Cambridge graduate can't get a job.

DavidSPTABC

I work with a guy who has just turned 40, is a highly qualified international lawyer, who until a few months ago headed up a division of a major bank. Then with all the problems in the financial sector he was made redundant. He couldn't get another job that paid the multi 6 figure income he was used to so he joined an international travel company as an independent affiliate. I'm not sure what he earns now but he spends his time helping people set up and develop their own businesses. He's helped me a lot.
What I am saying here in a roundabout way is, don't think your only path to success is via employment with a mult-national business. With the right Business Coaching and an ability to learn you can build your own international business, earn the money you desire and you can't get fired! People like Lord Sugar and Sir Richard Branson are living proof, though I agree they are a bit of an exception.

nesssie1702

So, Chomeur - what was your degree in?

Lokolo

nesssie1702 wrote: »

So, Chomeur - what was your degree in?

What would be really funny, is if they came back and said "Media".

(nothing against anyone doing Media of course!)

sunday_girl

Lokolo wrote: »

Or maybe the OP just isn't employable for a completely different reason?

Pretty sure employers don't just look at the degree.

Indeed, hence my previous comment regarding gaining experience (that is if he/she has limited work experience, they haven't really said).

TeamLowe

OP, i've found as a graduate myself that what people have said about competencies being more important is so true.

if you're unsure exactly what companies want, try looking at public sector jobs. on their applications, you have to fill in a person specification which shows exactly the competencies you have to have to get the job.

obviously if you're after a finance job this might not help so much, but you'll see a general pattern and can think of answers for them.

also, though being a cambridge graduate is an achievement and does make you stand out from all us from 'second tier' universities, i wonder where you live? if you still live around the area, or even in London, there may be many many more with the exact same, or better, degree. even if your interviewer only has 2 cambridge graduates, you still need something else to make you distinctive

McGuiver

woody01 wrote: »

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.


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.

Have to say, Woody, you're spot on with this post. But a 2.1 is a good degree, a 2.2 average and so on.

Chomeur

OK, I actually graduated about 20 years ago in Natural Sciences. I have had some job success but it has been a perennial struggle and I certainly don't seem to be able to find a job at the moment. My last job was at a dotcom which I got made redundant from as it imploded.

I think my real issue is that I sense more than a bit of hypocrisy from employers. They are always talking about the "soft skills" that Lavendyr mentions ("teamwork, initiative, organisational skills, determination and so on"). But in the jobs I've had I've encountered colleagues who were more obdurate, impractical, lazy, small-minded and inarticulate than I could ever have imagined. And that's the frustration, that people like this get good jobs and I can't.

Of course no doubt I'm going to be accused again of considering myself superior, and I was expecting that from my first post too. But I would ask anyone who accuses me of that, whether, assuming my perceptions were true, would you ever allow anyone to express them? Or would you just refuse to acknowledge that such a situation could ever exist?

McGuiver

snowqueen555 wrote: »

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?

That's not generalising. What you need to realise is that a disproportionate number of students, who go there, are from wealthy backgrounds. Say you're called Pereguin and you're thick as two short planks. Mama and Papa can pay for you to go to private school and you can be coached to do exceedingly well in your A levels (they're not really advanced level anymore anyway); you can be coached to say the right things in the in entry assessment interview; and your personal tutor can tell you exactly what to write in your personal statement.

And then you come out of these ivory tower institutions and you thinnk, 'all the employers are going to cream themselves with excitement when they hear that one has been to Cambridge'. Having said that, they have a fantastic e-library with a wealth of access to journals that I can only dream about.

7891368

Chomeur wrote: »

I think my real issue is that I sense more than a bit of hypocrisy from employers. They are always talking about the "soft skills" that Lavendyr mentions ("teamwork, initiative, organisational skills, determination and so on"). But in the jobs I've had I've encountered colleagues who were more obdurate, impractical, lazy, small-minded and inarticulate than I could ever have imagined. And that's the frustration, that people like this get good jobs and I can't.

Do some volunteer work or something that wouldn't be expected of you. Maybe you're small minded deciding all your colleagues were impractical and lazy etc.

snowqueen555

McGuiver wrote: »

That's not generalising. What you need to realise is that a disproportionate number of students, who go there, are from wealthy backgrounds. Say you're called Pereguin and you're thick as two short planks. Mama and Papa can pay for you to go to private school and you can be coached to do exceedingly well in your A levels (they're not really advanced level anymore anyway); you can be coached to say the right things in the in entry assessment interview; and your personal tutor can tell you exactly what to write in your personal statement.

And then you come out of these ivory tower institutions and you thinnk, 'all the employers are going to cream themselves with excitement when they hear that one has been to Cambridge'. Having said that, they have a fantastic e-library with a wealth of access to journals that I can only dream about.

I already agreed with this, but your statement has no point, what is the point you are making?

Yes society is often unfair, but the kind of attitude people on here are adopting (pretty negative and discriminative) isn't constructive or going to change things.

I don't think poeple fit into stereotypes so easily, every family is different, and as I said before, I think its rude to just to assume about the OP, we do not know them.

OPcame on here for help, by all means be critical, but lets not berate them or goad them into telling us what degree he has etc