‘Less Jobs and an Excess of Applications’: My Experience of the Graduate Job Search Process Post-Pandemic

By Hope O’Rourke

Picture this: you are a Gen Z who was encouraged to attend university because it would open up career options, but when it came to applying for jobs you’re told that you haven’t got the experience they’re looking for. Sound familiar? I feel as though this surpasses irony and just goes straight to fucking annoying. 

You need a job to get experience, but you can’t get experience without having a job. We’re trapped in an endless cycle that is almost impossible to escape, constantly searching for new ways to get ahead. We seek out further qualifications, work experience, internships and even volunteering, yet no matter how much you apply or pack out your CV it’s never enough. Internships and work experience are so few and far between; you’re beyond lucky if you manage to snag one of those.

The pandemic has left me extremely unprepared for life after university. It was definitely one of the contributing factors in me undertaking my master’s degree. Another factor being that I took a chance to gain an industry tailored qualification and saw an opportunity to stand out against the competition when it came to applying for industry jobs. In reality, opportunity did not exist.

I’ve spent the past five months applying for industry jobs, receiving rejection after rejection with no feedback beyond an auto-generated email telling me that my skillset did not quite match up or that I didn’t have as much experience as the successful candidates. In a total of five months, I have never been invited for an industry interview, and I have been rejected a minimum of twenty-five times. Let me tell you, it’s not great for the old self-esteem. You begin to doubt yourself; you begin to wonder if the past four years and the £70K student loan was really worth it. 

We can’t deny that Covid has had an enormous impact on the economy, the job market and the transitional periods of young adults as they venture into a world outside education. Covid has produced an influx of graduates: we’re looking at roughly four years’ worth finally preparing for the workplace after numerous setbacks but there aren’t enough jobs to keep up with the excess of applicants. That’s without even taking into consideration experienced applicants who are changing careers or just looking to move up. 

The worst part isn’t being rejected for jobs despite having numerous qualifications, it’s being rejected for jobs with pitiful entry level wages that are not a reflection on the work we’ve put in. I was looking at assistant and entry level jobs in London (which makes this somewhat industry specific) and even with minimal research it isn’t hard to see that the most common wage for ‘Graduate’ jobs in London is £24,000-£27,000 – barely a liveable wage if you are living and working in London.

The only positive that comes with low-wages is that the threshold for student loan repayment has increased (at least it has since I started my BA) and now I have to earn £27,295 or thereabouts before I start paying back student debt, which is sat collecting dust and slowly increasing every day thanks to a sickening APR. 

It’s difficult to navigate life after your degree. You start to become accustomed to university life, protected by education, and then when you find yourself in a position to face the real world you’re left unprepared. Perhaps it was COVID that impacted my experience or perhaps my university didn’t quite excel at giving me the guidance I needed when it came to finishing my course (although this may have been an oversight due to the pandemic conditions forcing university life to be conducted via Zoom).  

What I’ve realised over the past few months is that just because my degrees are somewhat industry-specific doesn’t mean that I have to work in that industry. I’ve always had a passion for education – it’s probably why I ended up staying in education for so long and why I’m considering doing my PhD at some point as well. I decided to see where this passion may take me in terms of a job.

What I’ve realised over the past few months is that just because my degrees are somewhat industry-specific doesn’t mean that I have to work in that industry. Recently I was finally offered employment, and I’m extremely grateful. I am about to start a new role at my old university, move across the country and embark on the next stages of my adult life. For anyone out there struggling to find a job after graduation, I would suggest looking at jobs with transferrable skills. It might not be your desired industry, but it is a step in the right direction.