Opinion

Life after university – Remember when you thought a degree will ensure you a dream job?

Remember when you started university and you were told that a degree will ensure you that dream job?

Well forget it.

Here is the harsh and very truthful reality; university offers you the opportunity to meet new people, broaden your mind and gain a ton of unique experiences (that includes that time you downed a pint in 4 seconds). But what it doesn’t do, is secure you the dream job that you set about working towards as a fresh faced fresher.

During my last year of university, I fretted about what path I wanted to take next, as the door to my student life closed and the door to my adult life opened. I looked at and applied for every media job under the sun, with very little luck. This was when I started to doubt myself and question the last three years, slaving away behind a pile of books. I worried that I was about to become one of those graduates that works as a cleaner’s assistant for the rest of my life.

However, as I don’t possess a faint heart, I sat down and had a think about what I planned to do with my life over the next few years. The first thought that came to my mind was to pay off all of the debt that my student life had caused and in order to do this, I needed money. Well starting out in media was certainly the wrong way to go about it, if I aim to earn lots of money and pay off my student debts.

So I looked into recruitment. Then I set my heart on getting my new dream job as a recruitment consultant. After months of searching, I found an amazing opportunity with a firm who was expanding rapidly. Bingo. More chance of promotions, relocations and of course, in an industry like recruitment, money. I applied. I waited. Then I got an interview.

This was the start of an intense process, full of talks about my prospects, my ambitious, what drives me and where I want to take my career. I had to present PowerPoint presentations and prove that I would be a good fit for the company.

All that hard work paid off and I have now started my career as a recruitment consultant. So in short, unless you are one of a very small number, you will ultimately not be working in what you thought you would be, but this doesn’t mean that you won’t land your dream job. It just means that you may be about to follow a new, better path. One that leads to a new dream job, you never even though about before.

So my advice to all you fresh faced freshers and all you graduates that are losing the will to live as you endlessly search the job market, don’t worry. As cliché as it sounds, as one door closes, another one opens.

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