Blogs: Jack's job log: 8

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

Welcome to another riveting insight into the mind of a maniac. Roll up roll up, I feel like I should be in some part of a circus freak show with people reading my thoughts, it feels rather dirty and slightly wrong, and yet I seem to like it.

The ‘January Hangover’ seems to have had an effect on the employment market and subsequently the graduate market in this country with figures published several weeks ago highlighting the true scope of the current problem. The private sector is still squeezed and cannot sustain the creation of jobs they were put in place when the economy was in a period of sustained growth.

There are a record number of people aged between 16-24 who are out of work and are in no form of training, education, so the question has to be asked, ‘What are these people doing?’

I really can’t understand the level of despair you see in the case studies on BBC News, where they bring up some socialistic idealistic twenty-something who bemoans the fact he is on Jobseekers Allowance and the free house he is living in is ‘not good enough’.

Ok, so what are you doing for yourself? This mentality and culture shift of people thinking they are so deserving without doing anything is what has contributed to the economic state of affairs at the moment, with a broken welfare state that discourages work and stifles entrepreneurism and creativity.

However I go back to the point of these people who aren’t doing anything, what are they doing for themselves? Why aren’t they volunteering, or building up their skill base, bettering themselves and the UK economy in the process?

The point of this is we know jobs are limited and therefore so are your choices, but in order to maximise your opportunities you need to put yourself in as many situations as you can, build up your skill base and make yourself even more desirable for potential employers.

At the moment, time may be sparse for me, but I am very happy with how things have panned out from when I graduated a confused, desperate boy who was over-qualified for this, but under-qualified for that.

I still run my own business part time, whilst working full time in a job that I enjoy. Currently it does not pay fantastically well, but it has good career prospects and due to the size and scope of the company, with the right amount of effort and hard work, my contributions should be rewarded accordingly.

I am also helping out a company called The Racing Forum more or less on an intern basis. The role I have filled had the last person take a full time job as a journalist in the field so there can be obvious benefits from ‘earning your stripes’.

The bottom line of this is, always remember that regardless of the situation and climate, you can always be doing something to help yourself. Try and put your name about, help out where you can, in whatever capacity, even if it is volunteering. Most importantly, believe! If you believe in yourself, you can achieve in yourself. If you don’t, who will?