Well it’s finally over. Time to enter the real and very scary world of jobs, homes and pets. After three years of dedication I am coming away from the University of Salford with a 2:1 (almost definitely) in Journalism and Sociology.
For the past four weeks I have been applying for any job I think I have a chance of getting. Originally the plan was to apply for as many journalism opportunities as possible but I soon realised that doing so was limiting my chances of getting a job. So I widened my net to retail, media and anything I think I could do.
Another week later I realised I had to cast my net even further. So now I am applying for jobs in towns I am 400 miles away from, my hometowns of Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.
Now, I am a fairly optimistic person but four weeks of rejections is enough to get Little Miss Sunshine herself down. At this point I am considering anything. And yet somehow I still have hope that someone out there MUST want to hire me. So I’m not letting it get me down too much.
So other than searching high and low for the elusive job, what else is there to look forward to once your degree is over?
Well, you get to pay ridiculous amounts of money to hire a silly gown and hat (I’m trying to sound nonchalant about the mortar board when in all honesty I’m hopping with excitement in my head) to the only company in the country that provides them to almost every university.
You also get to have the debate with your parents about how much they are allowed to clap/cheer/cry during the Graduation Ceremony. My thinking is my mother is allowed to clap normally, not open her mouth and save the tears for the car journey home as she drives away from me. My mothers thinking is she isn’t bothered what everyone else thinks, she’s proud of the first family member to graduate from university and she doesn’t care how much she embarrasses me! Great.
The only aspect of life after a degree that I am looking forward to is simple- I get to get my very first pet of my own. As it stands I don’t have a job, therefore I cannot get a home. Without a home I should not get a pet but in my head I have already pictured the perfect cat and I know that I will get it in the next year. It is ginger and white, with little flecks of black through it, a very playful cat who will cuddle up with me when I get home from a long day in the office and stick a lasagne for one in the microwave. That is the dream.
For some of you reading this you might think it sounds depressing. You might be wondering why I am choosing to enter this adult world when technically I could stave off adulthood for another year with a Masters. The truth is, though I was tempted by a Masters in Social Media (being the perfect complimentary Masters to my course), another year of education sounds banal, and a little like I am hiding from the inevitable.
For many it is the perfectly logical next step but in the past six months I have really outgrown education and to continue with it, I fear, would make me disillusioned with the system (more so than I am already) and would set me back in life, rather than propel me forward.
No doubt in six months I’ll be screaming for the days when I didn’t have to think for myself, I just had to listen to the adult stood in front of me and repeat what he said in an exam.
Good luck to those of you brave enough to tackle an MA, and to those also in the throng of graduates trying to find a job in the impossible market. Until I get a job there will be little for me to say so thanks for listening and hope to have some good news for you soon!
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