It was while I was reading an article on the Daily Mail website entitled ‘I don’t want to be me any more’: Student, 21, with 10 GCSEs and 3 A-levels kills herself after being rejected from 200 jobs‘. It made me remind me of my own situation and problem I’m faced with.
4-5 years ago I was unemployed, I made myself unemployed – I was forced out of a job I was working, I won’t say where I was working as I don’t want to get into trouble. I was having problem with the managers and because my partner works there as well, it became an unhealthy environment. I didn’t have a job to fall back on but I couldn’t keep working there, I was very unhappy.
My parents and partner wasn’t exactly supported it but I was determined and stubborn and they eventually gave in, I was still living at home with my parents. I wanted an entire new direction and I knew I wanted to work in fashion, even if it was admin. I signed up on the job seeking benefits and had to go to the job centre every week to report my status.
My routine would be wake up early log into vary job hunting website such as monsters and any other job seeking website, then read the paper scanning for any job. If I saw one I would apply immediately and would wait. In the meantime I did an evening class doing a City & Guild qualification in MS applications to bulk up my skills.
When you received a letter saying ‘wish to meet up for an interview’ – your heart beat and you get a sense of woohoo to put it bluntly. The moment you received the ‘thanks but no thanks’ rejection letter it when your heart start to sink.
I was unemployed for a year and during that time I was rejected for over hundreds of jobs – it heart wreaking and soul destroying. I always consider myself to be properly qualified to take on a simple admin job, I always works hard in school and made sure I passed all my grade.
To finish my side of the story, I eventually took up a job for my local Waitrose and I ended up liking it but felt in side of me there was so much more within me I need to prove to people. That why I took myself off to university – I wanted to expand my horizon and to get a better job so I can have a better life prospect.
This issue of being unemployed and being rejected for job is a serious issue in which the government seriously need to take notice off. Now we have a con-lib government will they take notice and address this issue? Only time will tell, but in the meantime we are tell our children that uni is the path to take – while on the other end of the spectrum graduate are focus into a job market where it bleak. Unemployment is at higher at the height of the recession and many of them were young graduate. This is a prospect that I will also face in 2-3 years’ time, I have no idea is the market will be in a better shape than it in now.
I feel for the young girl and understand how she must have been feeling. The job market does need a re-vamp so this incident can never be repeated. One person alone cannot act – everyone needs to act and get the government to take full responsibility and to act now.
Update:
Since I last wrote this blog post – I feel the situation have not change and I often feel like I’m going to get no-where. I sometime question myself on why I went to uni if I’m getting nowhere in life. I want to work somewhere I don’t wake up with dread or butterflies in my stomach, I want look forward to my day instead of having very bad anxiety and scared in case I mess up by doing something wrong, I also want somewhere I’m not watching the clock and waiting for home-time.
This I feel is getting ridiculous – everyone keep saying ”don’t worry, sometime will turn up”. But when as I been trying for 4 years now and I’m tired of waiting – I feel like nothing will turn up and I will continue being in rut for the rest of life. I’m loosing my mind with this, it the first thing I wake up thinking about and the last thing at night.
