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In the second instalment of a diary documenting her first year as a graduate, 2020 graduate Katie Sawyer shares her feelings on the ups and downs of applications, and the importance of feeling settled in a job, even if it’s not the thing you always thought you’d do.
Read part 1, published in September 2020
Read part 3, published in April 2021
I’ve found it really hard to find motivation for my graduate job search due to COVID. It’s really hard to try and shape a future when I don’t know what’s around the corner.
Since my last post I’ve managed to secure a permanent position at the job I started back in September. It’s a working from home role in customer service for Naked Wines, which has both pros (including lots of free wine) and cons (as all jobs do), however the job itself is great!
In all honesty, the job I currently have and the people I work with are so lovely I’ve been finding it difficult to find motivation to look for a job in the legal sector. Feeling settled and content at work is always great and now I have that it means that the search for something else feels a little less pressing.
I’ve also found it really hard to find motivation for my graduate job search due to COVID. It’s really hard to try and shape a future when I don’t know what’s around the corner. The more I think about it, the more unsettled I get.
Another stumbling block has been the rejections. Whenever you make an application there is always a chance of rejection, but my resilience has been dwindling. I was so focused on needing to find work in law and so caught up in the rejections I faced that I just stopped applying.
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One of my university friends has just bagged herself a great job in London. She’s starting out working from home and should be moving to the office hopefully later in 2021 and seeing her succeed has really motivated me to get back hunting myself. It also means I have someone to speak to about their experience of getting a graduate job during a pandemic.
Some of my other friends who got their graduate schemes through applications, assessment centres and interviews, but she went through a recruiter. Because I am looking for vacation schemes and training contracts with law firms it was not an avenue I had considered going down.
Speaking to her about her experience and sharing in her excitement made me realise that not every job I apply for has to be one in law. So now, alongside my legal applications, I’m also going to be looking for roles in sectors I want to be working in as a commercial solicitor.
If I’m going to be practicing corporate law it makes perfect sense to have experience in the finance industry. I aspire to train in a commercial firm and so working in the companies which could one day be my client will only strengthen my commercial awareness and understanding.
Now it’s 2021 I’m starting with a new perspective. Applications are being worked on and sent off for both legal and non-legal roles. All of them are for jobs that inspire me and will help me to get to my next step – whatever and wherever that may be.
Katie completed the Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies at UEA, graduating in 2020.