Hello!

There’s somewhat of a reputation for students in their graduating year to move back in with their parents, not have a job and become one of many other graduates to get a part time job or panic and go do a masters

Yeah, no thank you – can we save those comments for never please?

We’ve already got enough going on – we’ve got final projects and dissertations and research projects and tutors making sure we get everything done and asking us what are plans are and if we’d applied for any jobs and if we have a back up plan and blah blah blah.

There’s a lot going on.

And we’ve already thought about not being able to get a job and not having anywhere to live and not finding a job we’re passionate about a finding a balance between wanting to work for a company you really admire and just applying for anything and can you tell by the amount of ‘and’s in this sentence that this is something that worries me?

We’re not just a graduate unemployment statistic.

Maybe this whole post seems a bit melodramatic – I’m not trying to be the voice of every final year student across the country but I just feel like it’s not something we need to feel pressured to do. Right now, I’m freaking out a little bit that in just four months I don’t know where I’ll be living, let alone where I’ll be working or if I’ll have a job at all.

Every person I talk to asks how third year is going, what I’m doing after uni, do I have a 5 year plan and around Christmas I did, but now it’s all completely changed. And things do change as suddenly as one doubt creeps in and everything is completely different. Around Christmas I really wanted to go back and work for Sky following my work experience there last September but now I’m not so sure – I’ve found so many incredible opportunities and I will apply for them but right now, my final project comes first.

And god knows my final project is stressful as anything – I’m about to finish my multimedia journalism degree and with less than eight weeks to go I have no hard footage interviews recorded and only a couple booked. Eight weeks might sound like loads of time and maybe I am freaking out unnecessarily (my FMP tutor is trying to convince me everything is fine) but eight weeks just doesn’t sound like enough and I have to apply for jobs in that time too.

Don’t get me wrong – some aspects of final year are exciting. I’m working on a project I’m really enthusiastic about and I’m so excited about the prospect about getting out into the world and working and letting my creativity flourish… there’s just a lot of stress before that.

The other thing with every family, friend and human under the sun asking me my plans, is that I never know what they want to hear and I always feel like whatever I say sounds flimsy and whimsical and they’re judging me and disappointed in me. There’s every chance that’s just my insecurity but I can’t be the only one that feels like this surely? Whenever anyone says ‘Oh right… that sounds exciting!’ my heart sinks a little bit.

Maybe I’m just whining and I should suck it up and enjoy it while I’m still a student, but for now I’d quite like people to stop asking.

I’m more than just a statistic, whether that statistic be unemployment, graduate employment, student satisfaction or how many people have been listening to the Greatest Showman on loop (that’s still me).

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

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