would if he'd not done the degree. In fact I have people work here (which is way not trendy really) for free to get experience. Plus, to be brutal and contentious, with wife and kid in tow he is going to be very unusual at that level in that sector - its all about the partying in my experience (in PR).

Has he spoken to the recruitment agencies - Graduate Appointments, Major Players are 2 that generally have good people. Milk round grad jobs are very hard to get in on so it sometimes works to go via an agency. But he needs to know what he wants to do, if not for life, at least for the next 3 years. He needs to show commitment to the job he's interviewing for.

Many grad jobs are very admin heavy to begin with too so he has to be realistic about that.

Guardian is also good for media appts but again, it won't be big bucks for ages (15 years and still waiting for some large bucks)

How old is he?

Hope that helps

He's 22, 23 in a few months.

He seems to think being young and 'trendy' (although I hate to say it but he isn't really!) and being a parent is a selling point - I have tried pointing out that while some older, more traditional companies might see that he's determined and will perhaps settle better in a job because of this, that in the industries he dreams of he will be an oddball!

He can't think of anything sensible that he wants to do, his degree is in business so in some ways he's qualified for everything and nothing. He despises agencies, and you are probably right they can tell (he applied for a marketing position in a well known motor company, yet knows nothing about cars...) but at the end of the day he can't think of anything he wants to do. If I press him he starts mumbling about doing another degree which is NOT an option!

I know he needs to grow up... but to point this out is futile and only causes a MAJOR rucus.

Hi there,

I graduated from university last year, having had my son three months before my finals were due. I have applied for a couple of graduate jobs for the September intake, and have an interview next month with a record company, which is my first RL interview in yonks!

What has put me off from a lot of schemes, is the fact that I am likely to stick out like a sore thumb, when I have told people that I have a child they often look quite shocked, oh you dont look like the sort of person who is a mum! Maybe it's because I'm young, I don't know! But then I think to myself well I completed my degree with a newborn baby, which makes me extremely proud of myself, if i may say so!, and i believe showed an enormous commitment to my studies.

Perhaps your husband could try his old university's career website, I know with Sussex that they have vacancy listings for their graduates (that's where I studied). Also, if he is interested in the Media route, www.arts.ac.uk, creative careers page advertise a lot of media vacancies, but agin it is worth bearing in mind alot of these media jobs are situated in London.

I know this doesnt really answer any questions that you have asked but what I;m trying to say is I can understand what you and your husband are perhaps going through. It is extremely frustrating at times, I think it's very very competitive these days to get on grad schemes, but I just wish you both the best of luck with whatever you end up doing.

its not that it doesn't show commitment etc etc its that companies take on people who are like one another, its easier for the building of a team. Also media companies rely on young people without kids to work senseless hours in return for drinks on a Friday night and tiny amounts of cash.

He at least needs to know - does he want to do sales, marketing, accountancy, operations, HR etc...

i wasnt saying that people without kids dont show commitment, not that at all. i was more talking about myself and my experience.

i do understand that the media is competitive, and that you work for nothing, i have done vast amounts of internships/placements etc and am aware that it is a hard graft.

i do agree with you that it would be wise for him to make some sort of decision as to which field/area/position he would like to go in before applying to a whole of jobs, sometimes too much choice is far more confusing than be selective and aiming for one thing. IYKWIM.

sorry cyan - didn't mean it to sound like I was saying that! tbh I'd far rather work with other people who understand the whole parenting dynamic than some of the slinky hipped youth around here!