Graduating into One of the Nastiest Job Markets in History

I graduated last year, in England. In journalism. (In hindsight, perhaps not the brightest of choices.) I freelanced for a while, not earning nearly enough to live, before landing a job on a brand new small radio station. The station was a spectacular failure and went amazingly tits-up (I'm talking people removing equipment in front of us) after just six months.

Since then, I've been working a succession of shit temp jobs in supermarkets, fast food and so on. Next month, I'm moving to the Scottish islands. I've always wanted to, but I never have because "the opportunities aren't there". But now I've got a choice between working a rubbish warehouse job on a miserable industrial estate down here and working a rubbish job serving meals on a ferry surrounded by some of the world's most beautiful scenery, it's a no-brainer.

I could stay here in the hope that the radio industry picks up at some point, but why bother? Our industry is all but dead and we've got so little to lose that it's worth being radical, leaving the career treadmill behind for a while, going somewhere different, trying something that's off the heavily beaten media industry track and maybe, just maybe, finding that one thing that stirs our individual passion in a way that the trendy career we picked under pressure at eighteen never has. (Personally, I can't believe universities are still churning out broadcast journalists by the thousand, but that's off the point.)

You might as well grab your dream, run with it and see where it drags you.

(Posting under a false name because my main account's under my googleable real name)

Not that bad. You probably don't have a mortgage, wife or children yet. You can usually still stay with your parents. You have enough freedom and enthousiasm to do a start-up. You can probably still secure an internship including a visa. If all else fails, you can even do a PhD.

Maybe if you're a liberal arts major. I had three offers within two weeks of beginning my job search in January. This is NOT a bad time to be a CS graduate.

Take comfort from the fact that you are graduating into one of the nastiest job markets in the history of the United States and still don't have to face the kind of competition that you would in any of these countries:

Liberia (80%)

Zimbabwe (70%)

East Timor (50%)

Bosnia (40%)

http://www.aneki.com/unemployment.html

Graduates in any of those countries would gladly swap places with you.