Employment after graduation

Employment after graduation

April 6th, 2016

Adelle has spoken to some recent graduates on their experience with

employment as a graduate teacher

As many of my year level are looking to graduate and gain employment at the conclude of this year, questions about resumes, applications, cover letters, portfolios and criteria are floating around.

Attend the universities workshops on resume writing, interviewing, speaking workshops and cover letter writing. These are designed to assist you in getting that job which is ultimately the aim of many who are completing a university degree.

However,

Due to my extra experiences while at university my graduation date has been extended by my own accord and while I am perfectly happy with being older when I graduate and gaining more life experience before starting a career, others respectfully have different plans.

My original year level's classmates graduated last night and although there is a pang of jealousy that they all got to celebrate together while I went to a 9am class this morning, it is apparent that more than a few of them haven’t been successful in obtaining a job.

I asked a few of them why they thought they hadn’t found that job yet and I got mixed responses.

A few are doing emergency teaching and loving the variation and experience they are gaining through that. Others feel they don’t interview well and need work in this area. Some have reviewed revised and redone their resumes and cover letters countless times and with the feedback they are getting from potential employers, identify that as an area that needs work also.

However, each of the graduates I have spoken to have one thing in common. Although they feel quite sad at times about not securing that dream position yet, that is the reality. They will wait, apply and use their gained skills for other uses until that dream job presents itself.

The main message they all tried to convey was, that just like getting into uni or working your way up through a company, there are always pathways and options to get to a result. If things aren’t going to plan straight away, bide your time, use your skills for other purposes, obtain feedback and get a mentor for applications, apply for a CRT agency to gain experience, teach overseas, explore other options, your degree isn't going to expire. The job market is always unfavourable with the amount of graduates in one area from various different universities so if your applications aren’t receiving the praise that you feel they should or your interviewing skills aren’t quite what the employers want, try again. If you fail, learn from that and remember why you want to be a teacher in the first place. If you put in the work, your chance could come at any time and you have to be ready.

I have recently read a book by Daniel Flynn who is a co-founder of the company thank you (responsible for thankyou water and various other products) he himself was a university drop out because he had an idea and dream that he thought would work and ultimately it was a game changer. He followed this dream, failed and learnt from that and took action and risks to make his idea come to life. He is very successful in his field and has funded and aided an incredible amount of people living in poverty. This number is still increasing and he is quite an inspirational young person whose story can be very relatable to a lot outside of his own business. I would highly recommend this book, you can purchase it from their website https://thankyou.co/ or from any airport in Australia and New Zealand.

Remember that things can always be better and hidden opportunities reveal themselves through our ‘failures’.

-Adelle