I have now a job, a job which uses my degree. I have been unemployed for the 6 months since I graduate University. I thought I should take this time to mention the main things about unemployment which really bothered me, apart from the obvious you have no money, loads of time and all your friends are at work.
In July I graduate from Bath Spa University, after three years of University I thought employment would be something easy to come by. Oh, how very wrong I was. Companies don't want to employ a recent graduate because they are a flight risk and might up and leave to go and find themselves somewhere else (a genuine rejection I once had). I have been accused of wasting peoples times because I was a graduate applying for a job, I kid you not! After three years, and a lot of rejections the thing that most annoyed me about being an unemployed graduate was that in a survey sent to the recent graduates of Bath Spa University about your status after graduation there was no option to state you were unemployed.
In one question asking about what type of job I have, the options were; full time, part time, volunteering, in education, etc etc, or other. So unemployed would go under 'other' meaning that in the results being unemployed would not be represented. Questions went further asking about where I will be in 6 months, the same options appeared. After seeing all that all questions didn't have a unemployed option I decided that this survey wasn't for me and I would just ignore it. Then a week or so later I had a phone call from the University asking me why I hadn't filled in the survey. It was an excellent chance for me to voice my opinion on the lack of options, but surprise surprise they were happy with my option to not fill it in and would make a note on my file.
Another problem with unemployment and having to rely on JSA etc is the limitations they put on what you can and can't do, which is written into a contract you sign every two weeks. I thought the best way to spend some of my time whilst on JSA and looking for work was to volunteer, ideally in a small charity shop close to where I love. But in the first few weeks of JSA I found out that if I was to volunteer my benefits would be cut for those two weeks, as when I'm doing any work I should be paid for it.
After a few months it was really starting to bother me I couldn't use my spare time to do anything worthwhile, I carried on doing modelling jobs and making sure I frequented London and tired to keep myself busy on a limited budget. But this did bite me in the bum a little bit in my recent interview (which led to the job), when I was asked "so, you've been unemployed for six months what have you spent your time doing" I pointed out this flaw in the Government benefits and it seem to cover it.
It seems silly that someone who has a lot of time on their hands to look for work and become ready for work can't spend a few hours each week volunteering, improving employability and skills. Nope with your spare time, you can construct a tv schedule and watch complete series online.
I am now a working graduate, in a job relevant to my undergraduate degree as well as being relative to my masters which I start in September. It might have taken six months, but it was worth it and now means that my blog might take a different route.
No comments:
Post a Comment