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Graduating in 2020

I officially completed my undergraduate university studies at the end of May, which means that I am no longer a student. Having bore the label of ‘student’ in some form or another since the age of 4, it feels a bit bizarre that this stage of my life is now finished.

What makes this experience even stranger is the current state of the world. This year’s graduates have been branded “The Class of COVID-19” [1] and, unfortunately, the pandemic has fully infiltrated every aspect of our final semester.

Instead of an exciting few months spent having fun with friends on campus, I have spent the last 3 back at my family home with my parents. Instead of sharing the stresses of final exams with my classmates in the library, we completed our studies virtually and from the isolation of our individual homes. Instead of dress/suit shopping for our celebrations, our graduation ceremony has been cancelled without any indication of whether one will ever occur.

All of these things seem small and trivial compared to the bigger issues of today and there really are far worse things that we should be spending our energy on. That being said, the transition from student to ‘real-world-working-adult’ is not one to be scoffed at – it can be difficult at the best of times, let alone when the world appears to be falling apart.

What is most significant for me is that none of us have any certain confidence in the working world that we’re stepping into. Some of us have had grad-job offers revoked, others have had further education plans stripped away from them, the rest of us are looking at a disheartening job-market.

Unsurprisingly, a survey conducted by the National Union of Students (NUS) revealed that 81% of students interviewed are concerned about job prospects and 71% about their employability [2].

I’ve seen this LinkedIn post copied and reposted by numerous people (therefore I won’t credit it as I don’t know who the original author was), but I think it captures the sentiment of a lot of graduands right now:

“I’m thinking about the Class of ’20, entering a job market that will be among the worst ever for a graduating class, and who aren’t even getting graduation ceremonies (in most cases) to celebrate their achievements.
Now, and for years into the future, I hope that every employer will take special note when they see a 2020 degree date on a job applicant’s resume, and give that person an extra look, at the very least. Build it into your resume review algorithms.
This class deserves special consideration for what they’re going through now, as they finish up their degrees in extraordinary circumstances, and as they enter the workforce like they’re jumping off a cliff.
Let’s all catch them, as best we can.”

Although I don’t feel completely hopeless about leaving the comforting title of ‘student’, I have witnessed the dissolve of the job market and uncertainty is a feeling that I, like many others, have become well-accustomed to.

Some useful things that 2020 graduates can be doing to prepare for the new, strange COVID-19 job market [3]:

Gain new skills via online courses (for digital marketing, I recommend the SEMRush academy [4] and the Google Digital Garage [5])

Establish connections on Linkedin (you may not think you need them now, but it’s better to dig your well before you’re thirsty!)

Practice for online interviews (if you think Zoom calls with your family can be awkward, wait until you have a suited stranger in front of you!)

Beyond that, I don’t really have any answers – noone does! However, we cannot change the current situation, so we may as well make the most of it. Try to let this challenging period mold us into stronger people – future employers should hopefully respect the challenges that we have had to overcome. On the bright side, I know countless people who have started new jobs during lockdown – meaning there are still jobs out there!

A final comforting thought: we are all in the same boat (albeit one with a hole in the bottom) and we will come out of this more resilient at the other end.

Best of luck, lads!

Sources:

Comfort Zones

“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.”
– Unknown

I’ve never really thought much about comfort zones because I’ve never really felt like I’ve stopped myself from doing something because it was ‘scary’. Recently, it’s become more evident to me that these things develop as we do; what is considered to be your comfort zone at one point in your life will not be the same in a few year’s (or even week’s) time.

Career-wise, I’ve found that it’s quite easy to fit yourself in a box of what you know you can do and what you know you can do well. You may feel comfortable working for one company because your colleagues know you and they understand your skill level. Meanwhile, the idea of changing jobs to work with new people who have new expectations for you may be rather scary.

Being comfortable is not a bad thing. You can be perfectly content where you are and I’d say that you’re doing pretty well if you’re happy with your work situation.

But that’s the thing – are you happy? or are you merely content?

I’ve been stepping out of my comfort zone a lot since starting my position at my current company. I thought I would explore some ways that I have done so, which are ways that you may also have challenged yourself without realising:

1. New People, New Expectations

My current position is working for the first company that I have done Digital Marketing for professionally (besides my university and some small-business owners). I was hired to do something that I did not have extensive experience in, for people who did not yet know me and who had therefore established their own expectations of what I would be like. It is easy to obsess over the way other people see you, the things they expect from you, and their opinion of you and your actions. At the end of the day, what other people think of you is none of your business. Focus on the task at hand and doing the best that you can – if people don’t appreciate your efforts, they’re not your people.

2. Belittling Your Own Skills

I’ve always described myself as “not being a tech-wizard”. Whenever someone asks me about technology, that’s what I automatically say:

“Oh, I don’t know – I’m not a tech-wizard, sorry!”

Recently, I’ve realised that I’ve been saying this because technology is definitely NOT my comfort zone. I can’t code and please don’t ask me how to fix your computer because I have absolutely ZERO clue! However, I actually know a lot about technology, mainly because I have to use it a lot in my daily life. I’m trying to train myself to stop belittling my skills just because I’m worried I’ll get something wrong and be embarrassed. Everyone makes mistakes and, whether I say it or not, although I’m not an expert when it comes to technology, I definitely know my way around.

3. Doing New [Scary] Things

I do new things everyday at work: I try new software, explore new methods of doing things, take on new tasks. But not all new things are scary. It’s the scary, new things that push you out of your comfort zone.

For example: (referring back to point 2) I didn’t know the first thing about websites when I started my current job.

Apart from writing a few of my own blogs on WordPress, I had never really delved into the way that websites work. One thing I can tell you is: websites can be really confusing! There are a lot of elements that can go wrong when you edit a website, especially if you try to dabble in coding when you REALLY shouldn’t (I learnt my lesson with that one pretty quickly!). Websites are also a fundamental part of many businesses, so when you mess something up, you need to fix it equally as fast.

This is why I was a bit apprehensive to do anything with my company’s website. But, 4 months on, websites aren’t out of my comfort zone anymore … but coding still is! (*someone please teach me how to apply basic code*).

Overall, my current challenge for myself is to continually identify my comfort zone and make efforts to go beyond it. That isn’t to say that I do that everyday because, some days, being content is all that I aspire to be. But, each time I do something that stretches my comfort zone, it becomes less scary, less intimidating, and more doable.

Main takeaway: when you do something that challenges your comfort zone, regardless of how small it is – celebrate it!

Starting Conversations

Today is my 22nd birthday and it’s safe to say that 21 was my best year yet.

I started a lot of things when I was 21, a big one being my career in Digital Marketing.

Since lockdown started, I’ve made some small (but significant) steps towards developing my career – the most important of these being networking. As I am currently the only person in my company who handles digital marketing, I haven’t had many (*any) contacts in the industry. Although this hasn’t necessarily hindered me thus far, I have often found myself having questions that I cannot find the answers to. Therefore, I’m making a conscious effort to try to make some new contacts – not just random connections on Linkedin, but genuine people who I feel like I could talk with openly.

I think that a lot of people find the idea of networking to be rather intimidating (myself included); Is there an expectation that I have to live up to? What if I don’t know what anyone is talking about? What if no-one wants to speak to me at all? When I have doubts like these, I like to remind myself of this quote:

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room
Marissa Meyer

One positive change that the pandemic has influenced is an increase in people looking to communicate properly online. I’ve noticed that people are generally more open to starting conversations and building genuine connections.

As I’m still a student (for one more week), I’m taking advantage of all of the fabulous resources that UEA Career Central offers, and decided to sign up to their mentoring scheme. It was initially advertised as a good pathway for anyone who doesn’t necessarily know what they want to do or how to get there. Consequently, I wasn’t quite sure how it would help me since I already have a very clear picture of what I want to achieve and have started taking the necessary steps, but I thought a chat with an expert couldn’t hurt.

I was matched with the founder of a Digital Marketing Agency who had attended UEA prior to starting his own business. We scheduled a call for us to get to know eachother, discuss my plans, and for me to ask any questions that I might have about starting out in the industry.

The conversation was incredibly insightful. I learnt more about the importance of building a personal brand in 40 minutes than I had in the 2 years of work experience leading up to it. Now I have a contact that I would feel confident calling if I needed some advice; I was lucky that he was a lovely person and very easy to talk to.

The whole experience proved to me that I shouldn’t ever be nervous about talking to people because, at the end of the day, people are just people.

I think I speak for a lot of recent graduates when I say that successful people can sometimes appear to be unapproachable. It’s easy to fall into a hole of thinking that they would judge or laugh if you were to send them a message, but 9 times out of 10 that isn’t the case at all. Decent people (who have the time and resources) will be open to chatting to you if you are willing to put the effort into listening and learning. After all, what good is knowledge if you can’t use and share it.

Overall, I’m going into my 22nd year feeling empowered and confident that, although I will never stop learning, I’m thoroughly enjoying the journey. So, a bit of a ramble today, but I think you can let me off considering it’s my birthday. I’m not going to sit here and carefully edit my thoughts when there’s cake to be eaten!

Consider starting a conversation with someone new this week (and stay safe!).

Is Job Insecurity the ‘New Normal’?

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘New Normal’ being bandied around over the past weeks and rightly so. At the moment, I can think of very few things in my life that feel the same ‘normal’ as they did before all of this happened. But that’s okay, because things are changing and we can’t always help that.

One thing that has eerily crept its way into my ‘New Normal’ is a very unwelcome guest – Job Insecurity.

I graduate at the end of this month and, like the majority of other students being launched into the real world this summer, I’m finding it daunting. I don’t know how I feel. Some days I’m confident that everything will be alright because I’ve put the effort in and that’s how it works … doesn’t it? Other days it sinks in that noone can possibly be sure of anything right now because nothing quite like this has ever happened before. ‘Unprecendented’ if you will!

I can’t name a single person that I know who is 100% certain that their job is safe. With one in four employers expected to make redundancies as a result of COVID-19*, it’s not really a surprise.

BUT this post isn’t intended to be all doom and gloom. We need to come to terms with the fact that, for the time being at least, Job Uncertainty is part of the ‘New Normal’.

So, what can you do about it?

The simple answer is: do whatever makes you feel calmer mentally. Whether that be relaxing and taking your mind off of it, or digging in to a job hunt – do what feels right to you.

My coping mechanism changes on a daily basis, but I thought I’d share a few of my tactics for battling the unwanted worry that’s weighing on my shoulders.

Upskill

As a (soon to be) graduate, I can’t bare to sit still and do nothing. I’ve gotten so accustomed to writing a constant stream of essays that it doesn’t feel right to not have a little study project on the go; so I’m trying to upskill myself in a way that can help me in my current internship. However, some days this feels like a chore and the idea of yet another online course makes me want to curl up in a ball and hide.

Admin

On the days when studying feels too much like hard work, I sometimes like to be productive in other ways. Since the lockdown started I’ve: redone my CV, updated my LinkedIn profile, taken a new headshot (for use on LinkedIn, my website, etc.), and made efforts to virtually network where possible. These things may not directly result in securing my job prospects, but they help me to feel like I am in control of my own situation.

Read

Reading is my alternative to watcing Netflix. Trust me, I watch a lot of Netflix, but it makes me feel sluggish if I lounge around during the day, so I keep it for a treat in the evenings. Depending on my mood, I read a number of different books. If I’m trying to relax I read a self-improvement book – currently reading: What A Time To Be Alone by Chidera Eggerue. If I’m looking for entertainment, I read a romance novel (I only read French novels because I’m a languages nerd) – currently reading: En Un Monde Parfait by Laura Kasischke. Lastly, if I feel like I want to learn but not enough to study properly, I read a marketing book – currently reading: The End Of Marketing by Carlos Gil.

Although some of these genres don’t directly help me battle my Job Inscurity, reading is a way that I can develop my mind and invest in myself. One of my new favourite quotes from a current read is:

“No matter how much time I choose to invest in myself, none of it is ever wasted. I am a lifetime investment.”
Chidera Eggerue

At the end of the day, noone knows what lies ahead or how our careers will be affected by the current events. But, we are all in this together (*High School Musical plays in the background*), and we cannot control things that are beyond us. So, my only advice to you (which is the advice that I’m trying to live by) is: focus on what you can control, and try not to stress about the things that you can’t.

I hope you’re all keeping well and being kind to yourselves.

Source: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/one-in-four-expect-to-make-redundancies-coronavirus

Creating content in an apocalypse

Working in digital marketing, a key part of my job (if not the most important) is creating content.

Thinking of new ideas and ways to engage an online audience is difficult enough when life is normal. The internet is always changing and, with it, the way that people intake information. However, I have personally found that creating content has never been so difficult, yet so easy, as it is at the moment (and yes, by “at the moment” I am indeed referring to the impossible-to-ignore global pandemic. Fondly referred to by my family as the ‘apocalypse’).

I have a feeling that most content creators will currently be sat at either end of this spectrum, either finding it incredibly difficult to think of fresh ways to say “uncertain times”, or finding inspiration in the bizarre, new world that we’re living in. I’m no expert but, if you think the process of content creation hasn’t been changed at all, I’d say you were probably doing something wrong.

My current positions have me making content for two completely different organisations with vastly varying audiences and communication objectives. Whilst, at the beginning of lockdown, there were plenty of new content ideas flying around with everyone wanting to know what was happening in relation to x, y or z, 2 months in … the Coronavirus is getting pretty old.

I’ve just finished reading Dan Kelsall’s book ‘F*cking good content’, in which he discusses his views of scheduling social media posts. His primary argument is that content scheduled weeks in advance is rarely ever as relevant at the time of posting. In my opinion, this could not be more true in our current world. Restrictions are changing every few weeks, our moods are changing every few days, and it appears that Boris’ strategy is changing every few minutes. The content that we’re producing needs to reflect that.

I don’t think that my content is a perfect example of what I’m describing, but I’m not beating myself up about that. I’m trying to communicate with my audiences in a way that’s relevant to the situation. I’m trying to focus on starting conversations and creating new relationships. I genuinely think that, when all of this is over one day, people will look back at how businesses (and individuals) responded when faced with a crisis; they’ll remember how they were treated and how things made them feel.

There is no right or wrong way to cope with an ‘apocalypse’, but the least we can do, as content creators, is speak to our audiences in a way that is understanding of that. Hard selling doesn’t make sense in a lot of industries right now, but sharing values and working on brand image do.

My stir-crazed, isolation ramblings are not intended to lecture, criticise, or advise others on how to create content in these “unprecedented times” (had to throw that one in there for you, you’ve probably heard that 10 times today already), but I hope that we all use this change as a chance to be a little more human. Our audiences are built up of humans (and a few Instagram bots, no doubt), so our content should be tailored accordingly.

Now … back to my coffee and book, it is a bank holiday after all!

Revamp

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet (she says to her audience of no one) …

Currently, we’re all going through some uncertain times and, whilst we can’t do a great deal to change that (except wash your hands and stay home), we can definitely do our bit to stay positive and focus on spreading positivity as if it were a virus in itself.

This website is technically a revamp of an old family artefact that was built in 2009 (when I was in year 6). Vearsappleby.co.uk is our family domaine, and it was only recently that we realised that our little website was still live. I’ll insert some pictures below to give you all a good laugh.

During the interview for my current job, the interviewer mentioned that he’d seen the domaine name in my email address and checked out the website. I must admit that I’d forgotten that my email address even had a domaine attached to it. Mortifying. Therefore, I’ve decided to use all of this newfound free time to sort it out (delete it) and start again. My family kindly agreed to let me use the domaine for a new little website of my own.

I’m not entirely sure what this will be yet – possibly an online portfolio, more likely another blog through which I can over share (the real OGs will remember my Year Abroad blog of 2018/19), but, either way, I’m quite excited to have a little corner of the internet to make my own.

Here’s to not letting unfortunate situations dampen our spirits!