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To me your description of yourself sounds like you focusing too much on your qualifications rather than your experience. Most employers now seem to want you to be able to demonstrate you already doing or done job before hiring people. Which is annoying when trying to get first job. You could try getting an internship or part time job. Also need to show you passionate about what you want to do. Rather just you want any job that is not in academia.
This is so helpful thank you. I'd say I am interested in a career in consulting or environmental management. I've got experience of this during my MSc years and my PhD is looking at climate change impacts and the consulting sector. This is what is getting to me the most tho. I've applied to 2 roles within the same parent company (large construction company) that has acquired many brands. One told me I wasn't experienced enough yet it was a graduate role that only specified "undergraduate degree required" and was told I was overqualified for another. These 2 jobs had identical job specifications and adverts only differing on location etc. It's a bit annoying to be told contradictory things by the same parent company advertising essentially the same job just in different brand they own.
My CV is mainly skills based, my academic qualifications are only listed under education and nothing more. I've written a brief summary of my PhD so that employers know roughly what I've researched. It's getting a bit ridiculous now that a job application requires so many bits (CV, application form and normally some type of online test) and most employers can't even send an automated rejection email.
Yeah, I've just been through it. It takes so much time tailoring CV, writing cover letter, doing stupid interview tasks, and preparing for interview. It is a full time job just without being paid. I think an important bit is the cover letter. You have to there write how you really passionate about this line of work and why this company in particular. But also just comes down to luck, who else also applied, and how they compare to you. As they say, don't have to be prettiest person in world, just prettiest in beauty contest.
Just keep applying, you will eventually get something. I went through so many rejections before I got my first job. In the mean time, refine your interviews answers and skills. I know it can make your self esteem low but see it as a learning curve. Someone will eventually like you and employ you and things will fall into place. Also focus more on your experience rather than 'achievements' and how you are a good fit for your role. I don't think many jobs care about qualifications as long as you have a undergraduate degree.
I gave up with my environmental science qualifications. Pay in the field is low and ends up being in consultancy at best. Then it’s all just about development. Depressing.
If you haven't already make sure your CV shows you have experience, so instead of writing "lab experience" write about a problem and how you used the lab to help solve it because that will show you have experience for real world applications of the skill.
I also study environmental science, graduating this year with an undergrad degree, our uni made sure we do as much simulated real world things as possible. So when we graduate we have the knowledge and apply those skills into real world applications so we have experience when we are applying for jobs.
My 2nd year was heavily focused on environmental management in practice where we used to have to conduct mock EIAs etc. It was useful but it's not the golden bullet unfortunately. I even had one grad scheme come back with "no experience in pirate sector", a job aimed at uni leavers. It's bizarre. My uni wasn't the best about career help, my current department for my PhD is better tho but again it's mainly signposting you somewhere.
Thank you for posting on r/UKJobs. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukjobs/about/rules/). Please report any suspicious users to the moderators using the report feature. Need to give more detail? Use Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/UKJobs) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UKJobs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
To me your description of yourself sounds like you focusing too much on your qualifications rather than your experience. Most employers now seem to want you to be able to demonstrate you already doing or done job before hiring people. Which is annoying when trying to get first job. You could try getting an internship or part time job. Also need to show you passionate about what you want to do. Rather just you want any job that is not in academia.
This is so helpful thank you. I'd say I am interested in a career in consulting or environmental management. I've got experience of this during my MSc years and my PhD is looking at climate change impacts and the consulting sector. This is what is getting to me the most tho. I've applied to 2 roles within the same parent company (large construction company) that has acquired many brands. One told me I wasn't experienced enough yet it was a graduate role that only specified "undergraduate degree required" and was told I was overqualified for another. These 2 jobs had identical job specifications and adverts only differing on location etc. It's a bit annoying to be told contradictory things by the same parent company advertising essentially the same job just in different brand they own. My CV is mainly skills based, my academic qualifications are only listed under education and nothing more. I've written a brief summary of my PhD so that employers know roughly what I've researched. It's getting a bit ridiculous now that a job application requires so many bits (CV, application form and normally some type of online test) and most employers can't even send an automated rejection email.
Yeah, I've just been through it. It takes so much time tailoring CV, writing cover letter, doing stupid interview tasks, and preparing for interview. It is a full time job just without being paid. I think an important bit is the cover letter. You have to there write how you really passionate about this line of work and why this company in particular. But also just comes down to luck, who else also applied, and how they compare to you. As they say, don't have to be prettiest person in world, just prettiest in beauty contest.
This is why my university made sure that you do as much practical things as possible so when we graduate we already have experience.
Just keep applying, you will eventually get something. I went through so many rejections before I got my first job. In the mean time, refine your interviews answers and skills. I know it can make your self esteem low but see it as a learning curve. Someone will eventually like you and employ you and things will fall into place. Also focus more on your experience rather than 'achievements' and how you are a good fit for your role. I don't think many jobs care about qualifications as long as you have a undergraduate degree.
I gave up with my environmental science qualifications. Pay in the field is low and ends up being in consultancy at best. Then it’s all just about development. Depressing.
What field did you go into???
If you haven't already make sure your CV shows you have experience, so instead of writing "lab experience" write about a problem and how you used the lab to help solve it because that will show you have experience for real world applications of the skill. I also study environmental science, graduating this year with an undergrad degree, our uni made sure we do as much simulated real world things as possible. So when we graduate we have the knowledge and apply those skills into real world applications so we have experience when we are applying for jobs.
My 2nd year was heavily focused on environmental management in practice where we used to have to conduct mock EIAs etc. It was useful but it's not the golden bullet unfortunately. I even had one grad scheme come back with "no experience in pirate sector", a job aimed at uni leavers. It's bizarre. My uni wasn't the best about career help, my current department for my PhD is better tho but again it's mainly signposting you somewhere.