What did you do as soon as you finished uni?

Got a job at Oxford Uni. I hated it and it gave me a life-long loathing of the place, but looked good on my CV. My department/college was particularly vile and full of racists and snobs.

However different departments/colleges within Oxford can be radically different working environments. One of my colleagues transferred to a way nicer workplace. It’s a huge Uni and is always hiring for stuff like entry level admin work so might be worth a try to earn some cash and get something on your CV.

2 Likes

The general vibe of this thread is “chill out”. Jumping straight into something won’t necessarily make you happier or more successful. Think about what you want to do and work towards it. Enjoy any time you have for yourself. If you end up doing something you don’t like, change it. Peace.

9 Likes

Yeah but then you’ve spent all your toast money when you get there.

11 Likes

A thought occurs to me that I don’t think anybody’s mentioned in terms yet. One of the reasons that it took me a long time to get my career started is that I was still very very immature when I left university. I swear I wasn’t anything even resembling a functioning adult until my mid-twenties, so it’s perhaps not much of a surprise I didn’t slot myself straight into the adult world at 21.

So if that’s the way you feel then cut your cloth and like others have said here, basically bum around trying stuff out. Advantages of being young are being flexible, being low maintenance and being mobile [In some cases also highly sexually desirable, but terms and conditions apply], so take advantage of those advantages.

2 Likes

Worked the late shift at Morrisons so I slept in til 4pm, went to work, hated my life, couldn’t sleep, stayed up til 6am, then repeated the day again.

For two and a bit years, although some of it I was unemployed so it was less shelf stacking, more panic attacks on the way to the job centre.

No one has their life sorted after uni tbh though

I certainly hope that’s true. I officially move from dead-on mid-twenties into mid-to-late twenties in under a month.

1 Like

True. Though my fingers are crossed that some kind of weird 1980s movie style natural event of some kind miraculously raises my Objective Sexiness Quotient ™ by a significant percentage.

Oh yeah everyone here’s more relaxed and I feel better after reading the replies. I’m generally feeling happy atm, first time I’ve actually felt like this in such a long time that it’s difficult to process, to the point that I’m not sure I am happy because my brain’s not used to it. Happy except for the fact I might be broke for a few months, which in turn might make it harder for me to get out and look for jobs so effectively I’m going to be stuck here for a while.

From other sites I’ve been reading, and from people on Facebook, everyone seems to be more pessimistic about their prospects, even though they seem far more organised and did a lot more extra stuff at uni than I did (having important roles in societies, having done summer internships every year, having written frequently for TheTab since first year etc), and in turn it’s making me more pessimistic. Probably not the majority of people but it seems like the majority.

Maybe I should stop reading threads from TheStudentRoom and making acquaintances with people who are probably Young Conservatives. Maybe it’s a very specific generational thing (i.e. graduates of today’s Brexit looming economy).

2 Likes

This pretty much. I had no idea what I wanted to do after uni, I assumed a job would fall into my lap, which was laughable. I wasted about 5 years doing data admin work before I actually got off my arse and applied myself a bit more.

3 Likes

I graduated in 2008 into the financial crash (like I said, I was made redundant from my first proper job before I’d finished the vocational training), so it hasn’t been a “good” time to graduate for a while. And yet, somehow, we all muddle through. Don’t set much stock by what other people are saying, we all know how bad a barometer of anything social media is - people exaggerate how good they have it and how bad they have it. Allow yourself a break, enjoy feeling happy for a moment, you’ve all the time in the world to get stressed about working life.

4 Likes

How’d you recommend W4MP? I had a look at it there and I don’t seem to meet any of the criteria like writing copy, but maybe I should blag it anyway?

I thought it would be easy! Probably just need to get some writing ‘out there’ in a vague sense

I live in a village in the middle of nowhere about 30 mins away from Oxford, I go there pretty often in the week but getting there can be a pain (having to rely on infrequent and inconvenient bus times). I still have the part-time job as a teaching assistant (until September I think) but I guess I could do more voluntary stuff in the meantime as I’ll be working a bit less since it’s summer.

Yeah I probably will email/phone them at some point. I also need to change my student account to a graduate account (which is causing me mild anxiety for some reason) which I think will enable me to continue using the careers service for 2 years after graduating or something.

I want to work in London more than anything tbh (and ideally move out and rent there, although I know it’s expensive). Again it’s just a pain getting there. I need to learn how to drive.

Is that £6 with the Oxford-London coach thingy? Weirdly I’ve never used that (even though I see them all the time). If it’s only £6 I’m definitely going to make more use of that :grinning:

i know you said SSP but i’m absolutely astounded by this part of your post and refuse to believe you’re not taking the piss.

Not sure what you mean, but this is what I’m talking about:

Although I may have mis-read it…

yes.

hello pilgrim. this will be fairly long but please read:

it might be tempting to let all this anxiety paralyse you - sometimes we can pretend that worrying ourselves sick about a problem means we’re at least doing something, even if it isn’t something productive.

calm yourself. be methodical. is it imperative you do something related to what you studied? are you following your miles davis 101 handbook, friend, and allowing room for improvisation? if you are only willing to explore a narrow field you could well miss the bountiful meadow just beyond yonder ridge, where bunnies frolic and so on.

from your post i gather you actually have a leg-up on most of your peers, as you have some solid practical experience as well as the degree. practical experience seems to count for just as much as a degree, i’ve noticed in these post-crash times, so bear in mind you’re a little ahead of the curve right there.

i never went to university, sixth form drug abuse, class anxiety stemming from my council estate upbringing and wonderfully nefarious sex saw to that, but i know how you feel because everybody feels the same anxiety about life, and just as many of us still feel it even if we appear to be “getting on”.

years ago, when i was on the dole and desperate to find a job so i could move out again, i chanced upon a vacancy for MP’s assistant. what are the chances of that. i looked into it and applied and ended up having an interview at my local MP’s office (think it was their office). anyway, i had no degree, no qualifications, no experience, but i got the job. it would have been a great job, working between leeds and london, meeting pols, learning how government works, etc, but i got another job at the same time that paid a bit more so i took that. point is, i got that job without quals or degree or XP, so i’m sure you would have smoked it. wish i’d have taken it now, tbh.

leave room for maneuver, don’t hem yourself in. it might be that you have to take a call centre job or something in the meantime while you look for the real shit. trust me, you will feel miserable in a call centre, cos i did, but you need to pay rent and you need to bear in mind all is transient, you won’t be like that forever and you can always do what i’m doing now, which is quit and take a chance.

oh and northern employers of all stripes are generally knocked out by people from oxford even if they’re dipshits (which you are not) due to the accent and the word “oxford”, so if worst comes to worst you can move up here and live in my kitchen for a bit while you get on your feet.

Did a CELTA (teaching English) course, moved home briefly to save a bit of money for flights, then went to live in Mexico for 6 months. Planned to teach out there but got a job writing dumb blogs for franchises of carpet cleaning/oil replacement/house renovations/etc. companies for a US-based company, so the pay was excellent. Was a broadly pretty great time, but I was also weirdly lonely and awkward out there so figured I’d come home.

Came home, applied for a bunch of graduate schemes and jobs and stuff. Ended up getting a job as a ‘Semiotician’ for a marketing/branding agency—I went to the recruitment day on a lark because they were paying travel, I never even vaguely expected to get it.

Worked there for 2 years while gradually realising I hated it and it wasn’t at all what I wanted to do, so handed my notice in.

Now work as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities, which is a minimum wage job that as far as I can tell requires no qualifications, but they are still having huge problems with recruitment.

All of which is to say—I’d highly recommend avoiding taking a job just because it’s there and the money’s OK. If it isn’t something you’re at least slightly interested in, money’s not going to do anything other than make it easier for you to dull the pain with expensive beer and food, which is a zero-sum game after a while. Like other have said above, just try stuff out until you find some kind of niche. It’s likely that nobody except you (and probably your parents, I guess) is really paying attention to what you’re doing/how well everything is going.

The W4MP jobs page is pretty broad these days - it’s long since expanded beyond just MP jobs. It’s a good way to find roles in small public sector public bodies, and charities. Look at enough job descriptions and you’ll hopefully find one where you’ll meet the criteria. And once you’ve got something, it’s easier to get the next role. I got into a research role by starting out taking a secretarial job - it’s so much easier to move up once you’re in.

Hey man. I think in my situation was probably different. I found that particular degree didn’t open many doors for me. Teaching was the only viable option but I didn’t want to study again for another year so took the first job I could. Knowing what I know now I would’ve looked at graduate roles, it wasn’t something I understood much about at the time.

I went to university and studied English because it was my favourite subject, the one I was best at and to sleep with as many women as possible which was obviously a disappointment. I wasn’t thinking about a career.

The only advice I’d give is explore all your options extensively, don’t bum around for 6 months and take the first job like I did. At the same don’t panic, you’ll be right.