Who is this Graduate, and why is she obliterating a Clash song in her Blog Name?

If you don’t want to read all of the stuff below, then here is what sums me up: Writer, Ex-Student, Knitter, may eat your leftovers…

2010: Righty-o! An update is required here, methinks. Well, I spent 2009 without suceeding in finding a proper Graduate Job, though it is fair to say that I came close to it a couple of times. Instead, I decided that I should take a plunge and aim to go into education. After all, I already helped out at a school. Even at my lowest points, something always happened while I was a volunteer there that made me smile. I signed up to apply for a course… and now I will be a PGCE student from September.

It’s an exciting time. Now I feel that ‘things’ (which is a way of saying ‘my life and everything in it in general’) are coming together, and I hope to move on from this annoying part of my life with a smile on my face and trying to whistle ‘Helter Skelter’ by the Beatles. The best thing is that I do not feel that I am going into teaching because I don’t have any other option. I am actually interested in working with children, and feel that it is a job I could do well at.

So, blogs about the economy, recession and all of that will continue, but expect this blog to be tuned to a slightly different frequency. Indeed, expect to read about someone who is moving into the world at large and learning from her experiences.

Hello there. I am now  a 23 Year Old Graduate. In 2008, I left University with a 2:1 degree in History, a fact that I am very proud about  as it was a lot of work, stress and hasty meals of bananas on toast. Saying that though, I miss University an awful lot; not just because of all of the amazing friendships I made, but also because of the person it made me. There was a very big difference between the 18 year old me and the person who managed to forget what the directions were for shaking the hands of the Chancellor at her Graduation. Hopefully, I am still not (that much) like Elliot from Scrubs.

I was not an idiot at University when it came to careers. I did not expect a marvellous job to fall into my arms from the sky. Indeed, I accept that I probably should have checked last year, but the sheer force of nature that is Final Year (and the studying, the nights out, the student radio and the job) meant that this did not happen. I worked throughout Uni and the holidays to raise money, so it is not like I have never worked before. I can tell you now, I can beat anyone at shelf stacking and cutting vegetables.

Now I am looking for a ‘proper’ (or Graduate)  job and largely surfing on the web to do so. So far, I have not had much luck. Call it because of the economic downturn, the numbers of Students Graduating, the amount returning from travelling or helping out in Schools abroad or Internships becoming harder to come by; I believe that the hunt for jobs I am doing is not a sole experience.

Because lots of people are looking for jobs at the moment, I decided to set up my blog to record how it is all going. After all, you can put out as many websites as you want advertising employment, but there is precious little else to tell you what it is like to try and find a job that doesn’t involve a diagram of a CV.

If you want to comment or contribute, I would love to hear from you and compare notes. If you think I am right or wrong let me know as I don’t mind, and actively appreciate, discussion or debate here (as long as you appreciate a gap between replies, as I am not the world’s faster typer when it comes to typing replies. I am getting there on the touch typing though).

Finally, and not means least, if you want to employ me, I will happily send on my CV to you!

PS: ‘London Calling’ is one of my favourite ever songs, hence the blog name.