My start into working life was a strange one after graduation. Leaving college when there was a recession at the end of the 1960s was not the best time to do it and there was a strange feeling of being in limbo. Having decided against school teaching that left working in libraries and museums as obvious choices, assuming you could deal with the competition; both preferred experienced candidates but it wasn’t obvious where you got that if you hadn’t got a job.
The university careers adviser couldn’t suggest anything else I could try for, beyond saying that there was a graduate a while ago who went through the art school and went on to make guided missiles, not sure how he did it and I hadn’t a clue how I would fit in there or learn how.
It was puzzling how the role play interviews I saw were nothing like the ones I attended; theory seldom follows practice and it wasn’t always obvious what exactly the job was about. I turned up for one interview to find the library locked and I only got in by frenzied knocking, to be confronted by a Borough Librarian who had forgotten I was coming and had lost my application form.
This was an example of a job accepted in desperation, since there was nothing else on offer and I left as soon as possible, just over nine months later.
The main thing I learned from job hunting is that insider knowledge is invaluable (obviously not easy from outside) and appearing more knowledgeable and confident than you feel. This is something University Careers don’t teach you, although one adviser did admit it sometimes helps to be “economical with the truth.” Maybe so, but then there are imponderables there about how far the truth can be credibly stretched – one of life’s great mysteries.