Week One

It has now been nearly a week since I finished university and officially became unemployed. I’ve had proper time to consider what to do with my life and this has been rather unpleasant.
Choosing not to pursue my planned career of primary teaching after four years of training (and several years of study just to make get to that training) was an immensely difficult decision. It’s heart-breaking to have lost a brilliant career but I still know it just wasn’t the right one for me. As frustrating as it is, I just know I am not teacher material.
The last few sessions at uni were hard, with me feeling totally inferior to all those around me, the vast majority of whom have teaching jobs lined up for the new academic year in September. Then there was me with no clue what I am going to do, let alone actually having a job secured. Thankfully, trainee teachers tend to be lovely people and the support from my colleagues was even stronger than I could have predicted.
If nothing else, at least I have a degree in primary education and I think it should be quite a good one once the exam board have worked out the mark. The way grades are marked out on our course is similar to the infamous Duckworth-Lewis method of scoring in cricket- no-one really understands it but someone somewhere manages to calculate it anyway. Unfortunately my degree has extremely limited use outside of teaching. Obviously with some jobs in the education sector it would be of use but as far as I can see the possibilities beyond teaching it provides are pretty limited.
I was due to meet with a university careers advisor who pretty much specialises in dealing with this kind of problem but thanks to illness this has been postponed. With no real guidance that leaves me with little choice but to scroll through massive online listings of local jobs. This morning I scrolled through 100 pages of local jobs and found two that I might apply for. Finding the right job for me is very much like finding the proverbial needle in the proverbial haystack.
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The Careers Advisor (or at least the mental image I have of her)
I’m still interested in working in an education role but these are pretty limited outside of teaching. I’m interested in being an education officer either at a wildlife reserve or a museum (both areas of interest to me) but such jobs, especially locally, are few and far between. I did apply for one such job about a month ago but I never heard anything back from them. I suspect I either lack experience in the field compared to other candidates or simply went straight onto the no pile because I couldn’t make the interview date (I was not in the country).
So whilst I await some guidance in the form of a careers advisor with poor health I am simply looking at local jobs from Google searches and seeing if anything of interest pops up. As I mentioned, there are two I may apply for. One is working in a call centre that takes 111 calls (the non-emergency version of 999) and being a fan of both medical dramas and talking, I think I would quite like that. I’m still unsure whether to apply but at least it is something I know I could do.
The other is something I simply must apply for. It is a writing position on a magazine about animals. I love the natural world and it is one of the things closest to my heart. I also consider myself to be a decent writer and writing is one of the few skills I would actually say I have. The issue with it is that I don’t really have any evidence of my writing abilities, no portfolio or anything, but it is such a good opportunity its worth applying on the off-chance I might hear something back.
My next mission then is to create myself a CV (I’m sure that will be a joy) and then apply for one or both of those jobs. With any luck  I will obtain an appointment with the elusive university careers advisor soon which will give some guidance. I imagine it to be like a post-credits scene in the film of my time at university. I’m currently fairly upbeat but what with moving and sorting out all my stuff I’ve had lots to do. The next week could be pretty disheartening. Let the search continue…
Jobs applied for: 1   Responses: 0

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