Seriously, How Do People Do It? Graduate Employment and the Ever-Looming Jump of Faith.

Hastings Pebble Beach //
A metaphor for graduate life choices.
To jump or not to jump...?

Seriously, how do people do it?

Go to university, find a career path, maybe find a man or woman, maybe not, and start earning real money, climbing all those metaphorical ladders society invented...

On the flip side, I see daily posts on Facebook about how people have no idea what they're doing. Every teen movie involves a speech about not having to know what you want to be when you grow up. Psychologists all over the world are taking pity on our generation for our overwhelming amount of choices leading to increased pressure and stress; depression and suicide. Some blame social media, others blame a mollycoddled childhood, and then there's a few hippies that blame our apparent lack of motivation on the eternal damnation of the planet.

I'm not taking sides.

[Note: Honestly, I am slightly pissed off about the whole eternal damnation thing]

Then something miraculous happens! A couple of years after the very impressive 50% of the population have glided seamlessly from university to employment, a further 25% seems to just fall, unwittingly, into a career they'd never considered before but welcome with open arms and a new passion for life. 12.5% are already parents and married at this point and are just loving life smelling vaguely of vomit and Sudocrem. I don't judge.

That leaves 12.5%.

The best way I can describe that 12.5% of the population is Jennifer Aniston in nearly all of her roles (apart from Friends. Sorry Rachel).

Exhibit A: Along Came Polly. Aniston plays Polly, a slightly scatty, fun-loving, well-travelled woman who seems to have fallen through the cracks since college. You know the ones that don't go to the reunions? She loves her life as an agency waitress living in a little flat with her ferret.

Exhibit B: Friends with Money. Jenny quit her job as a teacher and is now a cleaner who is still hung up on the married man she fell in love with while all her friends are rich and equally as miserable.

Exhibit C: Cake. I don't think I need to say anymore about that one.

[Note: I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that all of those figures are totally hypothetical and should not be cited in your dissertations.]

I'm currently sat on the very, very (very) tall fence between the 25% that fall, accidentally and not-totally-gracefully into a career I'd never considered before: social media and marketing communications (aye?); and a hard core 12.5% Jen.

Do I do a masters in communications? If so, I could do it near my home county (Cornwall)...

Do I just drop everything and move to London and jump in the deep end? Could potentially result in me becoming a call girl...

Moving to London could also throw up dream opportunities to live and work in Australia forever and ever. Where I could potentially still end up a call girl...

If I did a masters in Cornwall and stayed in Cornwall, would that life be enough for me?

Do careers stop you travelling?

"Hey Siri, how many weeks of holiday do people in PR get?"

My point is, I know I'm not alone here. I'm more than aware that, in real terms, 31% of graduates are not doing "graduate or high-skilled jobs." 

Michael Tomlinson, a Southampton University graduate, researched the complex modern-day nature of graduate employability. Along with many other scholars on our favourite dissertation helpline, Google Scholar, he mentions the growing changes in "graduate employability" and whether or not our educations have, in fact, fully prepared us for the "changing economic environment, shaped profoundly by the challenges of economic globalisation?"(2016)

In simple terms, back in t' day, our parents were pretty much destined to end up where they ended up. Schooling and future careers were usually decided by your social class and parents jobs. You could only hope that hard work and clever thinking would slightly better your social status for your offspring.

"'Ere, Jimmy, what do you mean you want to study English at University? You speak it just fine. No lad, we'll train you good and proper down at the factory!" 

[Note: Very much aware that this wasn't the case for everyone! As we see in series 5, episode 4 of Call the Midwife, when a boy tries to kill himself because he's gotten his girlfriend pregnant and can no longer live his dream of going to university and instead is given a job in the factory. Luckily (?) she has miscarriage and he can accept his place at Durham University to study English. Happy days.]

Look at them!
Acting all happy even though about 31% are just as lost and
clueless as when the started! Yipee!

Quite the stark comparison to us. There are now more graduates than high-skilled jobs and we all have a slightly warped view of what we, as smart people, deserve when we graduate. It's become the new British dream, preached by every school, college, academy and parent: Work really hard, go to university, and get a job that pays over the living wage. Enjoy your job and your life, and be financially secure. We're simple people, the Brits. 

Essentially, we're told we can take over the world, but most of us lack the motivation and self confidence to even take control of our own lives!

I'm blaming choice. 

[Nearly] Every, single one of us is a massive commitment-phobe and we don't even know it. In love, we're making the 60's look prude; in education, they tell us we can do anything we set our minds to; in university, we're trained academically in a field that we're usually passionate about, and if not, then that's fine! Swap and change until you find what fits best. Boarders? What boarders? We're the most travelled generation since the nomads pre-dating the Ice Age. We are issued with a new phone every year, a new fashion style every three months; a new topic to debate, another hobby to perfect, another man/woman to date, another app to download, another fad to give up.

My biggest commitment is my phone bill. 

Yet here we find ourselves, staring, forlorn into the distance as if our future is on the horizon. Fact: by the time we've graduated, the only thing stopping us reaching the horizon, is a little bit of hard work and commitment. We've surpassed most of life's other obstacles such as lacking intelligence, age and experience. 

Yet here we stand. Staring. At the seas edge, wondering if our bikini/board shorts accentuate our tan, thinking we'd much rather just play about in the shallows, not moving forward or back, than swim all the way to the horizon. We're all perfectly competent swimmers. With a bit of commitment we could achieve it in a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.

And yet here we stand. 

Turns out, we're fucking terrified. Turns out,

our ruse of confidence is just that. Then the defence mechanisms kick in.

"I don't even want to do that anyway!" 

"I'm a lone wolf, destined to roam the planet with no focus or commitment!"

"My career just hasn't been invented yet. I'm going to be one of those innovative people!"

We cling to our loved ones for security, procrastinate, retrain, rethink, grasp at excuses, dip our toes in, take a vacation, go blind. The horizon is still there. 

Our friends jump in, are fellow graduates jump in, some people fall in, others were there all along...

Seriously, how do people do it? 

I'll keep you posted.

Peace Out.