Cambridge graduate can't get a job.

Lokolo

I suspect its your personality of your C.V.

I can never come across as nice on a telephone interview, give me a face to face anyday.

Kate78

https://www.businessballs.com is a good website with lots of hints and tips for interviews, also interesting sections about body language, personality tests and selection tests used by employers.

It's not the easiest site to navigate, but I'm sure you'll cope being a Cambridge grad and all that

bristol_pilot

You should also call your mates from uni! Oxford and Cambridge graduates have a tremendous advantage of an 'old boy' network that does not exist to anything like the same extent from any other university. Plenty of people attending these universities will be getting into top jobs because of the influence of a family member (for example) and they may be in a position to help out a friend. They probably will not be in a position to offer you a job, but they can point out where suitable vacancies are and put in a good word.

woody01

It feels like everyone is afraid of me. Might it be worth me going to the doctor and asking for a prescription for some lead tablets to make myself a bit thicker?

This may well be the attitude that you put across and why you are not getting work.
I interview graduates all the time for positions within my company, and most (not all), really aren't anywhere near as impressive or intelligent as they think they are.

Being a Cambridge Graduate is quite impressive, i will agree.
Your 2:1 though is profoundly average, and, to be honest, most of the population could attain that.

It doesn't sound like you need 'lead tablets' to make you thicker. Maybe some gravity boots though to bring you down to earth would help you alot more.

SarEl

woody01 wrote: »

This may well be the attitude that you put across and why you are not getting work.
I interview graduates all the time for positions within my company, and most (not all), really aren't anywhere near as impressive or intelligent as they think they are.

Being a Cambridge Graduate is quite impressive, i will agree.
Your 2:1 though is profoundly average, and, to be honest, most of the population could attain that.

It doesn't sound like you need 'lead tablets' to make you thicker. Maybe some gravity boots though to bring you down to earth would help you alot more.

I would have to agree. An undergraduate degree, from any univeristy, demonstrates that you can study and very little else. It doesn't even demonstrate that you are academic (getting a Masters or a PhD is a very different kettle of fish!). It doesn't show that you are intelligent, or capable, or clever. Those are subjective assessments and what they mean depends very much on the circumstances. So if you go into interviews thinking that being a Cambridge graduate means an open door for you, then you will be sadly mistaken. You are just one of many people with "something" - and their something might be better than yours. You are no longer "top of the pile" - an Oxbridge undergraduate - but "bottom - an unemployed person. It's you who need a job, not your interviewers. So it really doesn't matter whether the "fault" or "problem" is on your side or theirs. It on yours because its stopping you getting a job. Don't think of it as them being lucky to get you (which is how you have come across here) - it's you who will be lucky to get a job. If you are as good as you think you are, the time to prove that is when you are working for them - not before the job is even offered.

Proc

Chomeur wrote: »

I got straight As in my 'A' levels, distinctions in both 'S' levels, and a 2.1 at Cambridge. But I can't get a job, and have always had terrible problems with jobhunting. Here are a few examples:

- I went for a job interview at RBS. They required candidates to take a written test. I was later told that I had scored the highest anyone had ever scored on the test. They rejected me because they said we wouldn't get on. (I'm a really nice guy, honestly, so if there was fault in regard to getting on, it wasn't on my side).

- I went for a job interview with a City firm. I heard nothing from them after the interview until they wrote back four months later. They said that my details were very impressive but unfortunately they had no positions suitable for someone of my areas of expertise (I am quite certain that they did have such positions).

- I was told at a job interview at another bank "The trouble is, in a way, your thinking is too far advanced."

It feels like everyone is afraid of me. Might it be worth me going to the doctor and asking for a prescription for some lead tablets to make myself a bit thicker?

Ah yes. I now see why you don't have a job.

You think that you're better than everyone else. In reality, you've gone to a Uni, (still don't know what you studied?) and come out with an average grade.

Your whole attitude is "I'm too good, I know more than these people, they're not giving me a job because they fear me and there must be something wrong with these people". If you're so good, go out and set up your own business. Prove how much better you are than all of these other business people out there.

Mate, you're a student. You've spent the past few years reading and writing. Awesome, really. You need to understand that these people aren't giving you a job because of you. There's a lot more to a good employee than someone who studied. Good business comes as a result of good communication and good relationships; if you're coming across as a know-it-all twerp nobody is going to like you, nobody is going to respect you, nobody is going to care much for your opinion.

Seriously, look at yourself before blaming the employers. It sounds like you don't have the personal skills to cut the mustard.

So, set up your own business venture, show us your amazing brain and business skills. In the meantime, I hear that McDonalds do a great scheme for graduates so it might be worth trying there.

EDIT:

p.s. I doubt many financial institutions will want to employ somebody with a gambling habit.

sunday_girl

OP, I think some people are being unneccessarily harsh towards you. I do not read from your post that you think yourself SO much better than everyone else, just expressing things you have been told following interviews. A 2.1 from Cambridge (or another uni) is still a decent grade so don't let people belittle that achievement. You need some solid work experience to back up your academic record and it's a tough time to get a job for anyone at the moment. Some good advice above, particularly with regard volunteering if you can afford to do that for a while.

Good luck

snowqueen555

Degrees from redbrick Uni's are more difficult than standard degrees, this is the hidden truth.

I also think people on here are being a little harsh :S

woody01

sunday_girl wrote: »

OP, I think some people are being unneccessarily harsh towards you. I do not read from your post that you think yourself SO much better than everyone else, just expressing things you have been told following interviews. A 2.1 from Cambridge (or another uni) is still a decent grade so don't let people belittle that achievement. You need some solid work experience to back up your academic record and it's a tough time to get a job for anyone at the moment. Some good advice above, particularly with regard volunteering if you can afford to do that for a while.

Good luck

Sorry?
Did the 'take some lead tablets to make himself thicker' not ring a bell with you?

To say a 2:1 is a decent grade is also very wrong. It is really very average.
The OP clearly thinks that being a Cambridge Graduate is a miracle worker and in reality they are finding out things to be very different.

What they haven't said is what they studied. This would have a bearing. Also, let's not forget, most people go to Oxbridge because they are from a priviledged background, and not because they are academically gifted, and this may well be the case with the OP.

Lots of money and intelligence rarely go hand in hand.
Look at the Royal Family.......all as thick as they come.

snowqueen555 wrote: »

Degrees from redbrick Uni's are more difficult than standard degrees, this is the hidden truth.

What complete nonsense!
It's probably harder to get a good degree in a poorer uni when you have awful halls, poor facilities, and have to take a job to support your studies because Mummy and Daddy aren't available 24/7 with an open cheque book.

snowqueen555

I'm pretty sure most people who attend oxbridge Universities usually have stupidly high ucas points and a good extracurricular CV (and yes, they generally richer).

Average entry rates for Oxford and Cambridge is roughly 400 ucas points minimum

Its kinda insulting to generalise like that?