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jacobs1234 · Newbie Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 1 Career Advice: +0/-0

Hi all,

I am a recent graduate who has been unable to find a job for over one year since graduating.

Last year I graduated in Law and I also have studied business administration. The response I normally get when people hear this is “why don’t you become a lawyer?” which is a reasonable question to ask. The reason why I studied law was to increase my employability in the market place. What people understandably don’t know is that to become a lawyer I would need to study a two year LLB which at £6000 per year is out of my financial means. Actually I have no money.

After applying for nearly two hundred jobs in Scotland in the past fifteen months ranging from waiter to administrator, with little success, I am left feeling unemployable. What’s more I don’t have any working references or much working experience. I originally started studying because of this same situation, I couldn’t get a job.

Perhaps because I do not have a 'Scottish/British' surname people throw my application in the bin? I really don't know, what I do know is that there are people with less skills than me getting jobs that I also applied for.

What would you do if you were me?

Pauloz · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:17 pm Post subject:

jacobs1234

I doubt if your name is a factor in this situation. We see people all the time in this position, particularly in the UK. A lot of fully qualified people, with experience, do a lot of job applications, literally hundreds, and don't even get interviews. The job application process isn't particularly efficient, or scientific, in that regard.

Business administration is a highly competitive area, partly because of the number of people who study in that field. We're in the middle of a huge recession, and the UK has been particularly hard hit.

Scotland is a notoriously tough zone for employment, particularly in hard times. You'd probably do better applying in places like Manchester and London.

To get experience, you'll need an entry level job or internship.An internship, incidentally, can lead to much better jobs down the track, as long as it's a good one.

References: Use college refs, because of the lack of work refs.

Realistically, with the current situation, anywhere on the ladder will do, as long as you can get started somewhere on the career path. Suggest sticking to admin jobs at some level.

One definite possibility: Try government jobs. These are done according to the rules, and even if not necessarily more efficient, you will at least be able to know that your applications are getting processed properly. You can get a range of business admin jobs, and a solid base for future development.

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