Cambridge graduate can't get a job.

Sharon87

Duncombe wrote: »

My sister has just come out of Cambridge with a 1st! She did alot of part-time work before she went to Uni (wasnt alowed to whilst studying) so should be more than employable.

However, she got herself pregnant 4 months before she finished. Not sure if that makes her smarter or more stupid than others...

Why wasn't she allowed to do work at uni? Was this hers, her parents of the uni's decision? I did work at uni, didn't affect my work what so ever. Actually my grades improved as I was working, as I got more motivated. I just took time off near to my dissertation deadline and for filming days (done Media and TV).

I believe if you do go uni it is best to get a part time job as you will be more employable after uni, and it shows you can mutli-task. Just limit the hours to 15/16 a week, any more than that can affect your work in my opinion.

Having worked before uni as well helps.

Duncombe

Sharon87 wrote: »

Why wasn't she allowed to do work at uni? Was this hers, her parents of the uni's decision? I did work at uni, didn't affect my work what so ever. Actually my grades improved as I was working, as I got more motivated. I just took time off near to my dissertation deadline and for filming days (done Media and TV).

I believe if you do go uni it is best to get a part time job as you will be more employable after uni, and it shows you can mutli-task. Just limit the hours to 15/16 a week, any more than that can affect your work in my opinion.

Having worked before uni as well helps.

Contractual agreement with the University. Friends of mine who also went to Cambridge had the same restrictions; they were to undertake no paid work during term-time.

She worked in a coffee shop during the ridiculously long summer breask though!

Kajimba

omnirife wrote: »

I agree with everyone who has suggested 'taming down' your CV to get a job if necessary. I know it sounds completely !!!!!! and backward, but I got desperate and began to experiment with completely lying: I left my degree off entirely (I got a 2:1 in politics albeit from an ex-polytechnic) and wrote that I had worked for my dad's small business in as a computer administrator for those three years after I left uni. Get creative here and think about your family: do you know anyone who owns a small business and can give you a 'referrence'? Immediately after I introduced this tactic I began to get job offers and my first job had an annual salary 18,600 for staring at a screen all day not doing very much for 18 months - whilst it was boring I earned plenty to save for a mortgage deposit and now have my own house.

When I began to look for better jobs I reintroduced my degree, interests, and other things that I felt were actually holding me back. I found that now that I had 18 months actual real work experience, employers were far more receptive. I now work in local government doing something more interesting for the 9-5.

Basically, I advocate lying like hell. When I started work at my new job I just plain didn't tell anyone I had a degree, which was sometimes uncomfortable because people can pick up that you're an educated person. It might help if you try to learn about boring trash that normal people like, go and watch Big Brother, listen to top of the pops, X-Factor - try to erase any sense of individuality, flair, or creativity from your life. Become a mind-numbing, zombie-like office drone with no hopes, aspirations and dreams. After a while you can kind of lose yourself in the mindless casual sex, subsidised lager at office nights out, bad coffee, pie charts, the slow, inward turning sense of depression and worthlessness that you can never get rid of no matter how you scrub in the shower.

Also, if you have a double-barrelled surname, you should only use half of it. Obviously, once you've got the job you can reveal it for payroll, etc. I did this after getting constantly rejected for part-time retail and bar jobs. I went from no interviews to interviews from over half the CVs I sent out. I did not change anything else on the CV apart from my surname.

Almo

Of the four friends I lived with in my second year at university, one left uni without graduating, two got 2.1's in standard Arts subjects, one got a 2.1 in a vocational health-related course and I got a first in a slightly less common but not massively difficult Arts subject.

The one who left without a degree has worked in a number of jobs and now works in marketing. She has just opened her own online shop.

The one who did a very generic Arts degree had a good career in business publishing and has just acquired a PGCE with distinction.

The one who did an Arts degree which is at some unis a science degree (I'm wary of being too identifying in listing their degree subjects, coupled with my username) works in management for a successful company and regularly travels for conferences/meetings etc.

The one with the vocational degree is on to her second post-uni job in a respected hospital in London and loves her career.

I've blethered about in temp jobs, contract jobs, moved overseas, taught ESL for a few years and have finally landed a 'career' job. Sure, I have the 'best' degree but that is far from the be all and end all. It's taken me the longest to find my niche and I'll be starting at $10k below the state average (I don't live in the UK) five years after leaving uni. Your degree means nothing without experience, aptitude and motivation (all of which I've been lacking) and is no better than thousands of graduates across the country. Sorry to be harsh, but the sooner you climb down off that pedestal the better. I was that arrogant idiot who thought my degree meant people would be falling over themselves to offer me jobs and it just isn't true (nor should it be).

Chomeur

I've just found someone else who, like me, graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge aged 20 and had a lot of trouble getting a job. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article3183283.ece

Clearly he's doing a little better than me now! I guess I should follow his lead and seek to write a black box trading programme. Frankly there's no point in me getting a low paid job - it will do nothing to improve my quality of life - so I might as well aim high.

ILW

Could the problem be that you are now in your 40s with no signs of any career progression?

Callie22

Chomeur wrote: »

I've just found someone else who, like me, graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge aged 20 and had a lot of trouble getting a job. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article3183283.ece

Clearly he's doing a little better than me now! I guess I should follow his lead and seek to write a black box trading programme. Frankly there's no point in me getting a low paid job - it will do nothing to improve my quality of life - so I might as well aim high.

Two points - one, the Times is now subscription only so your link doesn't work ...

Two, I haven't read the whole thread but making comments like 'frankly there's no point me getting a low paid job' is possibly one of the reasons why you're struggling. Surely having a wage will represent an improvement in your quality of life, regardless of how low that wage is? I have a first-class degree, but I sure as heck have never used that as an excuse to view any form of employment as beneath me - quite frankly, I've never been in a position to afford to do that.

The qualities that have been useful in gaining me employment have been flexibility, adaptability, tenacity and the ability to get along with very diverse groups of people - all of which I've demonstrated by taking less than perfect jobs and making them my own, often gaining promotion after a very short time. That looks better on my CV than long gaps because I didn't want to take 'rubbish' jobs - it's also much easier to explain in interview ...

My point being, it's not a very smart move to ignore the 'lesser' jobs, as in many companies they can often be the only way in at the moment, regardless of your age, education or employment history.

SarEl

Chomeur wrote: »

I've just found someone else who, like me, graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge aged 20 and had a lot of trouble getting a job. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article3183283.ece

Clearly he's doing a little better than me now! I guess I should follow his lead and seek to write a black box trading programme. Frankly there's no point in me getting a low paid job - it will do nothing to improve my quality of life - so I might as well aim high.

Are you seriously telling me that you are reviving a year old thread to say that it isn't fair you can't get a job because you went to a good university and should be entitled, and it isn't worth working your way up? After a year out of work I would have expected reality to set in. Obviously it hasn't. The problem isn't employers - it's your attititude.

Uncertain

SarEl wrote: »

Are you seriously telling me that you are reviving a year old thread to say that it isn't fair you can't get a job because you went to a good university and should be entitled, and it isn't worth working your way up?

I couldn't agree more.

The sense or entitlement of many graduates never ceases to amaze me.

The expectation that society as a whole will pay for people to study a subject of their choice regardless of whether it will help them in the real world has simply got to change.

poet123

I think that if you are in your forties, and still feel that the university you attended should produce more results jobwise than any recent on the job experience or life experience that in itself tells us why you are in this position.