The other day, while sat in a lecture, my eyes drifted from the riveting PowerPoint of discourse analysis terms, and I noticed a poster on the wall. It featured a man on a running track in the start position, with the caption: “Get the best possible start to your career”. I forget the name of the company; I think it was a consultancy or banking firm. But that’s irrelevant; these kinds of advertisements are increasingly common around Universities and similar institutions.
They perpetuate this idea that, after graduating, you HAVE to get a job, straight away, wait even a second and you’ll be unemployed forever, left to rot on the scrapheap of society, doomed to scrounge forever from the bank of mum and dad until you eventually die huddled in rags on a street corner.
You have to do this. And, of course, let’s not forget the indisputable fact that life after University is going to be horrible. No more partying, no more fun, you have to get a job you hate and work in a dull and uninspiring environment for the rest of your miserable life. Everybody knows that, right? After Uni, it’s basically a choice between unemployment and 60-hours a week of corporate hell. And the recruiters will tell you that, time and again, because it suits them to.
People sit at home and fret over internships and experience, terrified that if they don’t secure something within the remaining year of University they’ll never get a job. This idea of graduation as a fast approaching deadline is what leads to so many students pursuing careers they’ll ultimately hate, because they’re forced to go into any job, anything to avoid the terrible, looming spectre of unemployment.
But I don’t think that’s true. I’d like to go into a career that I enjoy, that inspires me, allows me to travel around and work on projects that get me genuinely excited – and something that allows me the free time to have a bit of fun, too. If I got a job like this straight after uni then great, no worries. But if I don’t, it isn’t the end of the world.
We live in a time where jobs are increasingly hard to come by, with an increasing number of people with degrees and a struggling economy. It’s easy to get down about this, and envy our parents the fruitful job market they had access to at our age. But, in many other ways, we have many fantastic opportunities now that previous generations never had.
With few responsibilities and no pressure to settle down any time soon, the world really is our oyster. Why not find employment abroad, teach English as a foreign language in Brazil or become a surf instructor in Australia? Coach football to kids in America or work on a ski resort in the Alps? These jobs don’t pay particularly well, and they aren’t exactly a long-term career option, but there’s no rush. Find a job in a call centre or retail store, until you’ve saved enough to go backpacking for a few months. Maybe you’ll meet a bartender in Spain who will offer you a job, and what’s to stop you taking it for a while?
So, instead of reaching the end of University without a job offer and falling into despair, instead consider that it could be the best thing that ever happened to you, and enjoy the freedom of not being tied into one soul-destroying career for fifty years.
Louis Moran 