Life after graduating university: Enisha's story

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In 2020 life turned upside down as the country battled against COVID 19 and the uncertainty of the future. After having such a successful first semester of my final year of university, I was excited to end everything on a high in my second semester. Instead in March 2020, I found all my lectures went online within a week, and graduation was postponed for the foreseeable future.

For university students, this was not the full-fledged university experience they imagined they would get – first-year students who were already adjusting to the idea of independence and had to move back home. Second-year students I know were left in limbo about their final year and what they should be doing to prepare. Finally, final-year students like me had their last few months of uni taken away, and summer graduation plans had disappeared. We were about to be thrust into the world of adulthood and one with a terrible job market.

So, with summer plans out the window, a new sense of pressure and panic fell on my shoulders. It hit me that I now needed to get a job and I needed to have some plan or stability as there was going to be no university to head back to in September. In April, before submitting my final assignment, I went on the hunt for a job, and in May, I started working for a small company on a paid internship basis. I then picked up another internship sourced by my university, so despite the fact I had completed university, I was keeping myself busy. But whilst I was always grateful and deemed myself very lucky to have these two paid opportunities, I felt like I was not really rewarding or celebrating three long years of hard work.

I found myself stuck in a rut of working for the sake of keeping busy. It was not what I truly wanted to do but something I turned to because I quite literally had nothing else to do. I worked at these two internships throughout the summer, and even though it was not planned, I am somewhat glad I did it as I have built up my CV with experience! One of them even turned into a part-time job role, and I’ve worked there since September. Whilst it is not a huge number of hours a week, it is something I see as keeping me afloat for now.

However, before I started a new contract with them, I gave myself the whole month of August off. Frankly, this was the best decision I ever made for myself as I was able to celebrate graduating and have a much-needed mental rest from everything. A lot of my friends took gap years between sixth form and university where I never really took a break from education. I think as graduates, we forget that completing a degree is a big deal and it is not an easy journey at all! We get so caught up on thinking about the next step in our future we forget to celebrate the little wins we do have. You can rest after university and take a break before you start job hunting or a new job. You are still young, and we have the rest of our lives to figure out what we want to do.

It’s coming up to five months since I handed in my last ever assignment at university and I have to say that post-grad life is probably the most confusing time for any 20 odd year old. I have fallen into the trap of comparison and think I should always be doing more or what I’m doing is not good enough because I work part-time and not full time. But I remind myself that post-grad life is not just a straight path towards a single destination but a journey! We are not always going to fall into the perfect role straight away, and that is more than okay. We have so much time to figure out who we want to be and what we want to do.

I am still searching for full-time roles alongside my part-time job and believe me rejection hasn’t been easy, but I know that the right role will come at the right time and it will work for you too. It is a matter of patience and perseverance, but please do not forget to be kind to yourself and give yourself more credit. Be proud of your achievement of graduating in a pandemic, remember you are still young with years ahead of you and do not give up because something could be just around the corner.

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