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Training and Personal Development

All the skills require in the modern workplace – and how to get them.

After Graduation – What Next? Continued

Beware of stop-gap jobs

Research has shown that almost one-third of job seekers give up during the first month or two of looking because they think that getting the right job will be quick and easy. Therefore, the temptation to take the first thing that comes along proves too great.

However, the danger is that these can quickly become permanent posts unless you keep your goals in mind.

My first job after leaving university was selling advertising for a newspaper. I only planned to stay in the job for six months before I entered my chosen career, journalism. But I became trapped and stayed in the same line of work for the next ten years because I didn’t plan my job search properly.

Indeed, the old adage ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’ is so true.

Research carried out by leadership development consultants, Common Purpose, found that

“half of workers between 25-35 year olds are not fulfilled in their current jobs.”

The main reason for this discontent is that workers are struggling to combine the demands of their job with their wider life ambitions.

Termed “quarter-life crisis”, the research highlighted the increasing number of workers who after a few years working following graduation are faced with the realisation that they are in the wrong job.

Before Steve Jobs became CEO of Apple, he underwent a career crisis in his early twenties and did a lot of soul searching and self analysis to figure out what he wanted to do.

In 2005, he addressed an audience of graduates at the University of Stanford in California and he urged people to:

“Find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. So keep looking. Don’t settle.”

The difference between having or not having a successful job/career search is the refusal to be discouraged by possible rejection before you get an offer for the right job with the right company.

Above all, don’t take rejection personally, these people certainly didn’t:

Thomas Edison’s light bulb invention was denounced by the Royal Society as “A completely idiotic idea”

The Beatle’s were turned down by Decca Records because “Guitar groups are on their way out”

And, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, was rejected by over 100 publishers before her first novel was taken on.


Useful websites

www.prospects.ac.uk - the UK’s official graduate careers website by the publishers of Prospects Directory, the Finalist and Prospects Today

http://graduate.monster.co.uk/ - award winning careers advice from Monster.co.uk

www.cf.ac.uk/carsv/index.html - Cardiff University careers service offering comprehensive advice

www.gowales.co.uk - features jobs and careers advice with useful answers to commonly asked question

www.gradplus.com -information and advice on looking for jobs and the tools you will need

www.guardian.co.uk/graduate - perhaps the most comprehensive site for Grads

(Picture: Photo of a student in a graduation gown and mortar board looking up a flight of stone steps_

(Picture: Photo of a University Degree scroll)