So it's 2012 now and everything is going to be different. Not. High unemployment still hangs over students like an over eager grim reaper and Specsavers is booming as the number of graduates who are developing too-much-screen-staring-during-job-application-itis continues to increase. The calendar has changed certainly, but the world is still largely the same. But then again I wasn't exactly expecting some kind of cataclysmic eruption, were you?
Due to the lack of aforementioned cataclysmic eruption which would have obliterated, reinvigorated, disintegrated and done all sorts of other devastating like damage to the graduate employment scene, students and graduates alike are still frantic about getting a job.
To navigate this rather daunting environment, one word may ring true above the rest, flexibility. Everybody would love to land their dream job. The job their dying to wake up in the morning for, the job that makes them smile, the job they'd rather stay at work than go home for. Well you can ignore the last bit. But reality and dreams aren't very good friends. That's why you often only see dreams when reality is asleep. In other words, narrowing your options and being solely focused on one path might not always lead to a favourable outcome. Being flexible and prepared to accept an alternative job offer or a job that you don't think is quite right for you might be something to consider. Why? Because reality said so.
Bear in mind that delving into the unknown can sometimes reap great benefits. Meet Jon Steel, the director of WPP's Marketing Fellowship. WPP is the world's largest advertising group by revenues. As a graduate, Jon got rejected by 14/15 agencies he applied to for a position in account management. The 15th (BMP) asked whether he might prefer to be an account planner. Jon said the role didn't really appeal to him. BMP later hired him as an account manager when their first choice didn't work out. Within 6 months Jon transferred from account management to account planning having seen the job in a new light. 5 years later he was running a planning department in an agency in San Francisco. Quite sometime after that, he now finds himself working on a daily basis with leading agencies like Young & Rubicam and J. Walter Thompson, the agencies who all rejected him initially oh so long ago.
Flexibility is a powerful tool.
Charles, GRB Journalist
