Fed up

LegacyUser

I am getting really fed up at the moment, I have graduate from university with a 2.1 degree in an area where some employers are finding it hard to fill jobs. I was lucky enough that upon finishing final year my parents funded me to go off an travel for 3 months and I really enjoyed it. I have been home now since late August but the longer I spend at home the less hopeful I get of finding employment.

A lot of people who I knew while studying at university have all gone back to do masters but I decided not to do a masters even though I had been accepted to study two different courses I just wasnt sure if I would be interested enough to get an anyway decent result at the end of it and I thought I would be just delaying the inevitable and I would be in the same position a year later.

I have been going to interviews but I keep failing them and the more I do the less confident I get. Some of the interviews I have been having are with massive companies but the only reason I am getting these interviews is because of my degree and my result but then I go and do a bad interview as being a very modest person I absolutely hate talking myself up (I try and do it but it doesnt come across as natural ie confident in what I am saying) and more impotently completely failing the technical exam.

Thinking about my technical exams I have done I'd say I would be lucky to get one answer right and because of this I am not sure should I keep trying to keep looking in this area but then I realise then I have no idea what other area I should get into.

I know I should be doing my own projects to keep myself updated and all that but I am just not that bothered and finding it extremely hard to motivate myself.

The thing that makes it worse is my friends who do have jobs are earning high wages or are travelling all around the world with their jobs with them only graduating the same time as me. Even my friends who are doing masters I am jealous of as I feel they will be in a better position then me when they finish and even better then me in general for having a masters.

Being the youngest in my family and I am constantly comparing myself to my older siblings who both have masters and got jobs straight after graduating from multi-national companies.

At this moment at time I just feel like I never will get a job and I dont even feel as if I would be able to do the job seeing that I am failing the technical exams. Two of my friends who graduated from an I.T college a year before are still unemployed and I am just afraid I will end up like them.

finbarrk

Maybe you will, but look at life from a different persective. You could have cancer. As a mate of mine has.

bertaluchi

Hi there,
I don't mean to over simplify your problem, but maybe you just need to learn a better interview technique.
It's a performance. Not a stand up, over the top performance, but you've got talk yourself up (a bit)
I'm similar in that I play down some of the stuff I've done, but in an interview, I really try to emphasize some of the good things.

Again, it's a performance. Your first interviews are supposed to be crap. I've done loads of interview and I'm at the stage where I'm really thinking about the answer, how Im coming across, is my interviewer clued in (loads aren't) - point is, you can learn all these things.

There's probably a few youtube clips. Of course most will be cheesy, but you take little bits from each clip.

I know I've only focused on one element of your post, but it seems to me that that's your problem.

Good luck chief!

LegacyUser

Hi OP, I posted the same on a recent thread, but I found this really good: I spent a few hours googling interview questions, and pasted them all into a word doc, and made myself write a paragraph for each one. Sounds easy until you try to do it! It took me hours, and doing it and re-reading it made me feel lots more confident going into sn interview situation. I wouldn't be the kind of person who can wing it in interviews, so building up my confidence in this way works for me.

By the sounds of things you are getting your foot in the door, so maybe it's just the confidence thing that you need to work on? And believe me, someone who sounds cocky as hell at an interview comes across equally as badly as someone who clearly hasn't a clue why they are there, so I wouldn't worry about that! Quietly confident and enthusiasm about being willing to learn are the most winning qualities that I've encountered

The best of luck OP, don't get jaded though; these things take persistence!

Esel

Consider doing an interview preparation course? Carr Communications or somewhere like that. At least get a few books on the subject.