Other Job options for Graduates…

Last week, I returned with my Diary of an Employable Blogaholic post and discussed in a convoluted way the issue of poor career advice being given to students and graduates pre and post graduation. But if a full paid position is not as freely available in the current job market as one would like to hope, what are the immediate alternatives for a student, now unemployed to find a position and fast? Below I highlight just a few of the options you might want to consider…

Self-Employment

According to a recent survey from The Prince’s Trust and RBS, 25% of our young people expect to be self-employed within the next 5 years. Apart from the obvious, “if there ain’t no jobs, I’ll create one myself” psyche, there are a load of reasons why anyone, not just recent grads would consider this as a career option. The reason I started writing blogs for The Employable was because I was made redundant. Redundancy led not only to me co-founding The Employable but also co-founding startacus.net a go-to platform for other wannabe self starters and entrepreneurs. One thing’s for sure, although it’s hard work and there’s a never-ending list of responsibility, there’s something irreplaceable about being able to manage your own work and work responsibility. No more going in the wrong direction but not being able to change that direction – that’s for sure!

Work for a Startup

I recently wrote a piece on this for another site, and listed a few of the main advantages of trying to work for a new business / startup. A couple of the key points I made (in terms of advantages) included:

– The Opportunity

When you leave Uni, the chances are that unless you do a vocational type degree, you will start at the bottom in any established business and have to work your way up. This is not always the case with a startup where, as one of only a few staff members, you will have to take responsibility left, right and centre. Within 6 months you may have built up an abundance of experience – experience it might have taken 2-3 years to acquire if you had been in an established organisation with a large headcount.

– Creativity

Working for a startup business – lots of the big decisions, creativity and general innovation within the organisation is still to be done.

Of course listing the advantages is all well and good, but where to find those sacred roles? Well, Work in Startups is a good website for startup roles, Silicon Jobs Roundabout is a good jobs fair based in London that highlights startup opportunities, and Kick Campus is a graduate jobs fair for startup jobs that is about to fully launch in the UK. But if nothing else, take a little look online and simply type in startup jobs board and your general location and you might get lucky!

Volunteer / Work Experience / Internships

These are certainly not for everyone – that’s for sure. Of course, the three options above are probably all rather ‘low to no’ wage and we appreciate that for some of you this might not be a long term option. However all three are worth considering, if you are unemployed and only getting benefits anyway, as all three are likely to add value and strength to your CV. If you are at home, hoping to find employment, but not having much luck – at least getting out there and working, will potentially help you in the long term. Short term pain for long term gain. Of course, be careful that the role is adding value to your CV and not just taking advantage of your low earning labour. However this is an option, recession or otherwise that many previous graduates have had to consider.

I hope these three options help and I’ll be returning next week with another Diary of an Employable Blogaholic post. Until then!