redundancy + stupidity = skint

joa05jr

Hi all, don't post on here very often, but could probably do with writing all this down, and if anyone has any help/words of wisdom they would be most appreciated. Here's my story.

I graduated from uni last year, with a place on a graduate scheme that started in September. Because of this, I didn't work over the summer, as I knew it would be my last summer holiday. When the time came to start my job, I was pretty much on an even keel financially - I had sold my car to cancel out my overdraft on my current account which had obviously come from being at uni, and then not working over the summer. So all was good.

I had moved to London for the job, which was hard as I didn't know any people who live there. Anyway, come February, the graduate scheme ended, and we went into meetings with HR to find out which departments we'd be placed in. Unfortunately, due to current economic crisis, only half of the grads could be retained, and so I, and 4 others, were made redundant.

I hung around in London for a week or two for interviews which I'd managed to get straight away. But then I moved home - not far out of London so am still in commutable distance - to save on rent/bills/food etc. But, 2 months later, I still haven't found work, including temp work, or even just 'office monkey' work.

The main problem is that there is only so much job hunting you can do. I soon found I became bored, and started gambling online. I have just, today, put a stop to it (by limiting the amount I am able to deposit into the gambling account each week to 5), but I am now skint again. My overdraft is maxed out and I am fortunate that it is interest free. I have a couple of things in the pipeline but I am quite down about everything now and I am scared that this will come across in any interviews I may get. No money coming in. I've looked among my belongings for things that I could ebay, but there's very little, and in the long run I'd rather keep the things, and they would fetch very little on ebay.

Anyway, that's my situation, feel quite good for just writing it down to be honest.

Nargleblast

Have you looked into Jobseekers Allowance or Income Support? I don't know much about benefits, others on here will be better placed to advise. Have you family or good friends you can stay with for a while? Citizens Advice might be a good place to go. Assume you are haunting the Jobcentre on the lookout for vacancies - if not, why not? You're not down in the gutter yet, there are still things you can be doing. Good luck.

RAS

Hi

A similar thing happened to me 30 years ago and I still remember the distress and the complete confusion of thinking I was set on a path and suddenly the ground opened up beneath me.

Job wise, what I am seeing locally is that a lot of jobs are not even getting into the newpapers or the job centre but in the windows of local businesses. So check the local situation out regularly.

Regarding the gambling, it is easy to get into compulsive behaviour if you have no other activity. try a PM to GeorgeUK who started the ex-gamblers thread on here.

andromache_2

Hey, I'm at uni now and am getting rather worried looking at the graduate jobs market. I know people just a few years older than me who walked into great jobs and those same jobs are now insanely competitive. I'm interested in City-related work and I don't know what your sector is but I'm sure it's been hit in the same way as mine. It's totally different to how it was last year and you did really well in getting onto the graduate scheme in the first place. So don't feel down about things and don't take the rejections personally. I'm sure you're still a great, employable person and someone will snap you up eventually; you've just got to put more effort in that you would have had to previously. You shouldn't feel dispirited about the rejections because they aren't really about you, but market conditions. I hope that makes some sense - it's what I've been telling myself, anyway! Good luck!