Leaving uni isn't easy: How I found my graduate job
Author:
Conor Farrelly
Conor is a Senior Project Coordinator for Yipiyap and a member of the Yipiyap Leadership Team.
Entering the big world as an adult; terrifying isn’t it? At least in my experience…
A single memory that sticks out to me during the summer of 2021 was pure terror. I was caught up in a student mindset and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life once I’d graduated. Reliving old memories and trips of nostalgia I did not know quite what I wanted to do until I began my job search.
Struggling to find a graduate job?
So was I. It was never going to be easy leaving university and a lot of other students will be in the same boat. Nobody tells you what’s meant to be the next step and I guess you have to piece it all together as you go. I found myself battling personal struggles from anxiety, to feeling inadequate.
“Why are my friends landing graduate jobs but I’m still here, head in my hands wondering what went wrong?” Nobody said it was ever going to be easy but the whole element of online teaching in my final year of university removed the human aspect, being sat at my computer for hours upon hours not seeing anything tangible, anybody real.
So, in that sense it was really hard to move on with my life post-university due to my experiences with COVID-19.
How I started my career with Yipiyap:
Fortunately for me, I came across a fantastic Project Coordinator position that had become available in Altrincham. This was a brand-new role to me so I was completely unfamiliar with what the job entailed, the people I would be networking with, my colleagues or even the office space. I very quickly realised that the company culture was warm, kind and welcoming and even flexible with the working arrangements that could be in place.
These are always positives for somebody foreign coming in. I immediately felt like a valued member of the team. I’ve been a part of the Yipiyap team since August 2021 and I feel really comfortable within my environment now, I clearly understand what my role entails, what’s required of me each day and as a whole I’ve found myself building confidence around the projects I’m working directly on.
I’m at the stage now where I leave work thinking about the impact what we do as a company has on these young people. I was never a Yipiyap myself, but I see the immediate value. I was a student ambassador during my time at university and that’s the experience that I can connect to the Yipiyap tutor cohort. The work that we are doing helps to shape young people’s lives and that’s incentive in itself to clock in each morning.
Overall, I feel a lot more enthusiastic about what life looks like post-university. Beginning a new career could be viewed as turning a new chapter and in the coming months I’m excited to see what life brings my way. Everyone at Yipiyap has helped to make my transition as smooth as possible and for that I am grateful.