Why does it matter?

The first job I applied for was an apprenticeship.

I got turned down because I am ‘overqualified’ (Even though my qualifications are relatively different to those which I would receive with this apprenticeship), and to give me the job would be ‘demeaning’.

The problems I have with this:

1) What am I going to do if I want to get into this kind of work, but can’t get the education needed, through an apprenticeship?

2) Does it matter to you, if I am overqualified? If I am happy doing that job, then why does it matter?

3) In the interview, the interviewer told me they want somebody highly educated!

4) It is more demeaning for me to spend another day unemployed, than to do a job which I am apparently overqualified for.

It is the same thing with everything. I am either overqualified or unexperienced. I spent my life getting an education because it was what I wanted, and because it would give me the skills I need, for the job I want. But I can’t get the job I want because I don’t have any experience, and I can’t get experience because I am overqualified…. So what am I meant to do?

So I went to the job centre….

So I went to the job centre today, my signing on time is 3:15, and I turned up at 3. I took my book in and the woman asked me if there was any reason I was so early. I said no, my appointment is in fifteen minutes. I was then asked to leave and stand on the street for five more minutes.

I was then sent up and after a twenty minute wait, seen by a person. This person then told me that the planner which they gave me, ought to be filled out precisely, noting in detail what I did each day in order to find work… I haven’t had to fill out a planner since I was in secondary school and never in detail like that! This, combined with the terrible, ‘look down on you’ attitude which the job centre staff hold over you, makes you feel about five years old… I am a fully grown adult! One, who, unlike my supervisor on my first visit, can actually spell seemingly difficult words, such as ‘government’!

It was, however, nice to see that they had found the slip which I have to sign every week, after having lost it last week.

I am going away at the end of the week and had to fill out a holiday form, this weeks supervisor looked at me in dismay when I told her that I hadn’t received the holiday form to fill out, and then requested that I move to a different seating area whilst I filled it out.

I also had an issue because in my first week I was forcefully “recommended” that I go to a volunteering event, which I did, and signed up to do some volunteer work, in fear of having my benefits cut, if I didn’t. So today the supervisor told me that this volunteer work could affect my benefits, so I have to fill out yet, more paper work!

So hang on… I am required to do volunteering work, otherwise this may lead to my benefits being cut, but if I do the volunteer work, my benefits are still endangered…

Where is the common sense?

Am I overreacting?

So this isn’t so much about being unemployed, but it occurred at the job centre, so it counts!

Last week I went to the job centre and a man approached me, who was also there to sign on. I was made to feel very uneasy by him, he kept standing over me and talking at me, but he didn’t speak to me like the average person, he kept asking how I was and winking and staring down my top. It made me feel really uncomfortable.

When he eventually sat down, after he had winked at me and said “I’ll see you after”, he continuously tried to get my attention. I eventually got called to the person I was there to see, I was placed just in front of him, he walked past several times and I could still see him trying to catch my eye.

I felt really uncomfortable, and was just about to say something to the staff, when he walked past one more time and started talking to the person I was with, they obviously knew each other. So I said nothing. I feel like I got violated, and I said nothing.

I had to call for someone to pick me up so he did not follow me through town. I told people what had happened, and they told me I had overreacted and he probably just wasn’t well… What an excuse.

Hello

So this is my opening blog. I’m going to blog straight after this, because I am in the writing frame of mind.

So, this is a little blog about my life as an unemployed, struggling graduate. I say “struggling”, because, honestly, I am struggling. I am struggling to wake up every morning and carry on with my life. Everything seems incredibly hopeless, and when I look in the mirror, I no longer recognise the person who looks back at me.

So, if you don’t mind being occasionally moaned at, PLEASE, read my blog. But even if you don’t, I am going to continue to write it because for now it is a great way to vent some of my frustration and feel actually worthy.