Butcher,
Baker, candlestick maker?
A Graduate at the Job Centre
A Graduate at the Job Centre
The
Jobcentre. Or the Big JC. Whatever your social position you are not likely
to forget the anti-respiratory stuffiness, the shortest ever cycle of
chart music and the dear staff who look as if they too have only just
'signed off'. Ahhhh, those two little words that permeate the whole system
of the Big JC. It's to 'sign off' not 'on' that is the reason for its
being, I feel. Or rather it is the two faces of this Ring Master who lords
that to 'sign on' denotes failure, to 'sign off' success. Barely a difference
in them lyrically, but parted by a vast sea of meaning.
I
entered the JC with all the blasé of a recent graduate who is simply
"filling the space between rungs, so don't get too used to this face
chaps you won't be seeing it long!" But I soon felt that my footing
was not so stable. The forms I could cope with, completed far too many
of them in my time. What sprung the trap around this little hoppity skippity
rabbit was the essential first interview with my 'Career Guide'. "So
Mary, what is it you want to do??????"
When
this question was first put to me I was 15 and it was my first careers
guidance meeting at school. My answer then? Why, to go to University of
course. This had always been my aim, my goal and ambition for as far back
as one is likely to actually have one. This suited the Careers Lady just
fine, she shunted me out of her temporary office, temporarily smiling
and proud until she faced the less ambitious comprehensive cattle. I smile
humorlessly in retrospect. Those kids are now probably earning twice as
much as me, or they're in prison and in that case it probably doesn't
much matter to them.
A
few chapters on, only a few as University is but three years, and I'm
signing on with icy hands and a trembling poised pen. I hear that same
question asked again. "So Mary, what is it you want to do?"
University is over. I'm out with a 2:i degree in English Literature with.....wait
for it, it's the career assurance of the new Millennium.....Creative Writing!
And I feel as ready and as qualified for a career as Tom is at catching
Jerry.
I
am Mary and I'm a Doley. Graduate or no Graduate, I was exactly the same
as all the other fidgety individuals queuing on a Tuesday morning. Okay
so it's not the crack of dawn at 11:10am and I live a stones throw away
from my JC, and yes I am a graduate God Damnit! But I am not looking so
out of place and........yes, I too am fidgeting! It's these damn nylon
polyester mix seat covers! I go to my usual point 5 and I'm asked if I've
seen anything on the board. What exactly I'm supposed to find there I
don't know. A career? Factory, farming and care aside, what is there for
me? Typist jobs? With my 35 wpm? I'm an academic not a desk jockey. There
is nothing there and no secret stash of under-the-counter jobs reserved
for the academia. "No love, should 'ave sorted it all out before
you left Uni. At your Careers Library."
So now I'm thinking. Was that dissertation so pressurizing that I couldn't 'ave......sorry Have (I'm suddenly slipping into janner speech), that I couldn't have found that perfect career, in the hippest town, with beautiful accommodation and an active social life? Surely not that much pressure. You're an English Literature student, we all know they don't work!
I
signed on for three and a half months and I can tell you that it was a
real confidence destroyer. I said I was taking time out. I had been studying
for years and expecting me to jump straight into a career was unfair.
But the Truth? The truth was that I had accomplished my ambition, to go
to University, and I had no idea what to do in it's wake. What I was suited
for or what I wanted, I just did not know. We all have our talents and
abilities but this is not always an indicator when there are so many career
prospects on the job market.
I
didn't need a break, activity can be the best mental relaxation because
it does not allow for that inertia to creep in and paralyze your ability
to solve your problems, both personally and professionally. I don't exactly
envy those whose aims are always job orientated and know what steps to
take to get there. They too can suffer, if doubt sets in they're left
with a serious priority crisis.
I
feel that I am starting from a beginning. From square one sounds negative
and it's not that. That University was the end of one stage, and one that
will contribute to the next hopefully, if not as much as one might imagine,
and a new stage is beginning is how I feel. These words are full with
possibility and it's these possibilities that will help form my future
aims, goals and ambitions. I admit that my combined use of the scatter-gun
and drift net tactics are somewhat broad based, but I want to be open
minded because the returns will show me what next step to take. It may
not be planned, but what comes as a surprise might be a future I never
for saw but always imagined.
Want
to share some of your Post Grad experiences? Contact Mary at maryestone@hotmail.com
Mary Stone
