What Are You Doing After University?

 If you don’t know already, I recently graduated ! Which is an exciting feat and makes the last four years of work entirely worth it. However, as everyone who has graduated will know, the question on everyone’s mind is: What’s next? Whether they mean well or not, parents, peers, and even people you've just met will ask what your plan is for the future. This question can bring both fear and excitement for what lies ahead.

I’ve been lucky in the sense that I’ve always roughly known what I wanted to do. Fortunately, I’ve recently taken a big step toward my dream career in journalism by being accepted into News Associates to study for my NCTJ.

But this blog post isn’t about that because before all that happened, I wasn’t sure how to answer the what’s next question either.

Many of my peers, especially those of us in the social sciences are still unsure what we’re doing next. This is through no fault of their own; they refresh LinkedIn, Indeed, and other job sites daily, applying to role after role, often without hearing anything back. The problem isn’t a lack of jobs, but a surplus of applicants, with very few receiving any feedback. It makes the process of job hunting disheartening when you're left in the dark about where you went wrong.

Before I received my offer from News Associates, I’d spent a year doing exactly that, applying to jobs I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted, just to see what would happen. For the most part, I didn’t even get a reply. I made it to the third of four rounds for the BBC journalist apprenticeship scheme, and if anyone was going to offer feedback, I thought it would be the BBC. But no, still nothing to explain why I wasn’t selected.

Now, as many of us prepare to leave or have already left our university cities, saying goodbye to the memories and the friends we’ve made there, we might forget how different it will feel not being in that environment anymore. Despite this, most of my friends (myself included) have now ended up back at home with our parents. As you can imagine, it’s a big change, and it often comes with a lot less independence than living in a flat with your friends. It can be tough at times, but the idea of starting something that will help launch your career keeps you going. That one LinkedIn application really might make all the difference.

As I mentioned, my career is just beginning, and hopefully, in February when I move to London, I’ll be taking a further leap forward. I’ve done the job applications I barely wanted, heard nothing back, and now I’ve finally been accepted onto something I’m truly excited for.

In light of that, I want to encourage anyone still searching: keep going. I have every faith that things will fall into place for you, too.

And in the meantime, I’ll happily enjoy a few months of living at home, saving some money, and starting some passion projects. For one, this blog! So expect a lot more from me. As this is all new, my writing might be a little unpolished, so please be kind. :)

Rosie x