For those who have just graduated: this article is for you.
1. You’ve just received your degree and you’re feeling on top of the world. You have the prospect of traveling the world (or follow what everyone seems to be doing and backpack your way from Sydney to Melbourne), finding a full-time job in the bright lights of a bustling city, or focus on having the best summer possible now that university is over – the world is your oyster – or so it seems.
2. You spend your weeks after university happily chilling watching Netflix, seeing friends and family because, let’s face it, you’ve been cooped up in your bedroom for the last year dealing with the stress of a dissertation, along with six other assignments and the general blood, sweat and tears of actually completing your degree. You deserve the time off – you go, Glen Coco!
3. It’s time to hit the job search. Your mind is full of optimism, buzzing with pride and confidence, knowing you’ll bag that dream job of yours in no time.
4. Reality hits. That dream job of yours has already received over 100+ applications, requires a year’s experience and they firmly state that you need an in-depth understanding of different softwares that you’ve never even heard of. Hey, that one week of unpaid experience you did last summer now means nothing.
5. The tenth application later, you slowly begin to sink into a dull routine of making your CV sound unique, mundanely tailoring your cover letter to a specific job application, and feeling the desperate urge to just write: P.S – PLEASE GIVE ME A CHANCE at the end, hoping that some nice employer will take your desperation plea on board. Nothing you do seems to work.
6. The next stage is the haunting presence of social media. Your friends have all scored their graduate jobs, and the other friends have decided to take a break from the working world and jet-set off to the countries they’ve always wanted to visit. The highlight reel of other people’s lives hits you pretty hard, and you slowly begin to wonder which direction to take in life.
7. Number 7 is the worst stage – you feel alone. Some of your friends are going their separate ways and starting to build a new life for themselves, your current part-time job is mind-numbing and suddenly your nights in watching Netflix feels like a broken record.
8. Out of the blue that job you applied for on 06/08/2015 at 11.17am has called and offered you an interview. Suddenly, that spark of happiness is back in your life, and a glimmer of hope stands in front of you.
9. You accept your past rejections and you understand that this interview is your chance to show what you can bring to the company and what they can bring to you. You haven’t had it easy – you haven’t walked straight from university into your desired job – you haven’t been given an opportunity on a golden platter – you have well and truly worked for it.
10. The silence between your interview and finding out the outcome feels unbearable. You start to think of every scenario that may possibly happen – will it be back to square one? Should you start applying for more jobs? Should you just book a spontaneous flight and leave the country?
11. Then it happens – you get the call. The ultimate call. YOU’VE GOT THE JOB. Congratulations, you’re back in the game.
12. You finally have that celebratory feeling of finding a place in the world; you now feel that you belong somewhere. You’ve learned from the tedious process of applying for jobs and feeling downright miserable that you’ve come out of the whole thing with a sense of confidence, motivation, satisfaction and, most of all, happiness.
Sometimes you’re behind and sometimes you’re in front. Don’t give up – you never know what lies around the corner.
