Today's blog post marks the first in a new chapter of my life and content on here. I'm going to be sharing my experience job hunting as a creative writing student. In this post, I'll be giving a quick summary of how I got to this place in my life, the steps I've taken and my experience. I want to make content about this as I feel it needs to be talked about more. There is an expectation that students will get jobs straight away and I haven't seen many, if any, people talking about their experiences. I want to open this discussion up and help people like me to feel less alone in this scary part of life.
Who Am I?
For those stumbling across this post, I thought I'd start with a quick introduction. And no, I'm not 24601 (which is a bad Les Miserables joke). In June/July of this year, I completed my degree in Creative and Professional Writing. My specialism is script writing, however I have two years experience as a student journalist, having worked on the student magazine from 2019-2021 in two different roles. I also have experience working with local companies, providing journalism content and some commissioned copywriting. I have been blogging since 2015, creating content on multiple platforms. While I am unemployed, I am working on my content creation full time.
What Steps Have I Taken?
I started applying for graduate jobs, internships and apprenticeships in February of this year. So far, I have applied to eleven jobs and have been unsuccessful. My first step following finishing my degree was to update my CV. As someone with writing experience, I decided to include a section at the bottom with links to my published work. This includes my blog, work for the student magazine at uni and other work I have done. It probably goes without saying, but having a good CV is very important. Employers judge on what you look like on paper. So, I spent some time updating my CV, making sure it had relevant information on and reflected who I am. My next step was to update my LinkedIn account. I've had one for a while, but I've never really used it. So like with my CV, I spent some time working on it. I know people have mixed feelings about LinkedIn, some love it, some don't. Like a CV, it's a valuable tool. Once my key documents/sites were updated, it was time to start applying for jobs.
My Experience
I'll be honest, job hunting is hard. It's emotionally draining and time consuming. You never hear about the people that take a while to get a job. You always hear about the "success" stories. Those that get jobs after a month or week out of uni. When this post goes live, it will have been over eight weeks since I finished my degree. It will have been nearly six months since I applied to my first graduate job. I have been rejected by over 10 jobs now, not even being invited for an interview. I won't lie and say that it's okay, that something will come along and that this isn't getting me down, because it is. I am someone who likes to be busy and so having all this free time, which isn't really free, is something I'm struggling with.
Graduating during the pandemic and trying to get a job is a lot more competitive than I imagined. Most of the time when I apply, I know I'm going to be rejected. I don't have enough professional experience to get an interview. There was one job when I was certain I'd get an interview. It was an entry level job, it was something I thought I'd be good at and was interested in. So when I didn't get an interview and learnt that over 100 people had applied for this one role, it was gutting. The creative industry is a difficult one to break into, especially since being hit so hard by the pandemic.
While I am struggling with rejection and not knowing when or if I'll get a job, that isn't going to stop me from trying. Until I get a job, I am using my time to be able to create content full time. I'm also learning about social media marketing as that's a route I'm interested in going down. I know that it's going to take time. Realistically, I know it could be towards the end of the year or next year that I get a job in the creative industry. I'm trying to keep going, while acknowledging the rejections as upsetting.
This post may seem very bleak, but I hope it has helped you. We all know that the pandemic has been difficult and that lots of us are struggling to find employment. I want to share my honest experiences and be open about the highs and lows of this chapter of my life. I'll make an update as and when I have something to share.
