They had a point. I didn’t go out every night (although I still had my share of drunken adventures). Most of the time I was juggling a full-time journalism and social political science degree and multiple jobs and internships. If I was going to be hungover,it needed to be carefully planned out.
It might not have been the most “fun” university experience,but it’s what I felt I needed to do to ensure I had the best employment opportunities when I left. The way I saw it,every internship and job that came my way would help me land the next opportunity. I pictured it like a ladder:each step getting me closer to a good job when I graduated.
It’s grim hunting for jobs alongside your classmates. Conversations quickly change from gossip and laughter to ones of dread:“Have you heard back from this job?” or “What did you put in your application?” or “Do you think I should apply for this one?”
Without experience,there’s nothing much to differentiate you from the thousands of other applicants,but I wanted to make sure that happened while at uni rather than after graduation.
The latest data from theGraduates Outcomes Survey,which surveys higher education students four to six months after course completion,found that 55 per cent of 2021 communications graduates had a job within the industry. The figures were slightly better last year when 68 per cent were employed.
That’s the second-lowest graduation employment proportion of the degrees (creative arts is the lowest,while those with a pharmacy degree had a 96.2 per cent success rate).