Okay, so I'm in my last year of university and it's fricking freaking me out. Everyone's either secured amazing graduate jobs already or are in the process of securing amazing graduate jobs by actually applying for them. Not only does the phrase have the 'G-word' in it (I refuse to acknowledge that I'm actually going to 'graduate' in less than a year) but it also hints at the fact that there is life beyond university. It's like a whole new cosmos! I tried to apply for one of these graduate schemes, I really did... but it didn't go so well. I got to the first stage of the application process which is a little test they like to call 'verbal reasoning'. I kid you not, it was by far the hardest 30 minutes my brain has ever suffered. I don't know what verbal reasoning really is, but it made Philosophy A-level seem like a walk in the park. My poor little brain couldn't handle the fact that there were more than three big words in one sentence. These were words with four and five syllables , and there were so many of them! Now, I'm not totally stupid, nor do I have the world's smallest vocabulary... I study Theology so I'm used to lots and lots of big confusing words, but the likes of Kant and Nietzsche are much kinder than these horrible graduate applications. So anyway, rant almost over. I've become totally put off by graduate schemes now. After millions of rounds, which includes verbal reasoning tests, numerical tests, phone interview after interview and then the real life intimidating interview where you know that the person who went before you went to Oxford and the guy after you probably went to LSE or Imperial. Then when you finally get the job (if you get the job), all you have to do is get a 2.1 right? Simples. Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on graduate employment on a whole (and maybe I'm really just terrified of working in a pub kitchen, washing dishes for the rest of my life) but I'm not sure I like the idea of these kinds of jobs. The kind of job where you're just another one of 2012's Autumn intake, the kind of job that cream-crops the best of the best in the country, the kind of job where 9-5 seem like a weekend because you're more likely to be working 8-8. Of course there is an appeal for this kind of job, and some people will love it, but it's just not for me. I want to see the world, I don't want an office, I don't want to keep up with the Jones' and I certainly don't want to spend all day wishing it was time to go home. I still have no clue what I'm going to do with my life so I think I'll just concentrate on my dissertation for now.
