However, it's quite depressing to be in your 20s and have no prospects. I've been interviewed - and turned down - for a few jobs, usually because one of the other candidates is more experienced than I am. That's a bitter pill to swallow: my rejection is not even based on my ability but simply on the fact that I haven't been doing such-and-such a job for 2+ years. I'm also being turned down for jobs I used to do before I went to uni which is a bit baffling.
Do you want a fulfilling career, or are you just looking for a way of earning money?
If you can find fulfilment outside of work i.e. your attitude is 'Work to live' rather than 'Live to work', I'd seriously suggest that you spend some time looking at Internet Marketing (IM) in between filling in applications for conventional jobs.
There are a lot of bright young people like you making a good living doing IM.
Advantages: The most flexy flextime possible, very low barrier to entry - £250 could cover your costs for a year (a few domain names, webhosting account and some software; I'm assuming you have the computer and internet access already), no boss to answer to, virtually unlimited
potential earnings, you can work anywhere with a broadband connection and power for your computer.
Disadvantages: Steep learning curve, worrying uncertainty of income (zero in the early days!), constant change (but that applies to real jobs too these days).
I was swapping emails with a young entrepreneur in Canada who had her own wine shop but was thinking of selling up because she was earning more online than the shop was making.
I also occasionally communicate with another young woman, this one in Leeds. She has young children and juggles looking after them with her IM activities. She made more than £20k in her first year.
Even though times are looking bad in the current economic climate, there are also amazing opportunities for intelligent young people with the determination to 'go for it'.
I'm just starting to make some money doing IM. I haven't really been putting my full effort into it yet, but to give you an idea of what is possible -
this review averaged about £1/day for me in December/January. TBH, the review is a bit waffly. I could have made it shorter and more effective but I just wrote what I wanted to write and moved on to something else. I've gone back and updated it a couple of times since then.
The Christmas spending rush boosted earnings, but I reckon it still makes me about £125 a year. It only took a couple of hours to put together and it should carry on earning money into the future. Imagine having a couple of hundred of little money-earners like that on the go simultaneously!
Another suggestion - sign up for the
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing programme. You are an English student -
write! There is no editorial review. Your eBook
will be published as long as it is your work and doesn't break the rules (obvious stuff - no promotion of paedophilia, terrorism etc.). If you keep the price below $10, you get a 70% royalty. You don't have to write a long best-seller. Write 100 short works which sell, say, 1 copy a week at $9.99 and you'd be making 100 x $9.99 x 0.7 ~ $700 or £450 a week.
My message is this - don't think that you need to wait for someone to give you a job -
you can build your own business!
When I'm feeling down, I reread this:
Theodore Roosevelt said:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.