The 3 Early Stages of Life After University

I’m 21 and I’ve just graduated University. I’m not quite sure what I expected when I graduated, but these past few months have been somewhat up and down. I’ve categorised the past couple of months into 3 stages, all accompanied by a general sense of abandonment from everything I’ve been doing over the past 3 years.

 

1. The Free and Frivolous Stage
A week after graduating I travelled to sunny Barcelona and I was a world away from the City of Cardiff. With its stunning scenery, hot weather, amazing cuisine and blue, blue sea I felt contempt in my isolation from the reality of everyday life. This only accentuated my reasoning that I was free, with no desire or need to be careful with my money – so I spent it all on living a Spanish cliché, eating paella, drinking Sangria, and listening to some indie Spanish music, and following Chris Brown’s wise words (lies); ‘money ain’t a thang’. I didn’t need to think about any finding work, making money or building a career. At this point I told myself that I didn’t need to know what I wanted to do in life, I could just do whatever made me happy until it came and miraculously presented itself to me.

So, in the meantime, I made lists of TV series, Films and Books, which University had ‘stopped’ me from watching and reading. Netflix became an unnecessary portion of my activities, and my productivity rapidly faded away. At one worrying point I convinced myself that a whole day spent watching the entire series of True Detective was a productive day because I had watched what some people would take months to watch, in one day (pat on the back). However, despite the show being True-ly awesome and Mconoghay’s (ED: close enough) performance being one of my favourites, I will now admit that a whole day spent binge-watching isn’t healthy for the mind and especially when it was as regular an occurrence as mine.

 

2. The Shit, I’m Skint and Sucking at Life Stage
After my unlimited spending on celebrating finishing university and being free (during which time I refused to look at my bank account at all) I suddenly realise when the dreaded Barclays text reads that I’m back in my overdraft further than I thought. In addition, I realised I’d have to actually pay to be in my overdraft soon, meaning no more free money, no more steady income of loan. The only income remaining was from the expert brain cell-murdering job I call working in a warehouse.

Side note – the role includes bubbling wrapping items, sellotaping them and putting a postage label on them – where moving on up in the world means that you have the privilege of putting a bow on them. Did I mention it naturally pays minimum wage?

One morning, I was at my nan’s house and family friends were asking me, “So, have you got a job yet?”, “Wait, you don’t know whether you want to have a job related to your degree?”, “What have you applied for so far?” and making claims like “It’s harder than ever to get a job now, you better get started straight away”. Thus begins my mission to find a relevant job to my degree and skills. I’d been working a mind-numbing job in a warehouse for a couple of months after I finished University and it’s safe to say I was going crazy. What was the point in endless debt to reach? Whereby I’m doing a job which a monkey could do, and some people (I don’t understand why) do EVERY DAY, thinking this can’t be all there is to life. A positive and productive streak enabled me to begin writing a blog again since I wasn’t sure whether to write the media or be involved in production.

Thankfully, I also heard about this godsend of a website which enabled me to get my voice heard and build up some kind of portfolio of evident experience of my work. I applied for work experience at the BBC, signed up to LinkedIn, followed all the Media Career Twitter Accounts and emailed my CV to every single production company in Cardiff in the hope of gaining experience in the television/film industry.

The small number of replies varied in nature – some were a little helpful and encouraging; giving me websites to sign up to, other contacts to contact, or explaining that there were no running jobs available, but that my CV would remain on file.

 

3.The Pitiful and Panicking Stage
A couple of replies later came with some criticism of my CV as sloppy or low quality, (although flattered by their reply at all, and perhaps recipient of a tough love scenario, I also felt a little unnecessarily discouraged and demotivated). Another issue with my experience was that…I had none. I didn’t do anything other than the mandatory coursework during my time at University, I didn’t gain work experience at the Radio, Newspaper, or anywhere in fact and this put me largely at a disadvantage. Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?

Luckily, I did get one useful reply from an independent production company called Tree Tops Films and worked with them for a day as a set runner, so now I had some experience to put on my CV with the hope of further work with them. Presently, my warehouse job that I ultimately despise is finito since they’re moving and my dismal financial situation continues, due to the necessary unpaid nature of the work experience in the media industry. I crawl on in the hope that something will come up and I’ll get lucky. I’m working for free doing something I like and forcibly looking for work that I won’t enjoy to pay for me to live. I’ve applied to a very diverse list of jobs including call centers, retail and even the delicious Mission Burrito.

I’m still addicted to Netflix having just reached the last season of Breaking Bad and finished Orange Is The New Black. I’m still making lists to keep me sane and feel productive. And the questions keep coming about work, careers, and where I’m going, but the answers remain the same; I’ve no idea – S.O.S.

 

And finally, Some Advice to Undergraduates…
If you can, figure out what you want to do early. Find something you enjoy, and if you can’t find it keep looking. Get experience in it, as much as you can while you still have the security of your student loan.

BUT equally, don’t panic, everyone’s been there. You will find something, many of my friends haven’t found what career they want and they graduated years ago. My mother still doesn’t know what she wants to do. Times are tougher than they were a couple of decades ago, just find something you enjoy!

Oh, and watch True Detective if you haven’t yet watched it – it’ll blow your mind.

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