Applying for jobs is by no means a past time I enjoy, so to give myself a break I thought I would post an update on my progress.
So good news first, this Wednesday I start another stint of work experience at the Llanelli Star, which is good because my portfolio is beginning to look a wee bit out of date and I definitely need a reason to get up before 10.30 every day.
I did a two week work placement at the Star back in late February – early March and loved it, its a cracking little local newspaper with a great team behind it so I look forward to going back there, and to be frank I need the experience on my CV as despite a years worth of experience as a journalist, apparently I still don’t have enough.
One of the most stressful, and for that matter depressing, things about applying for many jobs in the UK is how little feedback you get from those employers that reject you.
I must have applied for a good thirty journalism jobs now, including about five in New Zealand. All of them were rejections but only one in this country got back to me to tell me I hadn’t proceeded to the next stage.
I fully understand that if you have had 500 applicants for one position it doesn’t make sense to send each of them an individual feedback form explaining why they didn’t get the job, but surely a courteous group rejection e-mail wouldn’t be too difficult, especially considering the vast majority of applications are now done through e-mail.
Just a quick ‘Thank-you for applying, unfortunately this time you didn’t make it,’ would be so much better but even that apparently is too much.
At the moment I have about five job applications somewhere in the works and each one and, even if it’s just a cover letter and CV, has been thought about in detail and sometimes had hours spent on it, if none of them are successful I no longer expect to be told.
What makes it worse is when you do get a rejection e-mail or letter before you open it you assume its good news because no one has ever e-mailed you with bad news before.
It’s frankly disgraceful. It’s depressing enough to be rejected each time you apply for a job, the least they could do is be courteous about it.
In other news, being a boomerang kid is not nearly as fun as it sounds. Not that that is news to a lot of people. Living with your parents in your 20s, particularly if you have lived away from them, is not cool, in fact I would go so far as to say it’s uncool.
Add to it the fact that my ‘beautiful cockle-picking village’ is actually the most boring, depressive place (at least for me) on the entire planet, and its a bit of a cocktail for a nightmare.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Stay tuned as they say. More posts, of a less personal nature, will follow.
Owen Jack Williams 
Owen! Don’t worry I know how you feel completely. When I was job hunting I must have sent out HUNDREDS of job applications and I heard back from under ten when I was rejected. It’s a very difficult place to be in and motivating yourself after rejection after rejection is so painful. I hear that for those trying to make a career in journalism it is particularly difficult. I believe that finding that motivation is the hardest thing to do, but having creative outlets sure can help. I spent months job hunting (which was made worse by severe post-traveling blues)… What can I say, perseverance paid off. After working on a job application I would send it and then put it out of my mind, no matter how much I wanted that particular job. Once or twice I looked into my sent box and saw just how many applications I had sent off that week and it made me cringe when I had nothing to show for it. So don’t do it!
As for being a boomerang kid, it’s difficult… But just think, staying at home is giving you the chance to do things that you wouldn’t be able to if you had rent and bills to pay. In a couple years time you will have a fantastic job and a flat of your own so try not to worry so much!
Know that feel, bro.
I’m on the verge of slipping into the position of “boomerang child” and nothing terrifies me more than that prospect. Well, maybe having a toilet seat that tries to eat you, but beyond that, nothing. All we can do is continue to apply, apply then apply again for jobs.
But if I hear another condescending adult tell me that “You just need to lower your expectations” I may end up in court accused of gouging said adults eyes out. When you’re being rejected from Tesco because you’re “Too qualified”, and ignored by Burger King for the same reasons it’s hard to know where to go. Apparently the service-sector jobs they want you to take won’t take you as you’re too intelligent (though give me a bottle of turpentine and we can work on that), and the professional jobs that said condescending adults currently hold require you to be more “experienced”.
And by experienced, they mean work for them for free for a year or two before you get bottom-rung level employment. Because it’s not unpaid, slave labour if the slaves have to apply for their shackles and compete against other would be serfs for the honour of doing the work of a salaried employee, having the responsibilities of a salaried employee, working the hours of a salaried employee without the worrisome burden of actually getting a salary.,,