The Struggles of the Young Professional

While looking through CVs and LinkedIn/Reed/Indeed/Totaljobs/Milkround/Monster/etc. profiles a pattern emerges: the good young professional is a motivated self-starter with great communication skills and the ability to remain calm under pressure; an individual with initiative and impeccable team spirit; a multitasking, enthusiastic master of timekeeping.

Hahahahahhahahahahaahahhahaahahahahahha

Please….. I’ve interviewed enough people to know that’s ridiculous.

The problem is multiple career websites out there keep saying “don’t be generic”, ” make your CV pop”, “get the LinkedIn profile your career deserves”. Yeah, give us £15 a month and we will help you get the job you want.
Right! I was broke before I graduated and I was broke after. You’re not guaranteeing me a job but a newsletter with what you consider helpful tips. I’ll be damned if I give you a week’s worth of groceries every month so you can touch up my cover letter.

It is at that moment of rebellion when job hunting becomes a fulltime job, a 24/7 occupation that does not guarantee employment in any way, shape or form. This applies to fresh graduates and people already in employment who want to change careers. And many times for the young professional, this full time job hunting is happening while trying to lead an independent adult life. You find a flat with a rent that doesn’t lead to bankruptcy, you commute to work in the same stressful situation every day, a couple of times a week you grab a coffe-to-go from the local bakery in an attempt to keep some sense of community, and you stay in the office a few extra hours because this level of dedication will surely be rewarded during the next cycle of pay raises and/or promotions (or so you keep telling yourself).

And so it goes. 3-6 days a week, 44-48 weeks a year, indefinitely… Unless you decide to change your predicament. How? I’ve come to discover it is not an easy task, I’m still working on it.

Just bear with me for a while.

HELLO AND WELCOME

The First Post Cliche (yes this spelling is also correct).

As a “young professional” I’ve tailored and re-tailored my CV and cover letters enough times to be well acquainted with cliches. I AM a cliche.

In my twenties, with an International Politics and Policy degree (and an eternal student loan of course), working as a manager in healthcare, while completing a project management qualification, and planning a future move to a sector of interest. More than 60% of my income goes for tax, insurance, rent and transport, and I see my “young professional” friends once in a blue moon, and my family even less often. I know for a fact that I am not alone.

However, what makes my ordeal a bit more peculiar is this – I work for a small organisation. This makes me the office manager, the HR manager, the financial manager, the complaints and quality assurance manager, the health and safety nominated representative, an occasional receptionist and a permanent assistant to the company director. I am both the employer and the employee; I’ve gained perspective.

I always thought about sharing what I’ve learned (and what I think about what I’ve learned), and so I am starting this blog. I want to tell my fellow young professionals (and all those soon to become such) that job search is a full time job, and when you finally get a full time job it usually becomes an overtime job. Half the time personal statements don’t even matter. You can have 10 years of work experience or no experience at all; you can have three 1st class degrees or none at all;  low pay rates do not discriminate.

However, although there will be some employment life advice involved, I must beg you not see this as a career coaching site. It is more of a platform to expose the struggles of young professionals in London and elsewhere, and our attempts to make it through the absurdity of the 21st century job market. If you identify with this, please reach out, and share your experiences with me.

Welcome to Career Cliches and thank you for reading 🙂