there has been lots of talk among this years university graduates and news outlets (i will link some at the bottom if you’re curious) that 2025 is a particularly difficult year for graduates. this is in part due to an unusually large national graduate cohort, due to several years of students delaying their studies until after covid. As 2022 was the first non-covid affected year, and 2022 freshers who did not take a year in industry or abroad are now graduating, we generally have a larger graduating cohort and thus more graduates searching for jobs. in addition, companies saw an increase in national insurance contributions earlier this year and thus many are cutting back on hiring to reduce costs. the icing on the cake is the rapid introduction of ai into streamlining business functions, reducing the need for more employees. this is not an exhaustive list and there is lots more to be said about the labour market and the economy but i am done with my economics degree so thats all im going to say on the matter.
i have seen and experienced the absolutely cut throat graduate job market this year, and let me tell you it is not fun. people with relevant work experience, various academic and non academic society memberships and leadership roles, internships, and brilliant degrees from russell group unis? they have tens and tens of unanswered applications, tens of interviews, and all rejections. it goes without saying that there are those who have received job offers (some multiple) and are happily employed or soon to be. i am not ignoring the successes of my peers, but find it disheartening to see so many people who i have worked hard along side be disappointed after spending thousands on their education. i suppose if we’re unemployed we can delay the repayment of our student loans?
on the flip side, i have friends pursuing even more education with masters degrees, and i think i saw a linkedin notification that someone has been accepted into a PHD program. not that i spend much time perusing linkedin, i find it to be a particularly depressing app which is even worse than instagram for bragging and showing off. having linkedin has made me feel so deeply inadequate and lost, like i should be doing twenty million academic and professional projects at once. what happened to having a social life and chilling out? no, you must be on the committee for at least one society and god forbid you don’t attend every networking event on campus! i think the majority of my graduate dread comes from linkedin sweats constantly posting about their conferences and papers, and no one talks about the influx of people posting screenshots of their grades come july. i suppose it is good to be extremely pleased about your uni results, as i am of course, but please god keep it to your job applications!! another interesting note about linkedin post-uni is people religiously viewing your profile. maybe they think i cant see that around 4 times a week they search up my name and have a look to see if i have updated my profile, but i actually can and i personally find it very strange.
while that last paragraph may have seemed like i dont see the point in religious linkedin posting, sadly i understand. recruiters do message you based on your profile and often times employers will ask for your linkedin in your application. like i mentioned in my other post, i have recently deleted my social media, but i feel like if i delete linkedin i would miss out on something. like all of my peers are getting ahead and i am losing out on so many opportunities. i mean i do scroll through my local job postings on there at least 5 times a day so i would definitely lose out in that sense. but what i mean is that a presence on linkedin is almost etched into my brain as a requirement, like i need to feel validated in my accomplishments on some website. this is probably not a new feeling, but i think it is getting worse.
i can recall being at a party at the end of uni, in that weird daze after exams were done and before everyone’s rent was over and results were out. we were all chatting about jobs and our post-uni plans and someone mentions that they dont have a profile on linkedin. everyone’s head swiveled towards that poor, naive man and there was a sudden outpouring of what’s and oh my god’s. it was unfathomable to not have spent your university years slowly accumulating connections of people you interacted with once in a seminar and posting about some project. anyway we spent a few minutes setting up his profile and selecting the perfect professional photo, someone even suggesting that we have a headshot photo shoot. how sad is that. i deeply resent how important it is in our generation to have some profile, whether it was snapchat at 12, instagram at 13, facebook to join uni socities, goodreads so you can brag about some esoteric novel you read and didnt actually understand, or letterboxd to discuss a foreign film from the 90’s that has 17 reviews.
this rant has transitioned from a semi-productive narrative about the terrible grad job market to (forced) hate on letterboxd. to be clear i am a very proud participant in the goodreads and letterboxd game so anything negative i say about those apps is hypocritical. but the point remains, life after graduation is a struggle when it comes to employment, and it feels like a competition. i suppose it was always a competition, but now it feels like you are under a microscope. god forbid a girl wants a break!
it is for the aforementioned reasons that i have decided to take a break from (almost) all of it. i have moved home and am currently unemployed for the month, although my parents are increasingly breathing down my neck about job applications. i submitted 2 so far and i feel my life slipping away. my plans of working in a chilled out job for a few months and traveling the world before joining the workforce are seeming slightly out of reach. hopefully i have the backbone to pursue what i moved home to achieve. although i have never really struggled to do what i want, and am what one would probably consider self-interested. what use is it being young and single in a privileged position if i don’t seize the day while its still mine.
i hope this has been somewhat entertaining because it certainly was not structured. below are the links to my earlier claims about the grad job market. let me know if i missed anything.
bye xxx
these are just some articles discussing what i mentioned at the start. not really super academic stuff and im not a massive fan of the guardian but it will do.
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/the-topic/graduate-labour-market-in-2025
https://www.ft.com/content/99435752-ac15-44de-8dd6-79467c277611
Fabulae de Electrum 
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