Blogs: Jordan starts applying

Jordan Lewis Butler graduated from the University of Central Lancashire last summer with a degree in sports journalism. He has recently traded sunny Cornwall for not so sunny Manchester in the search for employment.

Last month I signed off my opening blog with some post university naive optimism. ‘Job? Not yet. Optimism? Yes', was the exact quote. Well it's safe to say that my early encouragement has been depleted somewhat. Ultimately, that confidence has now dissolved into something resembling hope.

As it turns out, being unemployed isn't all that fun, especially as any money you had accumulated soon evaporates into thin air. Is it necessary to buy new clothes when you don't actually have a source of regular income? The answer of course is no, but with all these lovely shops almost literally on my doorstep it's very hard to resist temptation. 

The hangover I previously mentioned is still lingering, although I’ve shaken off the worst of the symptoms. No longer do I wake up during a normal person’s lunch hour and I’ve managed to knock the midweek drinking sessions on the head. Well, sort of.

In the four weeks since I last put finger to keyboard to write this blog, I’ve emailed countless agencies and would-be employers in my search for the elusive holy grail for graduates; a paid job.

It was during one of these online sorties, trawling through the infinite world of job sites, that I stumbled across what seemed to be a role tailor-made for me…

The advertisement read, ‘Trainee reporter needed for The Cornishman newspaper based in Penzance, Cornwall'. To those who didn't read my previous post, the reason this job seemed perfect is because I am a journalism graduate, Penzance is my home town and The Cornishman is my local paper. The irony is that I have only recently moved to Manchester in order to increase the frequency of job opportunities such as this one. I mean really, what are the chances.

Needless to say I gathered all my composure and applied. All I can do now is wait for a phone call or email, hopefully not a generic, 'Your job application was unsuccessful' automated response. If the response is positive then it looks like I’ll be trekking back down to the Promised Land that is Cornwall for an interview.

But for now I'll just sit tight and cross my fingers. Next time I blog I could well be settling into my position of trainee reporter at a little-known local newspaper. I must keep the hope.