The Final Frontier - Part 2

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Firstly, apologies that I've been away from the blog for so long. As anyone who read my previous post will know, I'm finding it difficult to combine the increased academic demands of my final year with the sudden realisation that I need to start preparing for the careers hunt ahead.

The temptation of extra long holidays has proved my undoing throughout my university career. I don'texactly regret the way I spent my time; for me to have done things differentlywould have required a personality transplant, and hey, I got to see the ArcticMonkeys play Glastonbury and drank vodka on a train through Poland whilewearing a sombrero.

Sadly, experiences like those seem unlikely to get me my dream job. And, in fact, that brings me to my next problem: what is my dream job? I fluctuate every day, going from an in-it-for-the-money attitude to a desire to make some kind of difference to the world, not to mention my mad daydreams about writing novels in a flat in Paris.

And so to the Careers Service. I've booked a 'CV session' for the beginning of next term - I'll let you know how that goes - as well as an in-depth chat with a careers advisor about the kinds of jobs that might suit me. Somehow I doubt that 'cult writer with a flat in the Marais district' is going to come up as an option, but I live in hope.

Ok, so I haven't attended any careers fairs, and I'm likely to miss the deadlines for most graduate schemes, but it's a good start. At least I no longer awake to a sickly sun and an even sicklier feeling of dread in my stomach every morning. My parents talk about how they felt ready for anything when they left university, but it seems that most people in their early twenties no longer have that 'world is my oyster' feeling. There is just so much pressure to get the best possible job and the most enviable lifestyle before the ink is even dry on your degree certificate. We may have more options than our parents did, but I bet this year's student loans that a lot of us feel more trapped than the previous generation did at our age.

As an interim measure, I've read through some of the general advice on the Careers Service website - and on the Real World website, of course - and I'm going to devote some time over the Christmas holidays to organising some work experience for the summer. Naturally, all summer placements will have to fit around my planned post-finals trip to Mexico. Well, why not? I've already got the sombrero.

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