Whilst
browsing Facebook last Wednesday I noticed a trending videos called ‘A 2.1 just
won’t cut it any more’. Well, you have to have been living under a rock for the
past three years to have missed that, so not exactly a hugely intriguing
revelation. Everyone knows that there are exactly 3.5 trillion other graduates
out there to compete against for employment, and that you must complete 49
unpaid internships in order to qualify to fill out a job application form. But I
clicked through anyway, curious to see another perspective on this issue which
is affecting myself as well as thousands of other young career contenders,
hopeful for some constructive advice in the very least.
It turned
out that the video was published on The Guardian website, as part of their
newly established Comment Is Free online series called ‘The Graduate Without A Future’. Cheery,
no? I settled down, readying myself for some quality journalism, as one would
expect from the Guardian (no sarcasm). Instead, I was treated to a lamentation
of the ‘futureless’ graduates of 2012 – seven and a half minutes of completely useless
despair and melodrama.
One of the
main features of the report was the stories of two 2012 graduates from Sussex
university. Neither were asked very much about their individual career goals, so
instead of an interesting and relevant interview focused on what jobs they were
looking to pursue and how they were going to go about obtaining them, their
portrayal focused largely around their ‘ambition’ to avoid ending up in a “mindless
sales job”. In line with the video’s
title, they also talked about how throughout their time at uni they had made
conscious efforts to get involved with extra-curricular activities. As students
and recent graduates, I think we’re all probably quite familiar with the notion
of enhancing your CV with activities and societies as well as work experience,
and this is really important for graduates like myself who have traditional academic
degrees. Take the rise in degrees with placement years; this is a significant
sign of the increase in employers’ expectations for graduates coming straight
out of uni. The presenter, a Guardian writer called John Harris, seemed
outraged at the thought of these girls doing anything with their three years
but studying. The fact is, that involvement in these extras is now part and
parcel of the personal development we’re expected to undertake at uni, and
complaining about it will get us nowhere. One of the grads, India, told us how
left her small hometown in Essex in order to pursue better things; surely this
involves making the most of the opportunities on offer in a big city like
Brighton? Harris may mourn the new necessity of diverting your attention from
your studies to prepare for post graduate life before you’ve even secured your degree, and I agree that your
priority should be studying, but as the other grad, Chrissy, rightly pointed
out, if she hadn’t been trying to get involved with other things, “What would I
have done for three years, just mucked around and got a degree?” It is true, a
degree alone is not enough any more. But instead of lamenting this, should we
not celebrate all the extra skills we will develop as a result of involvement
in extra-curricular projects?
The second
half of the video featured a visit to the Graduate Recruitment Bureau, a
recruitment consultancy specialising in graduate recruitment which is based in
Brighton (the setting for this happy tale). Dan Hawes, the founder of the company
and actually someone who was kind enough to agree to be interviewed for this
blog a few months ago, was interviewed by Harris, giving his perspective on the
importance of rivalling the competition from fellow grads by supplementing your
degree with extra experience.
In his
interview, Dan explained how the GRB typically works to recruit STEM graduates for
its clients (that’s those who’ve studied Science, Technology, Engineering and
Maths) – no crime for a company to have a specialism. However, the report
managed to twist even this seemingly innocent admission into a negative. As
they entered the GRB office, Harris’ voiceover
uttered this sombre statement: “If you study humanities, the kind of jobs open
to you may well come down to working at a place like this.” As well as debasing
the value of humanities degrees, Harris also managed to insult the company who
had just given him a relevant and constructive interview. Nice.
My annoyance
with the angle of this report peaked at the mention of student loan debt. Erm…why
did how much debt these girls have need to be discussed? It seemed that this
was mentioned simply to further demonise the situation of these ‘graduates with
no future’. Student loan repayments are no more of a detriment to a graduate’s
bank balance than they would be if the job market was hunky dory, because repayments
are relative to earnings. The hyperbole of the presenter raising the subject of
debt and portraying it as a distressing issue spoke volumes for the type of
messaging that the report is attempting to convey. But then again, what is
media without a little bit of hype? …Even if that hype can only amount to the
fact that the entry phone system at the Graduate Recruitment Bureau doesn’t
work...SO WHAT?!
You can watch the video below. Do you agree with me?
