Graduate Voices: Job Searching in your 20s

“It’s difficult. A negative being a lot of employers don’t even respond to applicants. A positive being there are a lot of job opportunities to choose from”

“Pretty tough! Recruitment processes are often overwhelming and scary. They also tend to concentrate more on your academic skills and much less on your personality. For example, many of the grad schemes want you to complete a Maths test through the recruitment process, I’m terrible at Maths and therefore often avoided those grad schemes. I was also very aware of the competition and coming from a non-redbrick university, I felt it was, at times, pointless in me applying”

“Throughout my years at university I got my hands on every work experience, internship and summer job going – often in very di erent environments. It helped me identify what my strengths and weaknesses were and where I might like to end u p working. In the end, I spent every summer working in summer schools with adolescents and now I’m training to be a children’s social worker”

“Getting advice from friends who have been successful in getting jobs such as writing CVs. Showing that you’re willing to commit yourself such as volunteering. That led to a job there”

“Pressure from family, friends and peers to nd a job immediately, and not understanding perhaps how over-crowded and difficult the legal market is”

“I suppose everything helps, in a way. General job hunt sites were pretty useless when I was rst looking for work – it felt like they were all looking for people with experience, the application processes were in exible and impersonal. Nowthat I have experience, I find them very useful”

Next Steps:

Read the full Graduate Voices report and find out more about Learning to Leap

If you are a young person looking to boost your skills sign up to our Young Professional Membership

If you are an organisation looking to better support and encourage more young people, explore our community membership here.

Main photo: MusicOomph.com