FOUR IN TEN FEEL THEY ARE NOT PART OF SOCIETY
*Thinking dark thoughts?
We promise you’re not alone — and there is help available. Please contact PAPYRUS or the Samaritans now.
New statistics provide a startling glimpse inside the minds of the hundreds of thousands of young people who are currently out of work in the UK, including graduates.
Fresh figures from the online mentoring service FutureYou show that over three quarters of the nation’s unemployed young people (aged 18-24) agreed with the statement “My life is being wasted.” One in four admitted they are relying on state benefits as their main source of income. One in five believes they are unlikely to ever get a job or career in the future – and seven in 10 say their potential is being thrown away. Four in ten feel they are not part of society.
The report also reveals that the average NEET (that horrible term for anybody not in employment, education or training) spends eight months unsuccessfully searching for a job or training – and over a quarter say the support and advice available (such as local job centres and careers advisers) is inadequate.
Patrick Gifford, programme manager at FutureYou, says:
“Traditional methods of getting young people into work aren’t working. Young people have told us that career advisors and Job Centres were the least useful tool available to them. What they want is support from people their age, their families and working people they can take realistic advice from, and it’s online which is their ‘go-to’ destination.”
FutureYou – which is funded by local authorities, schools, colleges and public bodies such as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts and Nominet Trust – has already reached over 100,000 young people. Since its launch in 2010 it has helped a third of its members into employment by providing free career information, advice and guidance – and 85% feel more positive about their future. An army of FutureYou Mentors from major employers such Google, Thomas Cook, TalkTalk and Barclays are trained and ready to help.
But FutureYou say their offering goes deeper than just offering career advice. As their latest figures show that one in five young unemployed people feel their life is not worth living and a quarter have contemplated suicide to escape their situation, it’s clear that in a personal sense these are very dark days indeed for many young people. As Gifford explains:
“They need our help more than ever now. So, in addition to the more practical information, advice and guidance, we also provide young people with access to experienced counsellors who can offer emotional support and help pinpoint any wellbeing issues that may be holding them back from releasing their potential.”
Graduate Fog is disturbed by these new figures – but I can’t say I’m shocked. Anybody who’s ever been out of work for more than a few days knows how scarily fast your confidence and motivation can evaporate. Successful job-hunting is about so much more than CVs and applications. (If anything that’s the easy bit!)
If your job-hunt has stalled, there’s a lot you can do. Dig deep and make a new plan to find work:
If you’re struggling with confidence and motivation, visit Graduate Fog’s Advice pages:
How to stay motivated and How to handle rejection
If you’ve become convinced there are no jobs out there, read:
How to fight the recession
How to find vacancies
And if you feel like you want to get your job hunt going, but somehow it’s just not happening, read:
How to organise your job hunt
For more information about Future You, visit thefutureyou.org.uk or facebook.com/futureyouuk
*Is job hunting getting you down?
Do you think there should be more emotional support and counselling offered to young people struggling to find a job? What do you do when you’re having a ‘down’ day?
@BlahBlah I am making myself more employable: I’ve been volunteering for 2 years and doing IT courses. Is it helping much when I have a 7 year gap on my CV from when I was severely depressed? No. I go to classes, I have hobbies, my satisfaction levels aren’t bad but it’s pretty depressing being broke.
Is anyone else worried the government could change the terms on student loan repayments?
http://planetivy.com/uknews/50725/government-to-bleed-graduates-for-more-by-changing-the-terms-of-old-student-loans/
Government wants to sell off student loans to private investors….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/jun/17/rothschild-report-student-loans-risks
Hi everyone,
Firstly this is a very relatable post.
I would actually like to ask a question. When someone that you used to work with asks you if you have got a job (and you don’t have one), and this is many months later after you last worked together, in a nosey way more than anything, because said person failed to keep in contact and rejected my requests to meet up, does it suggest that they KNOW that you are not working, but they are asking anyway. This is my current situation and call me paranoid but it feels as if my former colleague is asking while seemingly knowing the answer to their question, because the tone is as if they feel really sorry for me. I live in an area where even though I don’t have many friends I have a lot of acquaintances and so couId be ”seen” by people who don’t exactly help me with my situation but still want to know what I am doing. Having a job is what defines people and if you don’t have one, you are nothing. The stress is really getting to me. I would love to read any comments regarding my question/if anyone has been in a similar situation.
@Caitlyn
Yeah I’m in a similar position, 5 years unemployed. having no money restricts a lot of what you could do, that’s why I suggested the classes and hobbies… to socialise equally as much as learning. I took a couple of part time courses because to me the social isolation was far worse, and if anything it stopped me from thinking about the lack of money all the time.
@soulsearcher
Sounds like dirty psychological mind games. Just say you’re employed and looking. The best that can happen is that they know someone or can refer you to a job.
The worst that can happen is if they think you’re a waster and tell their friends about it, but considering how things are today with many educated and experienced people out of work, if they think like that then there’s no emotional loss on your part.
I understand you guys, I feel I’m being wasted but in a different way, and mostly my own fault! Basically, I left uni with a 3rd. I got this grade for various reasons: I battled pretty severe depression and loneliness, was pretty suicidal at a few points during the cause, actually attempted suicide once but failed (obviously!). I had counselling etc etc, and did get a lot of support from tutors etc. Moved house a few times too during the final year, due to said previous issue, I had a lot of time off in the second and last year, among other issues. At the end of the course, even though it became clear that I was ‘failing’, my main tutor actually congratulated me on getting through the course and completing still. I’ve no idea why but i guess the fact i was even still alive was a miracle somewhat. One thing though, is that i had a part-time job throughout, and luckily they were understanding and let me have time off during my crises. On leaving uni (2009), i didn’t bother applying for any so-called decent jobs, mainly because i knew the 3rd would hold me back, and partly because i saw what many friends went through getting knocked back and rejection after rejection. I just set my sights a lot lower and applied for jobs where i didn’t need a degree, such as food service, retail etc and i did put my degree/grade on and thought it would deem me overqualied but shit at the same time due to the 3rd, but I actually found it easy to get a job. I actually moved around jobs every 18 months or so, but yeah they were a basic jobs and i was earning roughly 900quid a month which is crap really, but i still felt lucky because my peers were still unemployed. I managed to get onto the in-house management training scheme where i’m now one of the assistant managers, only on 17k 5 years after finishing uni, and i know it’s crap and to some not a major thing by i still feel lucky. I don’t know what the future holds, a 3rd rate graduate who is an assistant manager at a dining place, but i’m hoping my latest experience might help me up, and i’m going to look into doing a another degree from open university (they expensive now thanks to the tuition fee rises). I’m still having bouts of depression but its getting better i think, and i still feel lonely even though i have support from a the very few friends i have, plus my family. I still live with my family too, but hope to move out when I’ve saved up some more. Guys perhaps you could aim a bit ‘lower’ such as supermarkets/fast food places (I know some of you have tried, sorry), and think about working your way up, cos perhaps if u get some superviser/manager experience it might help you along?) I don’t know. I’ll just have to wait an see, but i won’t be ungrateful about working in a fast food restaurant because especially with my shit degree, i cold easily have nothing. Its a confusing time. :/
@BlahBlah, sorry to hear you’ve been unemployed so long too. I agree taking classes and social interaction helps keep you sane.
@soulsearcher that does sound somewhat paranoid but you may be right and she does know. If she sounds like she feels sorry for you why not be honest? She might put a word in for you somewhere. I used to be so ashamed to be unemployed I couldn’t tell people but now I’ve dealt with it I’ll tell anyone and if they judge me on it it’s them with the problem, not me.
@Becks xXx
well done for surviving the depression and glad you are working your way up in a job now.
@Blahblah
@Caitlyn
Thank you so much for your comments, it’s always nice to read other’s perspective on something. You know, it’s quite easy to become slightly paranoid when you are jobless. This person has refused to meet me for a coffee but nonetheless wants to know if I have got a job, even though the last time I spoke to them I told them (lied) that I had found a new job, so why am I still being asked about it? (??) My instinct tells me that they know what’s going on, and they are not really in a position to help me either. It’s rather annoying having to explain yourself to others when you already feel so low without needing them to add to that sentiment with their judgement. It’s not like I don’t want to work but I am getting so many rejections. I agree the most liberating thing is just telling people that you don’t have a job and I have done that, but I keep being in and out of work so it’s become a routine, the same thing again and again, going nowhere.
@Becks xXx I am so inspired by your story, thank you for sharing.
Any employers reading Graduate Fog and these comments please feel more than free to get in touch and help me out!
@Becks – Congratulations, you’ve certainly done better with £17k and a leadership position with your third than I’ve done with a 2:1 (£14k, 12-month agency admin was the highest paid so far – though luckily in B’ham not the South).
I’ve personally don’t really seen restaurant-type work as “lower” – a lot of entry-level “white collar” work is pretty repetitive (and at present easier to digitise/automate than food preparation) and IMO a lot easier and less stressful and tiring (and more regular hours, lunch breaks etc) than a lot of the stuff service staff have to put up with. Despite my apparent book smarts, not convinced I’d be cut out for it.
@Student – Under our unwritten constitution, Parliament is sovereign and can do as it wishes.
Though clearly there are restraints in practice – I don’t think a law authorising the killing of redheads would pass, for instance. But retrospective laws are generally considered bad in the legal field. If we couldn’t pass an Act to claw back Godwin’s pension, then hopefully judicial review, civil litigation, protests, risk of emigration (to escape collection through PAYE) and refusal to pay etc. would swallow up any retrospective change to student loans too.
Thanks. Unfortunately society in general look down on fast food establishments so it is considered ‘lowly’. I’m just hoping that the management skills i develop will help me out in future when I’ve improved my academic record. Apparently i can do a 1 year top-up course via distance e-learning since i already have that level, so i’ll aim for a good grade this time even though it will be hard with working at the same time. I know I’m capable, but i’ve just had so many problems. I feel ready now, it’s been 5 years since i finished last time round so it’s time to re-energise myself and my life.
@ Alex W, I only got into leadership management as I’d worked there for quite a long time as a part-timer, before going full-time after uni. I’d like to manage one of those Moto places in future (the branches at the service stations on the side of the motorways), that’s my main goal now. Probably over optimistic but I’ll try anyway!
@Becks x x x – Some of the people who look down on service staff are working for nothing off their parents’ money, or got where they were through relatives’ connections, or think it’s easy because they’ve never tried it, so I wouldn’t worry about it. I recall my secondary school looked down (not explicitly, but you could tell) on hands-on work like plumbing as they encouraged us into A-levels and uni – and we know now how much plumbers and electricians can earn over the typical recent humanities graduate like me 😉
Haha it’s funny you should say that, because I know lots of graduates who now wish they had gone down the trade route! A friend runs a cleaning business, and when she first started out, people really looked down on it, didn’t take it serious and joked about it, just because they were going to uni. She’s the one laughing now though as she has a very comfortable life, employs staff, supervisors to oversee them, fleet of company vehicles, and is one of the most reputable in the area. All achieved through hard work and elbow grease! The irony is, she now gets countless CVs and applications from graduates/professionals desperate for a job! Kinda wish i never bothered with studying sometimes tbh.
@Alex R, totally agree and the older I get the less patience I have for these spoiled kids living off their parents money, thinking they are better than those actually working for a living.
@Becks, great story, no point regretting past though-keep moving forward 🙂
@Soulsearcher I know exactly what you mean. It’s more your own feelings being reflected in what you think other people will think though. Once you accept it’s not shameful to be unemployed you will care less if ignorant types judge you.
i don’t know if you guys watch the tv show ugly betty.
there is an episode on it where betty’s sister, hilda, who fell pregnant when she was a teenager has a breaking down moment when she tells betty, ”everyone else went to college, i had a baby”. hilda feels she has zero career prospects and completely stuck because she didn’t go to college, and sees betty, who did, do well in her career. that episode gets me every time. because i DID go to college, but i feel just like Hilda! my career prospects, thanks to this reason, and that reason, have not been so good since i graduated. i pretty much have been in minimum wage jobs, the same kind as what i did during my studies. or else i have been volunteering to prove my worth to be deserving of a paid job. however, some of my fellow graduates are doing really, really well, and i am so ashamed of how i am doing and i would be embarrassed to meet them and having to tell them what i am doing now. it’s really sad and i cannot explain in words how empty and lost i feel, like a waste of space to be honest. i know some people who have just graduated this summer, and that’s all i need, more competition. they have no idea what to do now that they have graduated, they are just sitting around, no clue about where to go. Exactly the same as i was when i graduated. it’s like a cycle. that’s uni for you. i wouldn’t be surprised if they end up doing masters degrees just for the sake of it.
i really don’t know what to say or do anymore.
@dreamhuh
“some of my fellow graduates are doing really, really well”
What jobs are they doing? Do you know how they got it, previous experience, degree etc.? Seeing as we’re all highly educated, I want to see if there’s some sort of magic formula that seperates thoses who always have jobs and those who always seem to get rejected. It can’t be interview experience – I’ve had loads now. Is it being able to talk the talk? Volunteering? On the job experience (maybe they had work placements before graduating)? 2nd language and so on?
Unfortunately I can’t be like Hilda, it’s impossible for me to give birth. Although Arnie did it in that film.
@Blahblah, I don’t think many people will always be rejected, but once you don’t get a lucky break/off to the right start you’re always behind your peers 🙁
@Blahblah
thank you for the laugh:)
they have the same degree as mine. some are managers, working in hr, for the NHS, the DWP, universities, as social workers, teachers (quite popular choice) and so on. i think some managed to get on the graduate schemes. about 80% of those i graduated with studied for a masters degree, and that is where i went wrong: i didn’t do one, had had enough of studying, couldn’t afford it, didn’t know what to choose. of course, many were smart enough to plan ahead and get experience doing placements whilst studying. i think having the gift of the gab etc certainly helps. i was quite shy and introverted at uni and still am. also i’m quite the slow learner 🙁 but i have always had a good level of confidence. i guess i am at blame for not trying and planning enough, however, the rejections i have received are astounding. i get turned down for junior office type jobs. I have interviews where i think it all went really well, and then i don’t get the job anyway. last year i was working in retail, in the fast food sector, and although it was pretty awful as a job ( a lot of cleaning and physical work) , i loved it so much- it’s nice to work.i made the mistake of telling my colleagues there that i had a degree, just to maybe increase the chances of the bosses promoting me and to also be treated like the ”educated” person i was. i got it completely wrong. my colleagues had zero respect for me and would ask me, what are you doing here? they had no idea how long it had taken me even to find the position and how tired i was of applying for jobs, sick of the sight of my cv. i was in a complete bubble during that time, working in a dead end job and forgot about where i was actually going with it (nowhere). i volunteer now, and most people say it’s such a rewarding thing. to be perfectly honest, it makes me feel really useless and stupid. maybe if i was younger i wouldn’t mind but now i’m panicking because my peers are way ahead of me, and how will i catch up?
@dreamhuh I know what you mean. I felt a bit like that in my 15 months’ of basic admin and the summer after uni in retail. To be honest, I think part of me gave up on chasing something of my supposed level (apart from applying for the odd grad scheme) and deliberately aimed low (well since many vacancies need experience, degree or not, I’d say more aiming realistically really) after uni to try to protect against disappointment (or embarrassment from being offered unpaid work I couldn’t afford to do). And I seriously struggle with all the professional-type careers advice about emphasising
my USP (I’d say speaking some German is really my only one), following my industry (what industry? Administration? 😉 ) It just feels over the level I feel stuck at.
But of course now I wish I had the status those jobs gave me (and the money, the structure etc) compared to being out of work. Now I’m just hoping I may get a job on the Continent I’ve had feedback from – fingers crossed.
@blahblah I’d be interested in knowing their secret too. In my social network of people I knew at uni, those more successful seem to broadly be in 3 camps: (1) (usually the case with those who got further in Politics-related areas) ability to do unpaid work for extended periods of time and other advantages related to having money behind you (seemingly unrestricted mobility, ability to do a Masters etc) or sometimes simply geographical advantages like their parents living in London or Brussels (2) gift of the gab/salesman-type talents and (3) having entrepreneurial skills, confidence, being outgoing etc
is there anyone out there who graduated in 2009 and is still struggling? by that i mean that you have had to settle for (retail/sales) jobs that you had/could do before your degree. i studied psychology which was quite difficult, worked hard and did really well. however, i regret that subject choice SO much. firstly, it freaks people out when you tell them that you studied that subject, and secondly, the careers choices it offers are so random, you could do anything with it! my comment is aimed at those who did NOT choose to do a masters degree after their undergraduate studies. when i graduated in 2009, the job market was pretty bad and about 85% of the people on my psych course went on to do masters degrees and PGCEs and thanks to those choices they figured out their careers and are doing quite well now. in contrast I’m really, really struggling. admin/office jobs are a dream and the best i can do is retail /catering. this is really getting to me. i have spent the best part of the last 3 years being jobless and have worked in whatever i could when i wasn’t. i have asked some of my fellow graduate friends for help but they seem to have their own problems and lives, and also, i guess they don’t want so associate with a ”loser” like me and take a step backwards. i have lost contact with so many of the few friends i did have and i feel really lost, lonely and isolated. it is really embarrassing to have ended up like this. i have the kind of facebook account where you can just tell that i am not doing very well! i can’t remember the last time i socialised with people my own age. in the jobs that i did i met new people and made friends but i have learnt that work colleagues are just that and once you stop working with them, it’s a struggle to keep in touch because everyone has their own group of friends already and they don’t need new ones. this is really depressing. i want to overcome this. does anyone have any suggestions and ideas, any agencies that have been helpful etc? i am sorely tempted to write to my uni about how much i have struggled to find work since graduation despite being promised otherwise, but on the other hand perhaps it’s not really their fault i can’t cope with such a tough jobs market…:(
Hi all
I’ve just discovered an organisation called Young Minds UK, who have a brilliant website with loads of info about where to go for help if you’re struggling.
This is a good link for depression: http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people/whats_worrying_you/depression
This is a good one for if you’re looking for support with austism or Asperger’s:
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people/whats_worrying_you/autism_aspergers
This is good for anxiety:
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people/whats_worrying_you/anxiety
And this is the general page for all sorts off issues, it’s just called ‘What’s worrying you?’
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people/whats_worrying_you
Hi Graduate Foggers
I read this page religiously and I wanted to ask for some help from the readers. I think I might have Asperger’s. It’s something that I have been thinking about for a while because I struggle so much in life. At school, I never made any friends, the same happened at sixth form and uni was the hardest part. That’s when I struggled so much that I went to the speak to a counsellor. It did not really help except that it offered me to have a good cry to a complete stranger. I did make some friends at uni, of course, but it was all superficial. Uni also caused me to suffer from trichollomania and I have been pulling my hair out since I started (past 7 years). I never had anyone to go to the library with, to get the train with etc. I was alone so much of the time. It was the kind of uni where people went home after lectures and all the ”ethnics” stuck together. I seemed to go to a lecture, sit down, make some small chat with whoever I was sat next to, and then if we had a break between lectures, it was hell because I had no one to even eat lunch with. I would eat IN lectures, like an utter tramp, or go and hide in the library. I enjoyed a few friendships but they were with people who were using me more than anything, people who never really helped me once uni finished and we had to deal with the rat race. And it’s always been like that- if I have friends, they come to me for their problems, and to depress me, and not because they want to hang out, and cheer up and relax. The only time I have been able to enjoy friendships was when I was in primary school.
I am quite a sociable person and I can talk to strangers fairly easily and make small talk and force myself to make friends. However, from my whole experiences so far: school, uni, work, I have failed to make long lasting friendships that mean something. I am always left out and social interactions often leave me coming home feeling really depressed and insecure. I just don’t feel interesting enough for people. I am the kind of person who when I look back at some things I have said and done, I cringe majorly because I cannot believe how stupid I was and cannot imagine anyone else doing the same idiotic mistakes like that. I also have an inferiority complex and find most people superior to me, if for example I consider them cool and better than me, I would be scared to talk to them. I might talk to a chubby person who looks less intimidating instead. I feel as though I make people feel really uncomfortable around me because I am not really talkative and if I talk, I might overdo it and talk rubbish.
I actually do enjoy interacting with others and partying and going out, it’s just that I don’t seem to ever have the friends to do that with. Relating to this are my struggles to find work. Despite being intelligent with a first class degree, I can’t seem to find work or convince employers to hire me. I am also the kind of person who is more than capable of wasting an entire day doing nothing and wasting my time. I have no direction or plans about what I want to be. I just drift along aimlessly, knowing that how I live is wrong, but not knowing how to fix it. I am scared of putting myself out there and being ambitious. A lot of it is to do with the rejection I have faced my whole life by not having any friends. I think, Why would anyone want to hire me when I was so unpopular at school and have such an appalling social life? At the moment I am studying and yet again the same thing is happening: people have formed their little groups of friends but I have no one to hang out with at break times, so I just stand around, play with my phone.
I have taken the Asperger’s test and I scored quite low, so I am not sure if maybe I am really shy and introverted instead. I want to be outgoing and normal and get a job and grow up like everyone else. To be honest, I am ashamed of myself. I seem to be a really slow learner, it took me ages to learn how to drive and pass the test and I still don’t know how to park; I still type really slowly or do things more slowly than people my age do. I hate being like this especially because I am totally aware of it. I have been told many times that I simply lack confidence in my abilities, but that is precisely because I know how limited my abilities are. Otherwise, I should have made it by now and should be a highly functioning person like other people my age that I know are (they have mortgages, drive cars, enjoy good social lives etc).
Last year I was volunteering as a Teaching Assistant working with vulnerable adults and after classes the tutors would discuss the students with me and we would talk about them. Often they would say to me, ”he’s got Aperger’s” (these students were after all vulnerable adults) and the paranoid person in me would think, why are they telling me that, why do I need to know that, are they trying to say, he’s got Asperger’s, like you do. I have found that I always make teachers feel really self conscious around me.
Being jobless for quite some time has affected my social skills and I am even worse than I used to be when I finished uni, when I was more confident and carefree than I am now, and over the years I have been thinking that there must be something wrong that I am always so rubbish at making friends that never stay in touch and I am just so disappointed. I want to talk to someone about this (not my GP) but I don’t know where I can go. Above all I want to put an end to my trichollomania because I am so tired of pulling my hair out every time I get stressed out and anxious. Anyone know how I can get help?
@Fed Up
Sorry to hear you are having a tough time. This page on Young Minds UK looks pretty helpful:
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people/whats_worrying_you/autism_aspergers
Does anyone else have any other ideas?
These people never learn, they haven’t got the sense they are born with.
The government needs to bring back the workhouses, that way my tax money will be put to good use, and filth kept of the streets.
@Desmond
Watch it…
@Desmond Wakehurst
There but for the grace of God….
We are all competing for a limited number of jobs and bluntly not everyone can be a winner in such a situation. There are something like 2,000,000 ‘surplus’ individuals at the moment if we managed to fill every vacancy tomorrow.
I think this explains why some people on here are so heartless. You kind of internalise neoliberal values of competition. Why have any empathy for people you are competing with? Helping anyone else merely weakens your own position in the labour market! It is a bit like The Hunger Games!
It amazes me that there are many graduate employers who employ graduates for entry-level roles with entry-level wages. Once they learn that the applicant is a graduate, they continue to recruit him or her as a non-graduate, instead of creating extra graduate roles and filtering the graduate applicants into new roles. Some might say that this is unfair to the non-graduate applicants, but the employer would not be removing the non-graduate vacancy.
The truth is that many graduate employers get their graduates with their graduate skills on the cheap through entry-level recruiting.
@Graduate
“Why have any empathy for people you are competing with?”
What a cold and bleak world you want to live in. I think you need to work on your Emotional Intelligence kiddo.
Very difficult to get a career, and most jobs are horrible with pitiful pay. Unemployed looked down upon by everyone. Horrible world.
Does anyone feel like life is passing them by?
I certainly feel like my life is being wasted. I decided a while back that I would like to train for a career as a civil or structural engineer. An interesting and respected vocation. I contacted the institute for civil engineers and, as I already have an undergraduate degree in science, I would need to do a conversion course at one of three universities (Exeter, Southampton or UCL). My first hurdle is the cost of the courses, which are priced at £10,000 for a one year MSc. Ok, I can stretch to that if it’s worth it in the end. I delved a bit deeper and it turns out the courses can’t give me chartered status as I have no experience in the field, and there is also no placement on the course. I honestly cannot believe they have the cheek to charge £10,000 for a masters that will probably leave me unemployed again. I feel like I am going around in circles. I am back to square one and don’t know what to do. What will I do if I spend all of my savings and end up back where I am now?
At 18 we are told to choose a university course but at the time we do not know what profound implications this will have on the rest of our lives. I think the only way into civil engineering was to do a BEng or MEng, but I don’t have the upfront funds to do another undergraduate course. I am in my late 20s now and want to start a family.
Suicide certainly crosses my mind from time to time, as I feel I have been left to rot. I graduated with a first in a STEM subject also. All of that work for nothing.
I am going from pillar to post – the mental health nurse can’t help me and the job centre are out of their depth. What the hell kind of life is this? At least I wised up before completed my degree and decided against a PhD. There was a news report of a PhD graduate in my subject who jumped off the roof of a building as he was depressed to be working in a call centre.