there IS more to life than job hunting, I promise | diary 5

2019, career

Hello!

My favourite kinds of blog posts to write are long, rambly chatty ones – the kind of thing that I would say to a friend over a coffee when I’ve gone off on one a little bit and then reaching a nice, conclusive positive note at the end.

And these last fews week have been very heavy in job applications, thinking about my career and actually working to make progress on it so I thought I’d do a little update both to document my own progress (that’s the ‘diary’ aspect of this post!) BUT ALSO I’ve been applying for career related jobs for over a year now and to be honest? It’s soul destroying – I reckon I’ve applied for over a hundred jobs at this point and getting rejection email after rejection email makes you start to think not only that you might not ever get a job, but that you don’t deserve one. HOWEVER I want to remind anyone who might be feeling like this (or is feeling nervous approaching their final university years!) that there is a positive ending and progress will happen.

Everyone’s on their own journey!

So I did a pretty detailed explanation of my last year of job hunting in my latest graduate life update but I’d say I took a pretty significant break from applying for jobs between November and January and when I came back to it in February? I felt so much better.

I had a more solid idea of what I really want, I had time to reevaluate and feel passionate about jobs again rather than just throwing my CV at any vaguely relevant job and consequently my applications have been more genuine and I’ve started to see results. Most of that is down to applying for significantly less jobs but spending much more time on them – working on a cover letter that was genuine, relevant and emphasised the most useful experience on my CV.

For example, I recently applied for a New Journalism Traineeship with ITV and I really made the most of the ‘save draft’ feature in their application process. I wrote down the questions and spend the best part of two weeks working intermittently on the questions, really paying attention to how their shows are produced and doing what I could do maximise my chances. By the time I submitted the application (admittedly, on deadline day) I was so proud of it and I was in a position where I felt like I had genuinely done my best and the rest was out of my hands.

As well as ITV, I’ve found a number of jobs recently that I got really properly excited about and that’s really what I needed – I was so much more personally ready to apply for those jobs.

What really helped was a call from my university’s career office – I’m not sure what prompted the call but the first action point from it all was to rejig my CV. He went through and gave me lots of detailed feedback which I then went through and implemented whilst also redesigning my CV. It didn’t need a new design but I thought if I was going to have to change so much of it I may as well enjoy the design element too!

And, I mean, look how cute it is!

obviously some bits I’ve had to make sure are obscured, I don’t have lines and a giant mouse pointer on my CV 😂

I spent a solid few weeks working on this between work and working on my own projects (i.e. blogging, youtube, volunteering) but I’m genuinely so pleased with the final product.

And all of the waiting, the time reevaluating and the hard work is beginning to pay off – yesterday I had a really positive job interview (I should hear back today…!), got a rejection email from the ITV application and then got an exciting email about a BBC Journalism Traineeship development which I will work on later this week! So yesterday was a very full day for job related news and it was the most positive job related day I’ve had in a very long day!

Even if it ends up that I don’t get any of the jobs, it’s all been such amazing experience and I feel so much better about it all now. I know that I do deserve a job and I’m more than capable of doing a job in the field I want to work in.

So here it is – I spent so long being so unsuccessful and it really did start to have a negative effect on me but I stepped back, took some time to do some research and figure out what I want, pave out a few options for myself and I’m just now starting to see the next stage of my journey in the distance. It’s looking good lads.

If you’re feeling lost of hopeless, I thoroughly recommend taking some time for yourself and reflecting because it might just reignite your passion. Everything will work out with hard work and perseverance.

“Everything will be okay in the end. And if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” (John Lennon)

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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childhood heroes in fiction

2017, lifestyle, travel

Hello!

What we watch as a child can hugely affect who we are today – in a millennial generation that longs to go back to when things were easier, Disney movies both old and new are more popular than ever before I reckon.

Personally I have always been a huge daydreamer – I have very, very vivid memories of perching on the edge of my bed when I was about six with my head in my hands desperately wishing that Peter Pan would come and sprinkle some pixie dust over me and take me away on an adventure to Neverland.

Just for clarification – I was waiting for the animated character, not a ‘real life’ version of him, the actual cartoon.

But from a more psychological point of view, the way the story of Peter Pan has influenced me is by making me always look for adventure and fun, to not let my youth limit my attitude and goals and an insatiable desire to fly.

I also periodically get ‘We’re following the leader’ stuck in my head for three hours on loop. You’re welcome.

I started watching Doctor Who in 2007 with Series 3 of ‘New Who’ – 10^th Doctor David Tennant and new assistant Martha Jones. And I still watch Doctor Who to this day – I think the current series (10) with Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie is one of the best series there’s been and I think there’s more parallel’s between Peter Pan and Doctor Who than anyone would think at face value.

It inspires that sense of adventure, not letting time or age stop you from exploring and causing a little bit of trouble, except it’s time travel rather than flying and The Master and Daleks rather than Captain Hook and the crocodile.

Doctor Who has a phenomenally big fanbase because so many people grew up with it and let’s them relive that little taste of childhood once a week for 45 minutes – at this point, I wouldn’t even call Doctor Who a kids show but it’s still got that sense of wonder that no one ever really loses.

My boyfriend and I quite often browse through Netflix or his dad’s old DVDs to watch an old episode of Doctor Who because it’s just so much fun, it’s so easy to watch and it’s almost comforting, in a way, to be able to come back to the same characters.

From a creative point of view, I love the way Doctor Who is written and produced – recently I have a growing interest in how TV works and how programs are created but that might be because so many of my friends study in a TV related field and I don’t want to be left out. But I’ve always loved how Doctor Who is written – I used to want to be a screen writer purely so I could write episodes of Doctor Who for a living, Steven Moffat was my idol.

Things change, times pass and people change too; I’ve changed – I don’t want to be a screenwriter anymore, I think I want to be in Doctor Who as much as I’d love to write for it and I’m ten years older than I was when I watched David Tennant and Freema Agyeman on the Moon.

I’ve been thinking a lot about childhood recently – I spent the weekend with my family scattering my Nan’s ashes and we managed to turn it into such a positive, happy gathering and I have so much love for my family. But there were a lot of old photos being passed around – my Granddad had written up a sort of memoire and I thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every detail the other night and finding out so much about the man I’ve grown up with.

There’s so much that I miss about being a kid, but rather than let myself get down about it, I think I’m just going to carry on as if I still am – because who grows up really?

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

why finishing uni is terrifying

2017, student

Hello!

Next week I go back for my second semester of my second year of uni, and yesterday I said the words out loud ‘I graduate next year’ – the thought of finishing uni that soon absolutely terrifies me. But that’s not unusual.

Hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of prospective graduates are scared of graduating because employment isn’t great, a lot of people have to move home and there’s a very high chance that you’ll be even poorer whilst facing a lot of debt.

Oh yes, wow, that really is terrifying isn’t it?

But I think I’ve figured out why! Aren’t I clever (note: the sarcasm)?

Ever since I’ve started school, the rest of my journey has been pretty much planned out for me – from primary school, to secondary school and then the assumption is that you’ll go to university (though, more and more, it’s not the norm) and after that it’s completely up to me to decide my future.

From the age of about 4 to around 21 (ish) your life is entirely planned for you.

Whilst it can be really exciting to finally take control of what you do and start carving your own path, it can also be overwhelmingly daunting – I’m beginning to see the looming future of nothing and that’s why it’s really scary! There are so many options but I have to pick one and work my way up through it and start a career, which is in equal parts exciting and terrifying! Maybe not equal, maybe slightly less exciting.

But then things start to pick up – when you start to see your hard work reflected in your grades and your tutors give you such lovely comments and it all starts to feel worth it, like maybe we can take on the working world.

I’ve been given the chance to do a two week work experience placement with BBC Three in February and March this year – I’m still sorting out when I’m going with my university tutors and course leader but I’m definitely going to be documenting the whole thing and I can’t wait to share more with you!

Finishing uni is scary, but with potentially doing a masters and then getting to start the journey to making my mark on the world? It’s going to be okay in the end.

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

sophie counts clouds

bbc

there IS more to life than job hunting, I promise | diary 5

childhood heroes in fiction

why finishing uni is terrifying