# Masters degree: unemployed



## aod101 (Jan 29, 2015)

Anyone feel like reading a condensed version of my CV and then considering why I have nothing but contempt for the ****wits in HR departments who have apparently felt (for the past 5 years) that I'm not worth interviewing for a job?

9 GCSE's - 3 A*, 4 A, 2 B

3 A Levels - A, A, B (Also - Advanced Extension Award in English Literature - Distinction)

Degree - English Literature - 2:1

Masters Degree - Journalism - Merit

Additional: 6 Month training scheme with the BBC college of journalism completed in 2010. Experience as a journalist and copywriter in the UK and North America. 

Approximately 2 years of unpaid work completed in the fields of journalism and copywriting. Around 18 months of this resulted in profit/free labour for the companies I worked for. My reward was 'experience'. 

Apologies if this all sounds like showing off. I've just reached a point of saturation with chucking emails into the applications black hole and felt compelled to vent somewhere. In the jobs I have held I have seen how HR departments treat the recruitment process and find it incredible that people can be so brazenly unprofessional in their attitude, openly and proudly explaining how they dismiss applications for completely arbitrary reason because they are 'too busy' to read them all. 

All of this frustration has contributed to my current mental health issues. I self harm fairly regularly through head banging/hitting though this has improved since I started taking anti-depressants shortly before Christmas. I'm also booked in to start seeing a counsellor in the next few weeks which I hope will help. This frustration and the impact it has on my self esteem has made me a lot more anxious in social situations than I was in the past. As a result I have tended to withdraw and avoid people as much as possible. 

Probably should have read the etiquette for first posts/thread starting but this was a bit of an impulsive post. Apologies if I've done it all arse about face. If anyone else is stuck in similar circumstances it would be nice to hear from you, or just to talk to people who are outside my social circle where I feel like I can open up a bit. More than happy to repay the favour.


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## Imbored21 (Jun 18, 2012)

Sux breh. And welcome.


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## aod101 (Jan 29, 2015)

Ta


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## Thanatar18 (Apr 27, 2014)

aod101 said:


> Approximately 2 years of unpaid work completed in the fields of journalism and copywriting. Around 18 months of this resulted in profit/free labour for the companies I worked for. My reward was 'experience'.


Arguably internship is the biggest scam of it all IMO...
That being said, why would any company want to hire someone even of your qualifications, if they could just grab another intern and run them through the same process you went through...
Internship is always a scam IMO, but it's obviously 1000x worse for something like journalism/etc if you think about it.
Well GL anyways, admittedly I'm a bit biased having pretty much been told this a billion times.


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## sajs (Jan 3, 2015)

You look smart, learn spanish, that will give you other opportunities. Then if you want I can introduce you to some relatives to work as a teacher or administrative in highschools.


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## Dre12 (Jul 25, 2014)

What about working for your local rag, covering Aubergine growing competitions and such?


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## hypestyle (Nov 12, 2003)

@*aod101*,

I remember a professor telling me once, regarding job searches, _"When you don't get an answer.. that's your answer."_ We were warned upfront about the frequently arbitrary nature of how people are chosen to interview for various positions.

ironically, as online-media outlets are proliferating, traditional journalism/news outlets keep contracting- whether they're bought out by a bigger conglomeration and jobs get gradually shed, or they simply go out of business on their own. Of course, my perspective is mainly based on the USA. How is media ownership generally handled in the UK, when it comes to broadcasting, specifically? How much is government owned, how much is privately owned? How prolific is FOX out that way?

I've had an absolutely horrible time trying to find a journalism/PR/broadcasting job in the past two years since completing my bachelor's. Whether print, radio, TV, or communications/PR, I just don't get anywhere. I get the same responses 99% of the time, which is a polite "thanks but no thanks email or letter." On the ultra-rare occasion that I get an interview invite (say, 5 out of 2,500 applications), it's in a distant city which I cannot afford to get a plane trip to on short notice (it's always short notice.) I've revised my resume' several times. I make phone calls. I write thank you letters when interviewed.

I've been applying for some professional fellowship programs, which would take me out of town, paid for by the sponsoring organization. These would be short-term experiences, if I were to be accepted. And of course, it's no super-guarantee, so I can only submit my application and hope for the best.


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## thunderface (Nov 25, 2014)

Sorry to hear about your issues. I'd kill for your qualifications and experience, but must be super frustrating having done all that and not having a job to show for it. 

Have you thought of self employment? I know people say it rarely pays enough, but some online blogs become huge with advertisement payments etc etc...


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

__
https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/3m3pzd/_/cvbvize


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