Last week was my first week of a new job after a few months of unemployment, I just thought I’d share how the experience is of getting a job after months of searching and disappointment.
I graduated earlier this year and I thought I had prepared myself for the world of work quite well by taking on a couple of voluntary work experience placements, basically working for a company for free in exchange for experience, work shadowing and seeing what the industry I wanted to go into was like. These went well and I was sure I would get a job at at least one of them, my family, friends and girlfriend all encouraged me and we’re really happy when these companies each said at some point that they might be looking to hire more staff if I was interested. Of course I said yes to as work was fun and work opportunities for 16 to 25s are thin, with unemployment on high and thousands of people applying to the few jobs on the market. Unfortunately both these opportunities fell through in their separate ways. Even though I was not at fault for these opportunities going away, I took the news hard.
Looking back on this I tried not to put all my eggs in one basket or get too hopeful when no concrete decisions or offers had been made, but with everyone around me speaking of where I would live and what I was going to be doing, it was hard not to get swept along.
I understand how hard it is for some people who find themselves unemployed and the day to day struggle of not knowing where you’re going in life, often literally if like me you are applying to several areas miles from each other in different parts of the country. I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers or be some kind of knowledge hub of how to get a job as I only have one. But I found a few things helped and others just sucked.
Work Experience – This helps a lot and if you have the option to live with your parents while gaining industry experience, contacts and build a relationship with a company I would highly recommend it. Most work experience won’t pay so having friends or family around to support you financially is a great help.
Talk to people – Now I just don’t mean go to the pub or the local shop, if you can speak to someone in the industry you want to get into then do it, they can give you advice on how to apply, what they look for in candidates or even just speak to them about any opportunities they have, unpaid or paid. I often found speaking to family friends, or friends helps a lot, people say it’s a small world and it’s true. Say if you wanted to get into journalism, chances are one of your friends or family will know someone and if you can get introduced and start a conversation then you never know what can come of it.
Apply, apply, apply – It’s obvious, but don’t just do it online through reed or monster. Go direct to their website, find out who is in the HR department and give them a call to speak with them about the opportunity and if possible try to sell yourself to them even before you fill in the application form.
Linkedin – I found this a useful tool to show off my skills keep my past colleagues up to date with my new experience and show anyone searching for you online that if you are proactive about finding a job you can advertise this by showing them the amount of experience you’ve gained, qualifications you have and recommendations past mangers have given you on your work.
There are many others but you’ll find them on other job finder’s guides.
During my unemployment my parents helped me out a great deal and I cannot thank them enough for their help in helping me get to job interviews all over the country, getting a train to maintain my, at the time, long distance relationship, and keep up my morale about job seeking. They don’t have great deal of money so it made their help even more valuable and precious. My family, friends and especially my girlfriend also helped me out a great deal and helped me find adverts, keep up my spirits and keep me on track when all seemed shit after getting rejection calls or letters.
Enough of that emotional stuff. Back to the main topic. Many of my friends have found employment and many are still looking. It helped speaking to both camps as I could complain and have a good moan about how much life sucked with my fellow jobseekers and I could get advice, help, and motivation from my friends who had found work. I call them jobseekers but many lived like me with parents but weren’t claiming any money from the government like me as it was not a necessary step to take.
Luckily, after many months of staying in and searching for jobs online, going to agencies, travelling to interviews, and making and receiving phone call about offers and rejections an opportunity came out of the blue. For the rest of the day I was in a strange mood, I felt elated obviously and relieved but I was also wary and unsure about whether it was real or whether like many of the applications in the past it would fall through.
So for anyone still looking, it is important to show potential employers that you are being proactive in your unemployment through trying to gain experience, widening your skills, taking courses, doing part time or temporary work, and/ or making yourself someone they definitely want to take on. So work, play, start, and select your new career path to tailor your skills accordingly and focus your search as looking at every job will just confuse matters. Choose an industry or a type of job and go find it, now! Not after breakfast, not after CSI, now!
Not after breakfast, not after CSI, now!
Play, Start, Select 