The Unemployment Stage

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I feel like ranting.

You know what some absolute nonsense is? Volunteer schemes that require you to have two years worth of experience in the field to sign up for the opportunity and don't let you count your Bachelor's degree. I'm offering to do work for you FOR FREE. Yet I'm rejected from your scheme because I can't prove two years worth of employment? Here's a question, why on Earth would I be offering to volunteer my services if I was already that qualified?

I've definitely seen some dodgy job listings in my search so far. There was one that said their previous designer left the country and they think it wasn't because of them. I mean, the fact you even brought that up makes me think there's some resentment there.

Hopefully not all volunteer positions are going to be like that. I wish everyone would collectively agree that employers can't list something as beginner or entry and then require evidence of two or three years in the field during the application process, especially if it's volunteer work. Frankly if I'm offering to volunteer, all I should need is to show you examples of my work, because I'm doing it for you for free. At this point, 'entry level' means absolutely nothing.

It's frustrating. There's so much nonsense to sort through. Maybe I ought to talk to the careers adviser at my old University. Consider me an entitled Gen Z, but the job market is ridiculous right now. I really hope I can find something.

I agree. This is nonsense!

Have you seen entry-level PAID positions in your field?

Does your university have some sort of service where they can assist you in searching for positions? Do you have a professor with whom you had a particular rapport?

How are you making your way while you search for a job? Do they give some sort of "post-graduate" allowance in the UK?

Yeah welcome to the uk job market...it can be brutal..i think the ridiculous requirements are just there to filter out people, so many applicants, so little jobs, its all about the algorithms

I'm back to living with my parents. Fortunately, they don't expect rent from me. I know that some of my peers have to pay rent to their parents. As for post-graduate allowance, you have two main options. Either you go to a job centre, sign up to one of their schemes and go on dole benefits on the basis of applying to so many places per month, or you can look into graduate schemes at your university.

Regarding student loans, you only have to start repaying them once you are earning a particular amount in income. A significant amount of people never reach this threshold and thirty years after you are eligible for repayment (typically the first April after graduation) it is written off. Sometimes this changes, but this is how they work as of present in England for my year group.

I'm mainly using my sister's old clothes in case I get an interview, I was also able to get a couple of discounted items through vouchers. She's moving out, so anything she doesn't want to take with her either goes to me or the charity shop. The clothes are still in good condition, so I see this as a win. I do have to pay small monthly subscription fees for design software, but if I do manage to find a relatively stable job then I'll be able to cancel my subscription since businesses pay for the software and provide it for employees.

The only reason I'm keeping it around at the moment is in the hopes of finding freelance or volunteer work. Although it might be worth keeping it in the future so I can work on personal projects for the portfolio, in case it goes wrong / I quit and I need to apply elsewhere. I'd only be updating it if I was looking for work though. Depends how much free time I'd have with the job.



Yes and no. I've seen paid positions in my field that are listed as entry level, but aren't actually entry level. Still, I'll keep looking, sometimes it's worth applying to them anyway.



Yes, there are employment appointments you can make with career advice officers at my University. I've never been to one before, but it is available to graduates up until five years after graduation. This is likely going to be my next step, seeing if I can get an appointment with them to discuss graduate schemes and see if they have any advice for me. I'll continue searching in the meantime, but it could definitely be worth making an appointment with them.

I don't want to deal with job centres. All of the stories I've heard about them are negative.

Alright, so I've now emailed our careers adviser about an appointment. Hopefully she'll get back to me soon.

I agree about the "job centres." I sense that they steer you towards crap jobs----like in McDonald's or something.

There might be a certain prejudice against university graduates---perhaps because some of the staff at these centres aren't university graduates. I could be wrong. But this is sort of the way it is in the US.

Anecdotally, there does seem to be the same bias here.

I know a former classmate of mine who has been dealing with a job centre. For context, he is one of the best animators and designers I know, a small journalist even wrote a piece about him. Yet the centre haven't exactly been kind. They told him to be a garbage man, go into construction (despite having no experience in construction) and scorned him for not knowing how to drive a truck. Nothing wrong with those professions, but it must be rough being a top skilled artist and having that as the response. Apparently they got annoyed at him for bringing up his degree.

I think I'm going to start looking into paid apprenticeships in digital marketing, I've noticed that there are significantly more results under this label.

I've applied to a paid apprenticeship position. Whether or not they will reply is another matter, but here's hoping. I'll be keeping an eye out for other opportunities.

Excellent!

Apply to as many of those as you possibly can.

So, I have an overwhelming mixture of emotions right about now.

The good news is that I have an interview.

However, the bad news is that I absolutely hate doing interviews and I have to provide photo evidence of my GCSEs despite the fact I lied during the application process about having a C in maths. I wasn't expecting them to call back and I definitely wasn't expecting them to chase me up about the GCSEs. Most places don't ask for this. I guess I'll have to partially come clean and say it was an accidental error, D is technically a GCSE after all...but it may mean losing the opportunity.

You may be wondering why I don't sit the exam again, but I couldn't do that to myself. I've already sat through that exam three times and the last time I did I absolutely broke down. My exam was too difficult to read, it made as much sense to me as Klingon and I studied and studied and studied, over and over and over again. Perhaps if someone had actually freaking helped me, instead of just calling me lazy and worthless, maybe we'd actually be somewhere! But noooo, I had to go through a broken system and be told by educators that they don't believe in labelling me as I got passed around like a hot potato. Oh wow yeah cause that sure helped.

If this continues to be an issue, I think my best option is to set myself up as a freelancer. Which is a rough business to break into, but I freaking know I'm a good designer and I'll be damned if I let my learning disability get in the way of that. If I do go down that route, I'll make contact with my university's enterprise team and see if they can help me set up my freelance business.

Congrats on the interview! I wouldn't sweat it about the clerical error between C/D. I can't believe they even asked for your GCSEs! Send your transcript and don't worry. I hope you do well on the interview. I'm sure you'll impress them with your portfolio of design projects. That's what they're looking for, after all!

There’s no use lying about your marks. You passed the GCSE….but more importantly, you got a 2.1 (I believe) honors certificate upon graduation from University.

Your University grades are more important than your GCSE grades. Employers know that people grow after 3 years of University.

With humans, you can appeal to their emotions and at least attempt to sway them into overlooking such things. This is not the case with robots, who run the first part of online applications. It is often a simple "Do you meet these requirements?" tick yes or no. There's no bargaining room with robots / algorithms. However, if you trick the robots and get to the humans - there's at least a chance you can convince them to overlook it.

A D grade is technically a GCSE, but it is intentionally filtered out.

Lost _dragon, You can always sit back and make 7 grand a year for doing nothing. Theres' always that to fall back on. But that's only if you're officially diagnosed. You wont live a life of luxury, but you will be more comfortable than most who are unemployed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The thought of sitting back and doing nothing sounds horrible to me. I've wanted this for a long time, I started unofficially designing when I was ten. Perhaps I will have to obtain an adult learning certificate, there's a small fee involved and studying again does seem rough. If I failed for a forth time, I don't know what I'd do.

I'm not officially diagnosed with anything, I tried to get referred but to no avail. The documents that I do have fall into an awkward zone of 'official but not a specific diagnosis and not enough to receive anything from it'. I have in black and white a document that says I have severe visual processing issues, but with how the system is structured, because I scored so averagely in other unrelated areas, I'm classed as typically functioning. Despite lived experience saying otherwise. I often dealt with so-called professionals who did not believe in labels and as such I was unsuccessful in my search.

Freelancing is still an option, if all else fails.