Post-Grad Limbo
By: 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞
Tags: Job Hunting, Creative Industry, Careers, Post Grad Life, Limbo

I even participate in the voluntary activity by trying to write the letter to my future self for the Postquarantine Instagram and as you noticed: my main questions as the young designer seeking the sense of being mentored is by asking who I bloody am? As unfortunately, due to the unexpectedly leaving university because of covid, I manage to graduate with the 2:1 grade but; I find that I wasn’t industry-ready.

I am aware that I am overly stressing myself with competing with the strange reality of what’s currently going on with the job market in the time of social distancing. I had to say that by noticing how classmates and strangers are lucky in receiving work placements, it puts a lot of confusion in even be critical of my self-worth. By receiving family pressures in getting the job: my job application is my portfolio as by being confused about my professional identity.

How on earth is anyone willing to offer me a job opportunity when not knowing what they need? As the generalist, I struggled to establish the niche but, I would argue that I was very specialised and versatile in taking any challenges because even by scrolling though job profiles, there’s the demand of diverse range for requiring specific skillsets as I job hunt. To keep preoccupied with setting myself with learning about processing, enrolling on certified UX/UI courses and working on new self-proposed projects in the hope of gaining new skillsets as I try to appeal towards earning work opportunities. The problem that I have with compromising between stressing over about my self-promotion in appearing self productive is that I keep getting lost with going from plan A to plan B as I try to define career roles to apply.

In this post-grad limbo, It’s hard to decide upon the career move as the task is interpreting educational value though trying to get my foot in the doors or to explore and invest in furthering my studies or even consider practising in it as the profession. The most daunting task is figuring out what is right for me as by describing this as Post-Grad limbo; its complex maze that convinces in asking, what is the point? It might be the overreaction of writing this; I have great urgently to make an impact within the creative industry. In learning about societal problems like climate change and racial exclusion; I don’t want to design pretty logos on Fiver as I wish to facilitate within the studio environment.

As I discussed previously, I have been contemplating making career choices and you may ask, why can’t you just wait for the covid to end? The answer is that everyone like me is horrified about future because, in the UK, it’s so hard to rely and trust upon UK governments when they just promote schemes about quitting your dream job over retraining in the different job sectors.

I explored my anxieties within my limbo more In-depth, I learned that by considering awareness upon prejudices, I am just prejudiced about myself. I get sick of making assumptions upon speculations in facing rejections about how I navigate with my career as it been the great struggle of trying to gain luck. It’s easy to gather assessable information online but, I had to say that I find that it doesn’t help me very well because there is so much misinformation that it’s hard to focus when distracted. I am quite traditional in wanting for human connections to help establish my sense of positioning expertise as my value is to collaborate.

I have no idea on what to come in 2021 to living in the UK as I might find the normal job, pursue studying the MA degree, go freelancing, set up my own business or hopefully find work within the creative industry? Importantly, by trying to seek recognition as a professional despite covid. At least in my perspective, I can be open to sharing my struggles as I try to navigate my career though being honest about what I learned because for what I am dealing with: you are not alone.