Problems at work? Our agony uncle has the answers
Problems at work? Need advice? Our agony uncle has the answers
Work experience is all well and good, but how about getting paid?
I’ve been trying to get a job as a magazine designer since I left university nearly a year ago. During my final year I realised I needed to get work experience and I got made an unpaid art editor of the student union magazine. To get the six issues a year out I would often work a week at a time, from 7am until 1am the following day.
During this time I also took a work placement with a business magazine publisher in London. I was living in Lincolnshire but my parents agreed to fund me to stay in a hotel for a week. The placement was great, but unfortunately there were no vacancies.
I got a placement at a different publisher. This was closer to where I live, but my parents still had to help out. Do not get me wrong, I am grateful to these art editors for letting me work with them, but again the publisher was quite happy to utilise my free labour as long as I could do the job.
I decided to drop the graphic design part of my degree to fulfil my placements and unpaid work on the student magazine. This tactic has turned out well, and I have not had one potential application ask why I do not possess a graphic design qualification, because the work placements speak for themselves. But this has not been enough.
Since then I have been searching for employment. I have more than a year’s experience and feel I could do the jobs applied for without a blemish, but I get told I need more experience. How am I supposed to continue to work for free and get more experience when I have payments to make? Now I’m searching for unpaid work placements against a new set of graduates from the year below me, and those offering potential placements cower when I so much as ask for travel costs.
Most of what I’m about to say you’ll know already: perhaps all of it. I’m sorry about that but there really are no magic solutions to the only-too-common problem you face. At root, of course, are some obvious truths.
The magazine sector isn’t booming, the demand for magazine designers is limited and there are a great many people such as you, with the necessary drive, talent and qualifications, lining up for a few vacancies.
This means employers, themselves almost certainly under pressure to contain costs, are only too ready to avail themselves of the seemingly endless supply of those happy to work for nothing on work placements. It may seem like exploitation, but you can’t really condemn employers for taking advantage of such market conditions – and they do, in return, provide the all-important reward of experience. It may not be as good as money but, without it, a salaried job becomes an even more distant prospect.
As far as your personal predicament is concerned, I believe you might be more successful if, instead of making more and more applications to more and more companies, you concentrated your efforts on two or three specific magazine publishers. You’ll know far better than I which are the larger ones, the more successful ones – perhaps those you’ve already had some contact with. Make it clear you admire their publications and have set your heart on working for them.
Don’t just apply for jobs but send them creative ideas, tailor-made for specific titles; practical ideas that make it clear you’ve done your research and have something to offer. Then follow up with more on a regular basis.
Two things are certain. Sooner or later, all companies need to take on staff. And when they do, they’ll surely start by considering those who’ve already demonstrated a practical talent, a passion for the company and a determination to work for it.
Do your research and you may find what you’re looking for
Having spent 16 years in retail banking, mainly in a sales and marketing role, I took up the offer of extended maternity leave, followed by voluntary redundancy, and returned to studying. Now, 10 years on and armed with a BA, MA and PhD, all in English literature, I find myself looking for a job once more.
The obvious destination for a humanities doctorate is university teaching, but the opportunities are scarce and competition fierce.
While I have a small quota of sessional teaching at my local university, and am continuing to build my research profile and looking for a publisher for my thesis, I wonder how marketable I would be outside the higher education sector.
I thoroughly enjoy teaching, yet I love the research aspect of my academic work: following up clues, thinking creatively and writing up my conclusions. I work well on my own, am well organised and highly motivated. My salary expectations are modest: £25,000 per annum with some flexibility for family commitments would be perfect. Other than keeping up the applications for university posts, have you any suggestions?
As always, I welcome constructive thoughts from readers. We’ll print or forward any that hold promise. Meanwhile I suggest you investigate working freelance for publishers and documentary film-makers. Your experience, qualifications and preferred manner of working strongly suggest you’d be an admirable researcher of background material for books and factual programmes. You’ve enjoyed this sort of work while writing your thesis, and it seems a natural progression to offer those skills to others. And it could be, in your search for a publisher of your thesis, you find a company interested in your potential role as a researcher.
Ideally, you’d stumble on someone already interested in publishing a book or making a programme about the subject of your thesis – for which you’d be in the strongest position to do the research. It’s a long shot but worth pursuing and would be the perfect way to break into your new profession.
Did Jeremy get it right? Email dear.jeremy@guardian.co.uk and we’ll print the best replies
Readers’ replies
A letter from a correspondent with dyspraxia and dyslexia (Is it possible to find a fulfilling job with my learning difficulties?, Dear Jeremy, 24 April) continues to draw readers’ replies.
• Please don’t be disheartened! Since graduating with a BA and MA in English I have found it tough at times without the one-to-one support I got at uni as a dyslexic student. Over the past five years I’ve worked in the voluntary sector as a volunteer co-ordinator and as a development worker.
I have enjoyed both jobs, and developed skills and knowledge as I have progressed. I’ve found the voluntary sector a great place to be as a dyslexic employee. Personally I have never made much mention of my dyslexia to line managers but instead developed strategies to do the job to the best of my ability. I have my electronic spellchecker on my desk, colleagues who are happy to help me spell difficult words and a notepad on me at all times to ensure I write down instructions (and don’t forget them). When I’m finding something difficult, ie trying to write down an email address someone is telling me over the phone, I try and stay calm and ask them to repeat the address until I have managed to write it down. Mostly, I find people are understanding.
On the issue of career progression I have found it hard sometimes to map my next move, but what I have found most useful is networking; talking to others, finding out how they got to do what they do.
There are several routes through life. I have found you might not go the quickest route from A to B, but it’s often much more interesting to go via another point. I did embark on a PGCE after my MA and hated it but the friends I made and some of the experiences I had will stay with me forever, so it wasn’t a disaster. Lucinda Leonard
For Jeremy’s advice on a work issue, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@guardian.co.uk. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or reply personally
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