So youâve just graduated and the job classifieds are looking a bit thin on the ground. Donât panic! There are plenty of ways to make unemployment an enjoyment while seriously improving your career prospects.
Know thyself
Do some soul searching and honestly appraise your strengths and weaknesses, what skills you can offer an employer and what kind of work gets your juices flowing.
Itâs good to talk
Talk to as many people as possible â recent graduates, your parentsâ friends or the woman down the street who works as a forensic pathologist. Theyâll give you the warts-and-all lowdown on their career and quickly dispel any misplaced CSI-induced glamour.
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Nepotism is not a dirty word
Take full advantage of inside contacts. Everybody does, so donât be shy.
Know your jobs
What do management consultants actually do, anyway? Use this time to really question what it is you want to do. Research the sector as well as specific roles, says Shelagh Green, director of the University of Edinburghâs careers service. âGo behind the obvious â itâs too easy to read only the recruitment literature and a website.â
Cherry-pick
Donât adopt a scattergun approach to job hunting. Five well-researched applications a week are better than 20 poor ones.
Explore temporary measures
Thereâs a lot to be said for temping. OK, so data entry might not be the most inspiring of tasks, but it can be a way to get exposure to different types of organisations. And it will keep the beer fund going for another few months.
Beer pong 4 eva?
Becoming an eternal student may feel like a tempting fallback option but be warned: the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) says that postgraduate study isnât high on most employersâ wish lists unless itâs directly applicable to your job. Postgraduate study can be rewarding, but examine your motives carefully.
Stand up to a dragon
One of the most successful business pitches in the Dragonâs Den was by a philosophy student and a mechanical engineering student. But if you have an idea that youâd rather not sell on national television, get involved with schemes such as the Flying Start programme from the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship. It aims to boost the number of sustainable graduate start-ups and also increase the number of graduates giving thought to setting up a business in the first place.
Do your bit for charity
Alexis Starkey of the British Heart Foundation says the organisation is always looking for people to help out: âIt can be a great way to meet new friends and acquire some different skills.â There are a range of roles to explore, from window dresser to delivery driver.
Engineer a smug smile
AGR found that the number of jobs in the engineering sector is predicted to rise by 8 per cent in the coming year, whereas banks are expected to cut their employee vacancies by 28 per cent.
Know your entitlements
You may be entitled to claim Jobseekerâs Allowance to tide you over while you look for a job. Find out more at
Sort your finances
If you havenât opened your bank statements for three years, nowâs the time to break the habit and take a peek. Your student account will probably turn into a graduate account the month after you finish â with the interest-free portion of your overdraft shrinking over the next three years. Find an account that will give you the longest zero per cent overdraft facility and youâre laughing.
Join the community
Sign up to the mailing lists and newsletters aimed at the sector you want to get into. Insider knowledge will impress any interviewer.
Join a bandâŠ
Or become a groupie. Either way, having a âstrong musical repertoireâ couldnât hurt your CV.
âŠand a sports team
Outside interests are valuable to employers. Taking on an organisational role such as league organiser or team treasurer will look even better.
Girls⊠chance it like the boys
âDonât deselect yourself,â says Rachael Morfill, a manager at National Grid. âWomen are less likely to apply for a job if they think they only have 8 out of 10 âessential skillsâ in the job description. Men are far more likely to apply with the attitude that theyâll just wing it. Women would benefit from taking the same risk.â
Join a cult
Youâll be surrounded by like-minded people, and your employment woes will doubtless be eased by your free introductory brainwash.
Write a blog
Regular communication with the outside world can improve your writing skills and even make you money. See Matt Harding for inspiration â after filming himself dancing like a monkey with an inner-ear problem in front of famous monuments around the world, Stride Gum sponsored him to set off on another planet-girdling trip. See him dancing his simian socks off at
Move to Scotland
A survey of 250 companies by AGR published in February 2009 indicated a 14 per cent increase in the number of graduate jobs in Scotland over the last year.
Go back to school
Letâs face it â as long as there are kids to teach youâll always have a worthwhile job to consider. If you want to influence the next generation of scientists, then Teach First is a great place to start. Graduates get a six-week intense training course over the summer and are then placed in a âchallengingâ school for two years. âWhat we highlight to applicants is that the resilience, transferable skills, creativity and presentational skills that you develop as a teacher are immensely valuable to businesses too,â says Teach First spokeswoman Natalie Whitty. And donât forget your âgolden handshakeâ â the government is now welcoming new teachers qualified in science, maths, technology and ICT with a ÂŁ5000 payout.
Expand your mind
It may be hard to imagine right now, but watching reruns of American Idol will get boring â eventually. When it happens, take advantage of free lectures in your area instead. University College London offers to feed your mind at lunchtimes â recent talks have tackled questions such as what have lawyers ever done for us, the future of Brazil, and does rule-learning make us human?
Be the best
Consider joining the Territorial Army or the Royal Naval Reserves. You give them a few weekends a year and they train and pay you, but you have to agree to a six month stint should they need you. Itâs a great way to find out what a military career could be like without signing years of your life away.
Save the world
Want to travel but scared that employers will interpret six months in South America as an extended booze cruise? Consider Voluntary Service Overseas. VSO has a programme aimed at 18 to 25-year-olds called Global Exchange, where a group of students spend half a year working on projects in each otherâs countries.
Use your passport
âYouâll find new opportunities, new perspectives and may find your ideal job was not the one you thought,â says science presenter Ben Valsler, who moonlighted on local radio while teaching science to children in Thailand. He attributes his DJing success to the fact that his listeners could not understand a word he was saying.
Develop a philosophy
If not your own, read a bit more and nick someone elseâs.
Build yourself a website
Advertise yourself on a website you designed and built yourself. âMy sonâs fall-back plan is to create a website and see if he can earn some money from it,â says Graham Roberts, a managing director at engineering consultancy Atkins. âAs a student youâre already broke, so youâve got nothing to lose.â
ÂAs a student youâre already broke, so youâve got nothing to loseÂ
Teach English as a foreign language
There is a vast array of TEFL courses out there, which can be taken in the UK or abroad. It offers a great opportunity to dip your toes into the teaching profession, while providing a potentially life-changing immersion in an exotic culture.
Keep an open mind
Flip a burger, pull a pint and wait on tables. True, it might not have been part of your five-year plan but it will pay the bills while you look for something more long-term, and who knows which CEOs you might end up serving.
Cultivate hidden talents
Perform your secret stand-up routine at your local open-mike night. Semi-celebrity physicist Brian Cox played keyboard in 90s band D:Ream while studying for a degree in particle physics. Comedian Ben Miller started a PhD in quantum physics at the University of Cambridge and Brian May of Queen completed his PhD in astrophysics in 2007. Apparently, it also helps if youâre called Brian.
Run a marathon
It feels amazing, you can raise lots of money for charity, and the training can help you run off out-of-work anxiety. Be warned, when you finish, youâll never want to taste Lucozade again.
Explore the depthsâŠ
Fly to Thailand and do a scuba-diving course. Then do another one, then another, until youâre qualified to teach. Stay and teach indefinitely until bored/out of funds/imprisoned for inadvertently insulting the king.
âŠor the peaks
As above, but swap Thailand for the Alps and your fins for skis.
Take evening classes
An introduction to existentialism through to beginnerâs Greek by way of life-drawing could help you continue your pursuit of knowledge beyond the lecture theatre. Even if it doesnât lead you to a job, your speed-dating conversation will improve no end.
Tee-total your way out of the red
One month of abstinence could pay off a chunk of your student debt, or fund a trip to your European destination of choice.
Work on Plan B
Itâs psychologically and practically sensible to have a back-up plan. If you cannot get on a graduate scheme then aim to get any job within the sector and continue to apply for schemes while youâre working. Getting a foot in the door â no matter how far â is half the battle.
Fall in love
Forget about real life â temporarily.