If like me, you’ve just graduated then you may be spending your days looking for jobs.

At first it’s quite exciting, you think you can have a new start in life after finishing university, you’ll finally have a stable income and you’ll join the rest of the nation in loving bank holidays. You and your friends are so optimistic about the future and the job that you are going to get.

Then after weeks of writing cover letters and scrolling up and down job websites, you start to lose that optimism and it all becomes a little bit tedious. Journalism is such a competitive industry and with so many universities in the UK there are a ridiculous amount of recent graduates looking for jobs, it all comes down to who you know in the end. If you know somebody that can get you into the industry then you are sorted. But if like me you don’t, then the job hunting cycle begins again.

Experience is also key when applying for jobs. In hindsight, I wish I had done so much more work experience over the three years that I was at university, it would have given me such a head start (if you’re in your first year then start applying for work placements!) At the beginning of my degree it wasn’t really drilled into us that work experience placements were so important, it was only at the end of second year that it was properly mentioned but I think that this is something that needs to be mentioned and explained at the beginning of university or college.

When your friends start getting jobs or interviews it becomes a bit of catch 22, it makes you so much more determined to find a job because you don’t want to be the only person at graduation without one, but it also makes you feel as though you are the one that isn’t good enough to get a job, that your CV is rubbish and that you are going to be living with your parents for the rest of your life. I hate to sound dramatic, but it chips away at your soul a little bit.

All students should be aware that there will be a few rejections before they even get an interview, and then they go to the interviews and there could be more rejections, you have to have thick skin… especially in the journalism industry. But eventually something will come up, even if it’s not your dream job straight away, it’s a foot in the door and you can work your way up. While job hunting can be depressing, tedious and nerve wracking, don’t give up!