Here I am again; suffering the feelings of rejection as I open yet another email thanking me for applying but, this time, there were just too many people with more experience to even offer me an interview. I suppose its better than not getting a response and being left to wonder whether my application was even received. I guess by now I've responded to around thirty job applications, each of which I know I have the skills, experience and mentality to do well in. So far, not one has even offered me an interview.
Luckily, I'm not in as bad a situation as many. I do currently have a part-time job, working for an organisation that runs a charity graduate scheme. I'm doing a little campaigning/marketing which is giving me even more experience. I haven't had to delve into the degrading world of Job Seeker's Allowance (for the second time in my life), and I live close enough to London to live at home with parents for free whilst commuting in to do some work. However, this job finished at the end of this month and, besides, its not what I want to be doing long term.
I'm not applying for jobs that are above what I should be getting. I definitely have a wide ranging, varied CV which shows my versatility and depth of experience. I am an engaging, passionate and dedicated person - which is something that I hope comes across in my application forms which I take a long time over writing and which are, in the opinions of everyone who has read them, pretty damn good. I have proven success in all jobs, and I have very few work gaps considering I graduated from university in the middle of the worst recession in modern times. And yet, still, I can't get past the first stage. I can't even get people to think I'm interesting enough to interview.
I came from a year of a graduate scheme that promised me I'd be set up to go straight into first-level management positions. Unfortunately, the direct experience of this graduate scheme isn't exactly what I want to be doing (I did service delivery, I want to do campaigning) but the skills I learnt throughout were the skills being asked for time and again. Perhaps its my own fault, perhaps instead of going to the US to do something life changing and wonderful I should have gone straight into another job and stuck myself there for two or three years. But then, I wanted varied and exciting experiences in my life - because its my life, because it needs to be exciting, because opening my mind with a variety of experiences is something I will always strive for.
The ultimate question here is how can I get experience when no-one will employ me to give me the experience?! This is a question faced by so many graduates who finished university with the promise that all the debt would be worth it in the end. Should people who have a degree really be expected to work for free for at least a year? Even in the charity sector this is a disgraceful notion that takes advantage of young people who have no other choice. This sector particularly needs to invest in bringing more young and talented people in; by shutting those looking for experience out it is doing itself a real disservice.
So I'll keep plugging along. And hope that, one day, an organisation will see that I'm worth taking a chance on. I may not be the finished article, I may not have the 'traditional' career progression, but I will work damn hard for any job that I can do. I will dedicated my time to learning the things I don't already know. I will work with passion and an enthusiasm unrivalled by many.
Until then, my application to be the new presenter of Blue Peter is looking more and more acceptable.
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