Liz's job log: 1

The story so far... Liz recently graduated from the University of Glamorgan with a degree in journalism. She is 21 and from Barry, South Wales.

Moving back

I am in mourning. Mourning for the student life - the discounts, the student nights, the Union, the lie-ins, and heaven forbid I actually admit this - but even the familiarity of seeing the same faces week in week out. Most of all, I miss the spontaneity of student living - not having to conform to the 9-6 way of life. But alas, you cannot be a student forever, and I am definitely one of those post-grads struggling to adjust to a new day-to-day routine.

It does not help that I have moved back home after three years of independent living at university. I feel I have stepped back in time to 2005, and it’s a case of the same places, same faces - but this time around, I am not the same person.

After graduating in July with a journalism degree, I have had a pretty easy summer and have half-heartedly applied for various journalism-related positions only to be told I do not have enough experience. In fact I’m so used to hearing this that I think it actually put me off applying anywhere for a good while. With this is mind I began to get a bit too comfortable in my part-time job that I’ve had since I began my second year of university.

Losing patience

Luckily for me, I get frustrated easily and tend to have quite itchy feet when it comes to sticking around anywhere too long (that is of course until I land my dream job on the Guardian or some such other prestigious position!), so I knew I was never going to be happy as sales assistant for long. It dawned on me, my lecturers were right - you have to start at the bottom. Seeing as I am in no way the best tea maker around I knew this was going to be a grin-and-bare-it situation while I clawed my way to the top.

As I said earlier, the constant flow of rejection letters left me with a rather bitter taste in my mouth, so much so in fact that, along with what I call post-grad depression, I couldn’t even remember the reasons I wanted to be a journalist. I suppose I have to thank my past retail job for becoming so tedious and dull (the credit crunch maybe?) as it gave me the get-up-and-go to actually put 100% into looking around for journalism jobs that I was interested in, even if I ended up getting the same thanks but no thanks reply I’d had time and time again.

Looking for anything

Despite my optimism, it seems Wales is not the best place to begin life as a young and eager journalist and I’m not quite sure I’m ready to move locations just yet. I was originally looking for any full-time work, just for a few months in order to gain experience and to earn some much needed money, when I saw an advertisement on a job recruitment site for Admiral insurance, looking for graduates. I applied not expecting much to come of it, only to receive a phone call the next day from a very enthusiastic man named Russ, calling to arrange a phone interview for the following day.

So began the long application process involving group interviews, role-plays, a one-on-one interview and many, many application forms. I would be lying if I said I knew what I was getting myself into. Fast forward one month and here I am two days into my four weeks of training with Admiral after securing a job within their claims department, as a liability correspondent. Oh yes, not just any call centre job for me, you see.

It’s still very early days but I can honestly say I can see myself enjoying this job, and for now I’m going to give it as much effort as I can possibly muster while I continue (hopefully) to try and gain that much needed experience in the world of journalism on the side.

I have by no means forgotten my career choice of being a journalist, after all, I didn’t work my butt off doing a degree in the subject to drop it after only a few months - however, there are always bills to be paid. Add to this the idea of a very welcome (and quite good, I might add) salary dropping into my bank account every month and I feel like for now I’m doing something positive that may just help me get over my student blues.
 

Suggestions to editorial@prospects.ac.uk