Unemployable

Why am I so unattractive to graduate schemes?

As the end of University looms ever closer I have been forced to start accepting the fact that I need to at least try to mould some kind of career for myself. From a young age I blithely told myself that my ‘career’ was going to be a writer without really taking into account the fact that being a successful writer rarely happens overnight (unless you write a book about a woman with an obsession for being degraded by men with their sex toys and their condescending yet apparently attractive nature) and that, in all likelihood, being a writer would mean living off pot noodles. So instead I’ve tried to find some kind of career that will allow me to write on someone else’s terms such as advertising, journalism and copy writing.

The problem I have found is that when writing a CV there are certain things you are meant to mention and certain things that you are not. For example, an employer will love that you’ve worked for the university newspaper or you’re a member of the rowing team. They’ll applaud the fact that you once arranged a car wash to raise money to re-do the student union. An employer will adore that once a month you’ve gone live on the university radio. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not belittling these ‘extra-curricular’ activities, I just feel that the things that have made me a more rounded person can’t be put down on a CV and I don’t think it’s fair.

Take my gap year for example. For many people, a gap year means a year long holiday under the pretence of ‘saving the children/animals/trees’. Their gap year is filled with alcohol, parties and casual sex with foreign people. Whatever, your choice. But whilst these people decided to ‘find themselves’ on a beach in the middle of paradise, I ‘found myself’ by working my arse off in a restaurant surrounded by rude customers and pitiful tips. The issue I have with employers looking at CVs is that immediately they seem to think that the person who has gone on a yearlong holiday is the person with more life experience rather than the person who decided to live in the real world and pay the bills that needed to be paid. I didn’t run from my life during my gap year, I worked for it and I would argue that gives me far more life experience. I lived in the real world and I don’t see how that makes me more unattractive.

I also didn’t go away to live in student halls whilst at Uni. Some people thought that was a mistake but it worked for me. I don’t like living in other people’s mess, I made the decision to walk away with as little debt from university as possible and I enjoy the life I have at home. I’ve had a job since I was 16 and I started paying rent to my mum the minute I left school. I pay for my car, my car insurance, my petrol, road tax, my own food and I also contribute towards bills now that I live with my boyfriend. Everything I have in my life I have worked for. I am not trying to belittle the people that did decide to go to uni, I am belittling the CV screening process that seems to think I am not worthy of at least an interview. I believe the decisions I’ve made in my life and the amount I have worked for what I have is a true reflection of my character and is something that would make me an asset to potential employers. I didn’t join the netball/dancing/jazz society because I went home from Uni and I went to work, but I can’t put that on my CV. For people that did join those societies, good for you because you’ve made your CV a lot more attractive, I chose to go down a route that I think makes me just as capable. Unfortunately for me, I’m not allowed to put down ‘being an adult from the age of 16’ as my listed interest.