All through school, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I ‘grew up’. Of course I did play with some ideas, vaguely influenced by parents and friends etc., but I was blissfully concentrating on the present and never really gave it too much thought. When I reached university, it suddenly appeared to be more important – mostly because my friends tended to be snobbish scientists who looked down on anyone studying an Arts subject.

But it was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind – many university students at all levels tend to think of jobs in terms of basic teacher/nurse/doctor/researcher/fireman/shop assistant terms, and of course an English degree is extremely limited from that perspective. I don’t think I even realised myself how many different kinds of jobs there are until I started hunting for them myself, back in the summer of 2008. I remember getting increasingly annoyed with well-meaning people who would say, ‘So what do you want to be when you graduate? A teacher, an author or a journalist?’ as if those were the only options available to me as an English graduate. Firstly, over 50% of people don’t have a job related to their degree (it’s the degree in itself that’s important for lots of these jobs). Secondly, it’s an incredibly narrow-minded way to look at things, particularly if you’re using it as an excuse to criticise my degree choice. There are hundreds, probably more, areas to consider if you’re thinking of jobs relating to English degrees as well as teacher, author and journalist. I myself have worked as a copywriter and editor, a proof reader and bug tester, a web content writer, and a reviewer, and my current job involves blogging and social media work. I’ve also seen and applied for jobs in a variety of other areas: technical writing, marketing, advertising and so on.

So how is all this related to my title of being lucky? Well, despite the fact that I had no idea what I wanted to do, even as I was looking for jobs to apply for, I was lucky enough to end up with a couple of jobs that were in the field I wanted to work in. For about a year and a half, I was convinced that I wanted to be a copywriter, and it was these jobs that inadvertently led to my current role, which is technically as ‘SEO and Social Media Marketing Executive’. As most of my friends had trouble remembering my title as ‘Web Copywriter’, or even what I did, I’ve not even bothered to tell them this one!

But I do feel extremely lucky, firstly in that my learning curve for what I wanted to do was so small, and secondly because I figured out what I wanted to do and now I’m doing it. The same can’t be said for probably 95% of my friends (the other 5% ish being teachers – a clear career path). They do a mixture of things, everything from shop work to job hunting, but a lot of them don’t know what they want to do. I guess it’s a kind of post-university mid-life crisis, which isn’t made any easier by the economic conditions right now. I want to help, but I’m not sure how, as even those who know what they want to do are struggling to find a job in their preferred field.

(Advice I would give, is, if you’re still in education, find some work. Voluntary or otherwise, get some office experience, or vaguely related experience, e.g. if you know vaguely that you want to work with animals, then try to get voluntary experience locally, or residential placements during holidays. A related job at uni really helped me. Secondly, apply for as much as you can, as often as you can. I often applied for 90+ jobs a week whilst I was hunting – I have friends who applied for hundreds. Don’t give up! Even email round local companies and tell them you’re willing to work for them (even if it’s for free) – attach samples of work and see how it goes. Thirdly, don’t waste your time whilst hunting. Get a website/portfolio/online resume up. Do local voluntary work (do-it.org.uk is brilliant if you live in the UK). Start looking for Christmas jobs. Find out about job fairs in your local area.)

As so many people are in a similar position of graduating and not being able to find a job (or find a job they enjoy), it’s easy to blame it on someone – or something – else. But you have to get up every day and try everything you can think of to get a job. You have to be motivated, and avoid the temptation of using the time to do exactly what you want all day – otherwise nothing will change. If you have a job, it’s easy enough to stick with it and grumble – but if you don’t like it, then it doesn’t hurt to look around. You have the benefit of security whilst you do so, although job hunting is much harder when you’re tired, have little time and have interview tasks to complete as well as your day-to-day role.

I really hope my friends get out of this situation, because they are all lovely, talented people who deserve more. I am genuinely concerned about some of them, because the situations they’re in are literally unhealthy, but I’m there for them if they need me without being judgemental, and I want to offer constructive advice more than anything else. The silver lining in all of it is that it does make me appreciate what I’ve got, and although it’s hard sometimes when I only have a few friends who are in the same situation as me, I do feel extremely lucky that I have a job I enjoy so much.

So, how about you? Are you worried about finding a job? Are you happy with what you’ve got?