Here’s a little rant for the blog: the frustrations of rolling off a Graduate development programme.

So, you work hard at University, you work hard just to get your foot in the door and then you work hard to build up “mini” experiences within a decent, well respected company. So what happens when that is over – the world must be your little shiny Oyster right? Surely! The reality is that you find yourself starting again – especially if you’ve tried to get a more diverse experience (i.e. moving about unrelated departments). Doors are still not as open as you’d like. Instead of needing a minimum of two years experience (for entry level jobs), you suddenly need 5 years worth of experience to get that dream career.

And this is the core problem - when you look outside, or even inside the company for opportunities, they may not be available because you still don’t have enough experience. This can prove frustrating, especially if you find an area of the business you like and want to build your career in after being exposed to it.

This can be the case even if you have a good network of people to call upon. An underlying reason I have found for the above problem is simple: people you know will move onto other positions and departments. For me personally it has knocked an otherwise very good list of contacts for jobs/careers that I am interested in.

My learning curve for this observation and frustration: always keep your contacts fresh and always look to expand them at every opportunity. Your network is like any organic substance: in order for it to produce the goods you need to constantly look after it. I find that trying to work on as many diverse projects as I can is a good way of doing so.

That’s the end of my rant today!

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