Jobhunting… feeling heartbroken

[Historian0111101000]

Is anyone else completely demoralized by the job market right now?

I have a PhD in History and have worked in restaurants, bars, volunteered in museums and libraries, and taught at university level. I have loads of transferable skills, but it feels like no one cares.

When I apply for entry-level jobs, I’m “overqualified.” When I apply for anything more senior, I’m “not specialized enough.” Academia feels dead, and heritage or museum roles are just as bad — I’ve had interviews where it was obvious they already had someone internal lined up.

I’m not even asking for a big salary anymore — I just want a job. I spend hours every day applying, writing cover letters, researching organizations, but it never seems to go anywhere. My CV and cover letters are solid (I’ve had them reviewed), but employers always go with someone who has “more experience.”

How are you supposed to get experience if no one will give you a chance?

At this point, I’m honestly wondering if it’s just me. I’m feeling really low about it all. I’ve even started thinking that maybe I should just give up and be a SAHM — at least then I wouldn’t feel like I’m constantly failing at something I worked so hard for. I love learning, I have so much to offer, but it feels like none of it matters anymore.

University professional services roles are definitely worth looking into. There is a huge range of opportunities once you get a foot in the door and good terms and conditions

So something like this - https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOX285/quality-support-officer might tie in nicely to the skills you will have gained in your PhD (obviously I don't know anything about your professional skills, just thinking generically about humanities PhDs...)

The pay isn't great, but once you've got experience, there are other jobs out there - have a look on that website with the keyword "Quality" to get some ideas.

@Historian0111101000 im very much for people being educated , but i do think the idea you have that should be highly compensated might be not sadly how the world is going - either private business is paying you , so as someone says you have to have a skill and knowledge that makes money, contributes to profits or cuts costs or public money is paying you and at the moment it’s in short supply especially in academia/HE - and no shortage of applicants

If you have a family or any type of caring responsibilities you can apply for a relocation restriction so you won't be expected to move around the country..

That would normally be great advice, but university admin around the country is being absolutely decimated with redundancies and restructures across all institutions, from the most elite, to ex-polys https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/ The job market is not a very good place to have to be at the moment sadly.

Local government and NHS non clinical jobs could be worth a look. I was redundant at 50 from a fairly decent job, few qualifications in my case, but I got an admin role in social housing, then moved up the ranks before I retired.

@roundaboutthehillsareshining
As @SilkCottonTree says, they are hard to get.

I’ve applied for a lot of university administration roles in the area (there are three universities within commuting distance), but I haven’t even been invited to an interview. My CV and cover letter are solid — I had them checked by the carrier service — and I’ve even had informal chats with some of the admin management staff.

Although they say “no experience required,” they always seem to hire people who already have university admin experience. On top of that, there’s a lot of internal transfers, which is frustrating because I end up spending so much time applying for roles that are probably already earmarked for internal candidates.

I’ve let go of salary expectations — I don’t believe education should automatically mean high pay.

What frustrates me is that I’ve worked incredibly hard to reach the highest level of education, only to be dismissed as if I’m not capable of basic administrative work. I have plenty of transferable skills, but this country’s qualification fetish and box-ticking culture make it nearly impossible for employers to recognize genuine ability.
They’d rather hire someone who fits neatly on paper than someone who can actually get things done.

Thank you for this! I read it earlier and looked into it. I found a Civil Service Probation Officer job in my city with a deadline today — so I sent in the application. It feels like a sign to me 😂
I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but this is exactly the type of work that interests me outside of History.

NHS non clinical roles are being decimated currently (my Mum has just been made redundant from one) as they're cutting back massively. Local government (where I work) is in turmoil across the country due to the local government restructure that Labour have said has to happen. The instability is not pleasant.

I went for a job interview this week and waiting to hear the outcome. I'm actually overqualified and asked for the highest pay their bracket would allow as I know my qualifications and experience match it, but during the interview they let slip that national travel is required. This was not in the advert or the JD and im pretty miffed about it. Im a single parent (although my child does go to the other parent regularly) so this would be very difficult for me to do and I made that clear in the interview. I have a feeling I wont be offered it and im not sure I want the job anyway now. I swear the job market used to be a lot more transparent.

Feel for you OP.

A completely different sort of idea, but maybe you could create your own sort of content about whichever era of history you’re most passionate about. My DM is fanatical about a few eras of history and now she’s partially disabled she spends most days watching history documentaries on YouTube. Quite a lot of them seem to be made by individuals just talking about their passions rather than professionals. Or maybe you could produce learning materials/ resources for primary or secondary schools or even write books with a slightly different angle/ niche to current publications.

Even if these didn’t earn any or much money to start with, at least you’d feel connected to your subject still.

I am sorry.

This Labour government are squarely to blame.

I can't even get a nanny job with over 20 years ex since all the 'free' hours kicked in and not that many babies born in London

You might not want to hear this, but

You say you had a seven year gap between your BA and your MA. I'm wondering what you were doing in that time. If you were raising children, that's probably the only explanation employers will accept.

When I was working for companies, I took a three month break. The questioning when I then went back out for interviews was insane. I think anything not junior, they want proof that someone is really enthusiastic about working. It's mad because in reality I think most people work to pay the bills. But yes, the questioning was absolutely bizarre. So if it's not clear what you were doing in that time, I imagine that will count against you - though that might be industry and job specific.

i'm also aware of the shortage in probation workers, so hopefully that one will work out for you. I will keep everything crossed for you.

(I might start a thread on this separate issue myself, but for me, I don't really understand how people maintain enthusiasm. I'm impressed with people who maintain enthusiasm but I want to know if they're really enthusiastic or they're just good at faking it. If they are genuinely enthused by their work every day, I'm really envious. I've spent 30 years not being enthused).

I would recommend the Civil Service Fast Stream or HMRC’s tax specialist programme - if you live in or near a big city - initial application closes on 22 so you need to be quick.

I did the latter. There are quite a few older, some very educated people. It’s about your skills and aptitude, not experience. It’s also family friendly and you can negotiate part time working.

I was working during this time, and I’ve listed those jobs on my CV. Some of them are quite relevant to what I’m looking for now, but because I moved countries frequently, I never managed to get beyond the “foot in the door” positions.

In my experience, employers only seem to care about the most recent few years of my career. It’s frustrating, because in the UK, people often think that being a PhD researcher means you’re “just a student” — which couldn’t be further from the truth. I worked as a teaching assistant, organised exhibitions, published research, did administrative work, and even taught in schools during that time — yet it’s still seen as just “student experience” or a bit of side hustle work. It’s very strange to me.
So they never go beyond my last 5 years- maybe it’s just the industry we’re in — I imagine that if I were a lawyer or a GP, those years would be seen as essential career experience.

Also, I don’t really know anyone who still truly loves their job (well, except one person — he works for the National Trust and doesn’t have to deal with people!). Even my husband, who’s an academic and once loved his work with all his heart, is really struggling now — to the point where he can’t even pretend to enjoy it anymore. I think the lack of job security, poor pay, and endless bureaucracy are making it very hard for people to feel enthusiastic about their work.

I agree with this. It’s fantastic to “know your worth” in the psychological sense, especially as a woman/mother. But in the professional sense, you’re only “worth” as much as someone is willing to pay you and not on a “time served” basis, although you have obviously studied long and hard. It’s nearly 30 years since I qualified as a solicitor, and conditions/pay in the legal sector have declined so much that I would not do the same now (or advise my DC to do so). But in the here and now, I’ve had to revise my expectations. It sounds as though the HE sector is going through a similar process.

My politics is a country mile to the right of the average MN’er and even I think this is a bit is a stretch! AI will kill a vast number of white collar jobs in all sectors much quicker than NI/tax rises.

Reeves and her terrifying determination to make the nation crawl on its belly to the IMF is definitely not helping matters, though! 😊

Having a PhD and coming out of academia, particularly as a women, often makes you unemployable. I know I've done it. Too many qualifications to get a normal job. Retraining as a teacher would be your best bet. It would be worth every penny. A lot of the year is work experience anyway. The other option is doing student wellbeing. Many universities are having more and more roles as student advisers. They like people with PhDs- you would be a good candidate.

I'm in Ireland, so the job market specificities are probably not the same. But I have a PhD in Classics that was awarded in 2016, though I have been teaching undergraduates for a lot longer than that. After years of burning myself out balancing hourly paid teaching across multiple institutions with freelance editing (which AI has now decimated), I made the decision six months ago to start looking for jobs elsewhere and I haven't really looked back, though I'm still a bit sad sometimes. I have applied mainly to several civil service/public service jobs and have had some success. I don't have a job yet, but I have had a few interviews and am on a couple of panels awaiting vacancies, so I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. I am applying for entry-level positions though, as my CV simply won't map onto the essential requirements for higher-up levels. I think that it's easy enough to build experience and progress once you're in though. Here, most of the applications for these roles are based on STAR examples of various competencies rather than CV and cover letter, and I've had the most success with those, since the examples can come from any aspect of your career/personal life, so it's easier to demonstrate transferable skills. I feel almost apologetic Perhaps if you run across some applications like that and come up with good examples, things might turn around a bit?

Total solidarity - it's awful to have worked so hard on your self-development and have organically acquired so many skills to meet with so many rejections. I have taught at university level since 2007 and I hold two MAs alongside my PhD, but I would need to go back for a further two years (and somehow fund the qualification) to teach at secondary school level. And I'm 44. I completely sympathise with the box-ticking aspect you mention. The drive, focus, work ethic, resilience, written communication skills, and project management abilities that doing a PhD builds in you should be valued so much more, and that's before all the verbal communication, people management skills, planning, organisational and administrative skills that you get from teaching large and small groups at third level. Hopefully you will get some opportunities to emphasise this in applications for positions that recognise this value.

Private tutoring might be a possibility - I do this a bit at weekends and in the evenings, but it's unpredictable and really doesn't pay enough to live on (for subjects as niche as ancient languages anyway), and I will likely phase it out when I do get something full-time and steady.

I’m sorry you’re in a similar boat. Fingers crossed for you! I also applied for some civil service jobs, and as you said, some of them didn’t require a cover letter but instead STAR method answers to specific questions — so I’m hoping something comes out of that too.

It’s so sad to see other academics struggling as well — it’s crazy how many extremely educated people are in this position, and it only seems to be getting worse.

As for a side hustle, my main issue is that I need a fixed income to cover the 30 hours of childcare — at least 15 hours a week. So freelancing or tutoring doesn’t really work for me; I’ve tried, but I just can’t get enough consistent work.
I could pull the kids out of nursery and stay home with them for a while, but then if I do get a job, I wouldn’t be able to get their nursery places back. So I’m in a bit of a rush — I really need to take whatever I can get for now, but I’m also hoping to find a “foot in the door” job that I can eventually work my way up from.

Solidarity and sympathy. DH was made redundant almost 18 months ago from a senior marketing job and has applied for 100s of jobs - across salary ranges etc.

He has had a few near misses in his old industry, people say his CV is excellent - but the job market is really tough. He's got a min wage job for 8 hours a week in retail....and he used to run teams of 100s and earn ££££ so his confidence and mental health is really poor currently.

I recently started a new job (a Returnship in my old profession which has been a complete lifeline for us) but last year I was working for a company that recruited fairly regularly - for our basic admin, just above min wage jobs, we would have 100s of applications, many completely unqualified, but many had two or more degrees and were completely overqualified but just wanted to work.

I also have two final year students applying and it's as brutal at that end of the application cycle as at the other.

Really good luck and as I keep saying to DH try not to take it personally, there are just far more jobseekers than jobs so employers can be super specific and picky. I really hope you can find something soon..

Yep I do get that - it’s also played right into the hands of those who think education isn’t necessary - you know the ‘get a proper job, white van man brigade’ - they can’t get a job that requires qualifications or brainpower ( as often have neither) so don’t think anyone else should aspire to that either-

I had the same trouble (Im also a former academic) and its frustrating. It wasn’t until I signed with a recruitment agency that specialises in higher education that I got some placements. Now I have some experience Im hoping to find something longer term but the aftermath of restructures where I have worked is alarming, a revolving door of temps and workloads being doubled to cut costs etc. Im hoping to just build more experience before moving to another sector. Good luck OP ots hard but agencies can be really helpful if you find the good ones.

Apply for jobs in research councils (search uk research and innovation). You don’t need to go just for AHRC, general HE knowledge and admin skills would be relevant in roles across all councils / the central team. Great working conditions (public sector, loads of home working). It’s where lots of people who don’t quite make it as academics end up