Fed Up and Wasted 3 years for nothing?

compbren

Hi everyone,

I'm feeling really down at the moment and am hoping by writing all this down i'll be able to think clearer and maybe get some advice along the way.

Basically, I'm stuck in a dead-end job and have no idea how to escape. Don't get me wrong, i'm greatful I have a job albeit rubbish hours, but I like the people I work with and I can't really say I 'hate' it, i'm just 'bored' and feel like my 'degree' is being wasted.

I'm a 28 year old who graduated from University with a 2:1 last September. Since I left school at 16 I have worked in a supermarket, and it was only until I was 22/23 I thought "I can't do this forever" and decided to go back to college and go to University.

Anyway, needless to say, 9 months after graduating, I am still stuck in that supermarket job and it is killing me. I work evenings and weekends so a) I have no social life (I know it's not the be all and end all, but I am seriously missing out of stuff) and b) there is little chance of promotion within my company. I know a lot of people are in the same situation but I have no direction as to what I want to do.

To gain a career in my degree you more than likely need a Masters and revelent experience and to be honest, it's not really what I want to go into and I feel at 28 years old I really need to crack on with life.

I've searched for jobs on the main sites (milkround, reed, targetjobs etc) but I just don't understand much of them. Also I also 'fail' at the 'requirements' stage at a lot of them by either -

* You need to have a C in Matchs GCSE (I did my GCSEs in 2001 and I got a D in)

* You need a minimum of 300 UCAS points (as I was a mature student, I did an Access course at college and not A-Levels therefore I do not have any UCAS points).

* You need a minimum of 3 A Levels at Grade C (see above)

* You must have a degree from a Top 30 University (Mine is in the 50s).

Now, i'm not applying for AMAZING jobs, just general ones with a starting salary between £18-22k. But i'm losing hope at finding anything. I don't even mind if I have to move away for a job (but don't fancy London). I am looking at Retail Managment Graduate training but there does not seem to be a lot (maybe it's too late in the year or something). I've seen a lot of jobs like 'Sales' etc but I have no idea what kind of job it involves and whether i'd be good at it.

The jobs that I have applied for i've always managed to get through the first application. It's usually the online psychometric tests that I end up getting rejected at :rotfl:. I'm thinking of buying a book to help me practise at them.

I'm also worried that the longer I leave it, the less interest/luck i'm going to get into finding anything. I've heard you degree is 'void' if it's over 3 years old. I have a friend who finished Uni 4 years ago and is still working at the same place as me. I'm on the basic minimum wage, which means I don't have to pay my student loan back yet, but it is accumulating £25 a month interest and growing.

Anyway, enough self-pitying, I know i'm not the only one who hasn't found a graduate entry job 9 months after Uni, but I just wanted to get this off my chest.

Does anyone have any useful advice?

wantsajob

Weekends are far better than shift work and nights/days as and when employer requests. I'd much rather be in your situation, than my own https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4028049

Only thing I would say is don't bother doing a Masters unless you're 100% certain how it will lead to a job. I did one "hoping" it would help, and regretting it due to it not helping whatsoever, and the financial obligations arising from having had a Career Development Loan.

mildred1978

What is your degree in?

compbren wrote: »

To gain a career in my degree you more than likely need a Masters and revelent experience and to be honest, it's not really what I want to go into

Then why on earth did you study it for 3 years??!!!

dizzyrascal

Hi
First of all, don't worry about not getting a graduate job. The stats from last year’s graduates are terrible across the board so you are not alone.

Have you seen your university careers advisers? I ask this because I think you need to do some career planning and they can help you with this. They may have provision for letting you do a Types Dynamic Indicator test. It is a psychometric test but is only useful to you.
It can be a really useful tool for you to see your own strengths and weaknesses and where you can apply them in the work place. You should make it part of your plan to do this test because it might reveal that you have strengths that you are not aware of.
Psychometric tests
Again, talk to your Careers Service, (by Skype or email if you have left the region). They are experts in these tests and have lots of training in them. They can help you understand your scores and should have access through their library, to plenty of helpful books (usually by Andrea Shavick). You can practice and get better. They are dirt cheap on Amazon too, usually less then a fiver. What companies are usually looking for is an ability to get an across the board score, so if your maths is poor, practice that.

A word of warning though, Situational Judgement Tests are becoming more popular now as companies try to get less predictable with their testing. These tests help the companies to rule out 80-90% of the candidates before they start on the more expensive side of recruitment so don't take it too personally.
It looks like you are focusing on grad schemes from your post. Whilst they may look good on paper they are highly competitive and so you are putting yourself into a vast pool of graduates.

Just for interest, 3 years is considered the cut off for a grad scheme.

On the grad schemes. if you still want to pursue one then you can sometimes bypass the A level/300 UCAS route by talking to the recruitment staff. I would phone them or email them or try to meet them at Careers Fairs. They are used to the fact that not everyone has come via the traditional routes but personal contact can really help. If you impress them, they may invite you to apply by a different route or they may look out for your application form. Again, this is another filtering system that makes life easier but it is administered by people, not machines. So as long as you are passionate about working for a company, you may be able to find a different route.

I get the impression from your post that you don’t know what you want to do. I realise that a grad scheme has lots of appeal because they take you through a few departments and you can see how the organisation runs and eventually pick a department to suit you ( HR, Logistics, Finance etc)

I think that doing some planning will help with this and you will be able to focus on a particular area. (say HR for instance). Once you have reached that point you will then be able to make better applications and this may be your problem. If you are not passionate about the roles you are applying for it will show up like a beacon of light on your form. Nothing turns recruiters off more than that.

I would forget about a Masters until you have more direction. Most people do a masters because they don’t have a job or because they think it will help or because they have little else to do. Unless you know where you want your career to be, it won’t help. Just more money/debt to pay off as soon as you finish the course. Anyway, you might find it is not as useful as doing the professional exams that might be required, (once you know what you want to do). Also, some companies will sponsor you through these exams/masters, once you have got the role.

On the plus side, very few graduates want to go into retail. A recent report by the retail sector complained that graduates don't understand retail, hence they don't apply. I think that if you want to stay in retail, you are very well placed to do this. I would stop looking at graduate entry schemes though and look at other entry options. It might mean a move away from where you live now but the retail sector does recruit many graduates through their normal recruitment processes. Start looking at their websites.

However, I would stop applying for jobs until you have fixed upon a career path, whether it be marketing, finance, HR, logistics, Retail management or whatever. You can’t convince people that the job they are offering is perfect for you if you don’t know that yourself.

babiebeany

Here's what has happened to my son since leaving uni last June, it might just give you some inspiration.

He left with a 2:2 and very unhappy with that as like you it was a reason for employers to bin his cv straight away.

After 2 months of job searching in our area he became extremely dispondent, couldn't even get a job in a supermarket. Then someone mentioned tefl (teaching english abroad).

He looked into it and he needed a degree which he had. He went over to Thailand, did his tefl training there and then spent 4 months teaching and a total of 8 months over there. A real confidence boosting, life changing time.

Back in the UK, he updated his cv and began looking for jobs in London. It seemed to be the only place with a reasonable amount of jobs to be honest. He was getting around 5 interviews a week and going on to 2nd and 3rd rounds.

3 weeks later, started work. Not highly paid and living in expensive accommodation but he is working and enjoying it. The job has prospects and he at last feels that he has achieved something.

This is just his story, but I am sure that going off on an adventure like he did added so much value to his cv, rather than sitting on the dole for 8 months. It also did his confidence the world of good and gave him a lot to talk about in interviews which set him apart from other candidates.

Hope this helps, may be you need to go in a different direction.

pinkshoes

Ignore lots of the minimum requirements! Or if you're than bothered, just re-sit your maths/english GCSEs!

Just apply to the job, and if you don't have the prerequisites, then apply anyway and just leave the information out. DO NOT LIE!!! If you get called for interview, do your best to impress them, and if they ask, just be honest and say you haven't got XYZ, BUT you think you're up to that standard, and would happily sit any exams to prove it.

I got a 2:2, and both the jobs I've had required a 2:1, but I just ignored that bit and still got it!

beccad

There's more to life than graduate schemes. Plenty of graduate level jobs are available that aren't graduate schemes. It does sound like you don't actually know what you want to do, but also sounds like you're rejecting a lot of jobs as you're not sure you have the qualifications. I would call up these companies and ask them about the minimum requirements - the reason graduate schemes state UCAS points is because the bulk of the applicants will have taken A-Levels at 18 and gone straight to university.

What do you actually want to do? You might well get onto a graduate scheme job, but you might equally find it just as boring as your current job, although you're likely to be paid a bit more.

compbren

Thank you all for your nice replies. I've posted this query on other message boards and have tended to get 'shouted down' at.

Mildren1979 - I studied Psychology and the reason why I studied it is because I found it incredibly fascinating. I could ready books on it for hours and love it.

I am currently on e-bay/amazon looking at some Andrea Shavick books, i've seen them in WH Smiths a few times but never bothered to purchase them. I really should.

I'm also very tempted to re-sit my Maths GCSE. I have been in touch with several colleges who have advised me to re-sit as a private cadidate in November but contact them in August to see if they'll accept me.

I'm going to keep on applying, hope to aim for 4 per week (is that enough or not). I just hope i'm not in the same position in 3 years time and still without a job.

The reason why i've selected Retail management as a career option is, a) I enjoy the retail environment and b) I have experience in that area. Other career options such as: marketing, finance, HR, logistics and sales don't make much sense to me because i'm not sure if i'll be any good at it.

Anyway thank you for listening and I appreciate all the advice i've recieved so far.

scooby75

Compbren, I know quite a lot of people who are in jobs that have absolutely no relation to their degree, you're not alone there.

And don't worry about your age - I got my degree in my 30s (it took e a year to get a job in the field but I managed it).

I would definitely do a psychometric test - it really helped me when matching my CV to the job profile (I'm an introvert and it was no wonder I absolutely hated call centres).

don't really have any suggestions for you, but I do know how you feel - I had my career reboot when 30 and have not looked back since. Good luck and stick with it.

DCFC79

4 a week more like 4 a day or even more but dont forget its about the quality of your application so dont let that slide in favour of applying for more jobs if you get what i mean.

princessdon

I genuinely thought you couldn't do a degree without a GCSE. I feel really old, but certainly back in my day it wasn't possible without Maths and English. I know because my OH missed a whole year of Uni doing his English Re-sit despite having excellent A Level grades. They just didn't allow it and that was back when very few students got the higher grades they do now.