Job hunting on a sunny day

It’s Wednesday, once again, and my coffee is freshly brewed and poured into my usual teacup. I’m currently roosted upon my single bed, positioned against a window that lets in the light of this beautiful, sunny Spring day.

The view from my window

It seems very unwise to be indoors on such a pleasant morning, but I have my reasons.

Today marks exactly one week since my return to the UK, yet, things haven’t exactly been running smoothly after landing on English ground. If you read last week’s blog, you may recall me speaking about a little bodily issue I was having. Unfortunately, that issue developed and was incurable with home remedies, so I have been taking antibiotics and been in and out of medical appointments over the last seven days.

Alas, I am all better now.

However, now that I am in a healthy condition, one must ‘get on with life’, so to speak.

First off,

Mission: Find a job.

Returning to the UK without a job wasn’t worrying me so much, but since I am returned and without a stable income, I am starting to threat. Eating into your savings is quite daunting when you realise just how much money you spend over the course of a month - and I’m not even a big spender!

So, what can I do?

I had intended to return to the occupation I left behind before my move to America, but I think I need a positive step forward, not back.

As I scroll through listings on Indeed and desperately try to generate my ‘ideal occupation’ on some novelty quiz, I start to notice something.

All the things I’d like to do require degrees. Degrees I do not have, nor intended on obtaining.

This saddens me.

I have past the age of the average graduate, and although I feel I would like to commit myself to a qualified profession or career, I don’t particularly want to spend the next three years (pontentially plus) in education. Call me fussy but online courses or open universities don’t necessarily appeal to me, either. I feel I have been out of education so long now, that adapting to that way of life would be somewhat difficult for me.

I have always felt so strongly about how early on in life we are forced to make decisions that will shape our future. This is exactly the reason I believe further education should be made more accessible for those who figure things out later on, whilst simultaneously try to balance adulting with studying. #millenialstruggles

Apprenticeships are a great option for someone like me, but they rarely offer an income that is reasonable living wage.

I have thought about taking on a part-time job whilst pursuing a career in illustrating, but freelancing is unreliable and I have heard that making a hobby you love into your career kills the enjoyment of it.

Picky, I may seem, but it is important to find a job you will be happy in. This is currently proving to be quite a task, and so, I am stuck.

That said, I have found a few useful links that may help others in my position:

• Career Girls - You know the job generator quiz I mentioned earlier? This is where it was from. Although I may have mocked it, it can be useful if you have no idea what path you want to go down. Not only that, but their website includes many different resources for choosing your next steps.

• Gladeo - This site aims to help you find a career by the industries that interest you, or purely based on your personality. It breaks things down into an easy format, but does require some dedicated browsing.

• GOV.uk - On this government website you can find job listings as well as apprenticeship and internship opportunities, amongst other useful information.

• icould - I, too, read this link as 'iCloud' and became confused by Apple's apparent ventures into career and educational guidance. However, this is icould, who supply their visitors with life/education/career guidance and information. They share interviews with some of the top professionals amongst various different industries, giving you first hand knowledge of what different roles and occupations involve.

• UCAS - Though known for being the website used for submitting university applications, UCAS also provides helpful tips and guidance when deciding your future. It gives an insight not only to university courses, but alternative options one may wish to take rather than university.
  

Though they may not contain the power to solve all our problems, I hope these links will be somewhat helpful to my fellow limbo landers out there. May we all figure out exactly what it is we want to do in life, and where exactly we want to go.

We’ll get there...

Eventually.

15.May.2019 Wednesday