Blogs: Jack's job log: 10

Jack has just finished his degree. His job hunt is proving a long a difficult road.

It is rather hard to believe that my road of blogging is approaching one whole year. I am sure the bookmakers at the start would only have thought I would produce such written gems for six months, maybe eight tops. We would have been looking at an under/over 6.5 months market, a punting nightmare.

It has been quite the year in the context of blogging, not just talking personally, but in the grander scheme of things. We have seen the first coalition government, numerous unfortunate natural disasters, such as Brisbane, Japan, as well as revolutions occurring in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia which seems rather humbling in perspective.

The world’s year however doesn’t seem as half as self-destructive as some of the calamities that I seem to put myself through almost cyclically. As such, it leaves me in quandaries and dilemmas that I have to wriggle out of, which ironically enough has gotten me the nickname ‘the worm’ from some people in my place of work.

This including a few other incidents has led me to questioning whether what I am doing at the moment is really a long term career plan. There are no questions regarding the ideal nature of the job in the short term. I enjoy what I do, I interact with customers well, I know the field inside out, can do the job to a very good level. In the grand scheme of things, in 20 years time, would it be a viable occupation?

Analysing the situation further, looking at the quandary that is called my life could be better when written down in front of me. I am 23 years old, and started four months ago working in a job that I could have taken without my relatively worthless 2:2 degree in business studies and I live in the non-desirable area of Huddersfield. However, on the flip side:

• I do have a degree, which I guess is better than no degree.
• I have worked in several jobs since leaving high school and never being sacked.
• I have done a placement year with a highly respectable company (arguable), which looks rather impressive on paper. 
• I started my own very successful business at university, winning Enterprise Development 2008 in the process.
• I then went on to represent the UK at National Entrepreneurship Week 2008 in Sri Lanka.

That being said, what the hell has happened to me! On paper it looks so good, so promising, that without sounding like a teary-eyed socialist, I had so much to offer. I guess what is on paper does not tell the whole story, and the fact that I am rather loud, opinionated, abrasive, and probably not the most subtle of people could perhaps count against me?

I found out recently I have a syndrome that has held me back so far in life, it is called ‘Northitis’. Luckily, I have highlighted the problem early, and can hopefully rectify this disease, as the longer it goes undetected, the more it spreads.