My Summer So Far

So this post is a bit different to my usual ramblings. But it's on a topic thats been taking up a lot of my time and energy recently and I sat down at my laptop to write something and it kind of ranted its way out of me. So here it is: the truth about my absence from this blog lately. I've been pretty preoccupied with looking for a job. 

Looking for a job is hard, people. I don’t know whether it’s specific to where I live (I suspect not though, have you seen the global economy recently?) or an all over problem (see above) but I have been trying for the last couple of months and so far: nothing. Not the fish and chip shop, the bakery, the cafes, or any of the fancy clothing shops have given me as much as a nibble of paid employment. I’ve handed out babysitting flyers, sold excess belongings (by this I mean old school textbooks) at car boot sales, baked homemade cakes for which people were willing to pay ridiculously tiny amounts of money, and filled out more application forms than I can count.





It’s not as though I desperately need a job. I don’t have to worry about rent or bills or university tuition fees yet and I don’t buy a lot of expensive stuff. But I turned 16 in March and ever since then have been (on and off, a girl’s gotta have some fun) officially on the job hunt. I’m not stupid and although I’m aware of the Catch-22 situation in which in order to get experience you need to have experience and vice versa, I’m not aiming particularly high. In fact my standards have got to the point where I was speaking to my friend the other day and said (quite loudly and vehemently): “God, I would do ANYTHING for money right now!!” This caused an old lady to glare judgementally at me. But I’m sure she knew what I meant. If there was a position advertised for picking up dog muck I’d be getting in line with my resume. Well, maybe, depending on how essential Starbucks is deemed to my continued existence. Contemporaries of my mum recall being my age and make comments along the lines of “in my day,” insinuating that they never needed a CV to get a job as a waitress, and why can’t I just get my act together. To be honest I know I’m not unemployable, I just haven’t found a business yet that’s willing to pay a 16 year old to do what cash strapped, unemployed graduates could do with less training and probably for less money. This is what happens in a recession, I get it. Times are tough for everybody, and way tougher for some people than me. So I’m trying not to be whiny about it but it just isn’t fair to deny a generation of teenagers the chance to work crappy jobs for rubbish pay because twenty-something’s are snapping up all of the £5 and under an hour work when their degree’s turn out not to guarantee them a job right away.



It's not how I picture
my future in the long term but it
still looks fun (sighs wistfully.)


And although a few of my friends and classmates have got themselves jobs, by and large these are temporary work in the sales. Despite the relative importance of their work to the business (after all, what would retailers do if they didn’t have queues of fashion hungry teens clamouring to stock shelves?) they have found themselves messed around: paid less than originally stated or working less hours than they expected to. But we’re still happy to jump through the hoops. What else are we going to do? While my long term dream isn’t really anything in retail at all I’m still keen to earn some money and have something to get up for in the mornings, otherwise the summer looks set to be increasingly lazy. However, I’m going to stop stressing about it. It’s getting me nowhere and making me more frustrated as the days go by. I already know what I want to do for my career and I’ll be writing whether I’m paid for my words at first or not (Hello, living at home after university!) so this summer I’m going to focus on having the best time possible. I’ll spend time with friends, go to the beach, swim, read lots of books, hopefully go abroad and get some sunshine for a little while. This may be the longest break we’ll get in our lives – 2 months stretching out between the Prom and entry into Sixth Form or college in September so from now on: I’m going to enjoy it.

Good luck with job hunting to anyone still persevering, but miracles notwithstanding, you can count me out. Now, where did I put my suncream?

Jessica xoxo