The ‘C’ Word

As students, we all know it. It is uttered in times of frustration, of desperation, and is best kept out of conversations with parents.

Yep, the dreaded ‘career’ talk.

I attended the careers fair the other week after having been fully prepped (i.e. told to shake hands “firmly” with employers to establish rapport – I didn’t) and since then have been dutifully ignoring the bag of leaflets and pens from various employers I’m too scared to apply to.

The HUGE bag containing the possible key to my future… we’ll never know.

I want a graduate job – of course I do – but I’m not sure I’m ready to think about it just yet. My plans for What To Do After Uni send me into full on meltdown as I flit between wanting a career straight away to wanting to travel the world and build my experiences for 5 years. (If the latter comes true, I have to apologise for my poor parents for the lodger they’re about to take on – I’m accustomed to student ways of leaving any form of washing weeks past its due date).

My true wish would be to work for about 6 months after graduating to save some money and do a TEFL course in my spare time. Come January 2015 I’d like to move to Germany for a year and get a job over there to tide me over and immerse myself in their culture for a while – I’ve always loved Germany since I visited when I was 15. I love the language, and I fully appreciate their need to be punctual -punctuality in Germany means 5 minutes early, not “fashionably late”, something I can definitely get behind.

After that the concrete plan fades into a wish-wash of maybes and possibilities. My dream job (so far, besides professional eater and marathon tv show watcher) is to work in the Diplomatic Service within the Civil Service (American Studies students pay attention – your degree can do anything!) Their application process takes around a year in total, so I’d start that possibly before leaving for Germany. Or maybe when I’m there? Who knows. I’ll obviously apply for a number of different schemes, but ideally the diplomatic service would be where I’d end up – and from there on I’d live in Whitehall for two years to do training, before being moved around the world every 4 years. It sounds perfect to me – I’ve always enjoyed living in foreign places more than holidaying as the feeling of being a tourist truly disgusts me, but the end goal is less attainable than I’d like and I’m aware how competitive it is.

Still, we were told in the prep session not to doubt ourselves, especially as women, in our ability to get a high powered graduate job, and I fully believe I will eventually end up in a job I’m happy with.

Alas, for now I have a mountain of deadlines to work towards. After receiving a less than satisfying mark for my first essay of the semester, and completing a presentation for the same module that I’m certain I babbled my way through at a million miles a minute, I need to devote the majority of my spare time to my good friend David Wilson. His library has the added bonus of heating for when you can’t feel your hands in your own home.