Graduate Work Tip

Here I am, being good and finally getting round to doing this post, which has been in my brain for a really long time now.

As I have said here before, being a graduate and looking for a job is seriously no easy thing. Along with the difficult application forms, getting your CV right and knowing what it is you even want to do (argh!), there's the stress of it all! I found that after weeks of solidly filling out applications to jobs, I was losing motivation and getting, if I'm honest, kinda depressed. Speaking to various friends, I know I wasn't alone in this.

One simple, yet amazing little tip I wanted to share is document what you apply for. It sounds like an obvious thing, but imagine if you spend a month applying for jobs, you'd definitely start losing track of what you'd already applied for. My method was using an Excel spreadsheet.

Surprisingly, I found this a really motivating thing to do. I found huge satisfaction out of watching the list grow as I put the effort in. It's something that you can always come back to. Now I'm coming to the end of the work experience I'm currently doing, I can come back to this list and add to it as I start applying again. As a fan of lists, I just love the organisation of this, and it actually encourages me to apply for more.  

More to come, 

Good luck guys!

x

Summer Progress

I'd be so intrigued to read other peoples' blog posts about the summer directly after they've finished university. If you're not lucky enough to have a job lined up ready and waiting (we all know those annoying people!) then the summer can be a stressful and pressuring slog.

Having left university, I had 100% ruled out all possibility of doing a Masters degree. For me it seemed like too much of an academic direction to go in, when I knew I wanted to get into the publishing industry. It also just seemed like A LOT of hard work when I'd just finished my BA (Hons) degree, complete with dissertation! After a bit of searching around into the world of publishing, I noticed first that a Publishing degree was a thing, and second that lots of people seemed to have one, or were talking about it. I am told that it is not necessary to have an MA in publishing to get into the industry, but my attempts were clearly not working (many rejections - most likely on the grounds of not enough experience). I applied for the MA at Oxford Brookes, not really thinking too much of it (as I was still hoping a job might come my way!), but after the personal statement was written and telephone interview was held, I got in! As of now - the MA is the official plan! Mental!

I'm very much looking forward to living in Oxford for the year, as I've heard good things about the city!

I'd love to hear about anybody else's plans for the future, or how your post-uni summer is going?