Take care of your career

Finally prompted as a result of my Dad’s constant questioning of my career plans with the immortal question: ‘What are you going to do with an arts degree anyway?’ I decided that it was time to figure out what I wanted to do in my life – after all, second year is where things get serious.

Apparently, things don’t just fall into place post-epiphany, and here begins the long, inexorable struggle towards employment where, unfortunately, not everyone succeeds. Not dwelling too long on my uncanny moment of decisiveness and feeling ready to tackle careers head on, I wrote myself a list of everything I needed to do to aid my job hunt. Unfortunately four months later with very little ticked off the list I’ve begun to think that maybe trying to get a graduate job isn’t as easy as it seems.

Though for me the absolute pinnacle of the job hunt…was the creation of a Linkedin account

Trawling endlessly through myadvantage in the early hours trying to book onto as many employer presentations as humanly possible whilst getting degree work done, the mind blank after the handshake at networking events and being overwhelmed by the sheer number of firms (many of whom you’ll never had heard anything about) at careers fairs will just become another part of your week. The questions: ‘which practice area are you in? What have your experiences been like thus far at the firm?’ will just form part of your networking repertoire that fall out of your mouth before you have time to even register the person’s name.

Though for me the absolute pinnacle of the job hunt where my commitment to my future career was cemented was the creation of a Linkedin account, dubbed to be essential as employment moves into the digital age, and this marks the passage from a mere university student to a member of the ‘enlightened’ – a hallowed group of students who realise that the hunt for that coveted graduate job needs to be a full time job that seminar work is fitted around. As I’ve heard the words ‘commercial awareness’ enough times to make myself feel queasy, I’m pretty sure I’ve earned the right to join the club.

But when did I become so career driven? Somewhere between my last night out in Kasbah and the beginning of term my otherwise rational side got taken over by this career obsession that means I spend the majority of my time thinking about what sort of things I should do to make myself more employable. Is what I’m doing enough?

Probably not, but after all Rome wasn’t built in a day and the journey to employment has proved itself to be just as time-consuming. Though I shouldn’t worry too much as after all I have another two years of the job hunt to go…

[divider]
Header Image Courtesy of: Flickr.com/markbult