What every graduate should feel about graduate fairs.

On Tuesday afternoon I ladened myself with printed CV's and a map and headed over to Islington for the London Graduate Fair.

It's quite clear now that I needn't have bothered. Having read an article on youth unemployment on the Financial Times online the night before, I tried to remain undeterred by the mention of disheartening graduate fairs, this one was going to be different. Apart from it wasn't, and I did end up feeling stupid; I wasted my money by travelling there and all I got was a couple of free pens and some 'best employer guides' produced by people who weren't even there!
The split between Universities offering post-graduate courses compared to actual jobs was disgraceful. Additionally, without meaning to sound rude but it's going to happen anyway, the jobs on offer were hardly life-changing and only left the ultimate feeling that you may as well have tried your luck at working in a supermarket for the last four years because you definitely would be somewhere by now and not have to be attending this farse.

I'm not saying that as a graduate I am automatically entitled to 'better jobs' but when I attend a graduate fair I would expect to see a range of employers offering more than retail or sales roles. These aren't really graduate jobs and I feel sorry for those that were eating it up. No one is inspired by call centre roles and I don't know anyone who would list those kinds of jobs as their ultimate dreams.
I am aware of the lack of jobs out there, but why would you even advertise it as having lots of potential employers, when really it is a sea of universities, job search engines and volunteering roles.



I got suckered in to signing up to be a teacher, because it's my fall-back plan if I am still unemployed by next July. However, I'm not taking the aforementioned application any further, can you tell I have no desire to be an ICT teacher? I know there are Art & Photography teaching positions available, in fact if I had a PCGE already, I would probably be totally set up by now. So why should I settle for a job that is completely irrelevant when there are plenty available that are, it actually baffles me.

The overall feeling from both myself and Moon was anger, we were lied to and I don't think that that's a particularly farfetched exaggeration. Perhaps I knew there wouldn't be a lot of employment opportunities, but I didn't expect UCAS Fair: Take two. After taking part in 'Walk 4 Work' and demonstrating that I want to be employed and that I am pro-active and good enough, this took all that away and made sure that I knew I'd wasted my time and should just go and hide at another university for another year.




For a 'graduate fair' there were certainly no graduate schemes on offer, people were herded around the Apple stand when all they had to offer was retail and eventual management roles. There will be people who need these jobs, who don't mind if they put their degree/passion on hold for the next 5-10 years, but I'm not ready to settle and I'm not ready to take something as pointless as this event lying down.

My advice for graduates; never bother with one of these, you don't need it and you're better than that. You've done a degree and you've worked hard and you don't need to be made to feel like an idiot, especially if you've dressed up for it and especially not for a free pen and some books that you will never read.

I was so mad, I even made a video about it on the ride home.

Since 'Walk 4 Work' there has been a lot of press coverage on both this issue and the overall problem of youth unemployment, this can only be a positive thing and hopefully encourage future events like this to be more positive and productive for it's uninspired attendees.

Reworked font colour.

..and size.
These details are of so little importance to both me and whoever is looking at this, that it almost seems pointless. Essentially, these three JPGs are the same as the ones below, but, I do think these look a bit better and hopefully it is something that Daniel will pick up on, especially as I'll be using black foam board rather than the oddly specified white.
Let it be noted I've tried to use as true fonts as possible as well.
I think this could be my final work. To the printers - on Tuesday.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I have been left almost completely alone this evening, and after I finished up this (a task which took me the duration of Eastenders), rather than spend my time wisely working on my RDB, I was on the phone.
First to my Gran for nearly an hour, and then to my sister for two hours, ridiculous. However, I have had quite a busy day, so apart from the InDesign tweaking I probably wouldn't have been bothered to do much else anyway. It does bother me that I will still have the same pile of RDB work to do over the weekend, but if it's going to be as wet and rainy as they say - fingers crossed not for Monday - then I may as well make use of less distracting time indoors.

The band pitch went well, but I didn't get it, I think I've learnt from it though, hey ho.
I need to learn to think a bit more and worry a bit less.

Putt-putt.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I think that playing golf on a sunny Saturday afternoon - especially if I'm not very good at it - is a much more useful and productive use of time than doing the work that's due in in just over two weeks.
In all seriousness, editing my images and putting everything into InDesign is what I should be getting on with for the next week, leaving the following week for printing, mounting and writing a Project Report - that I apparently don't have to write.
I'd better get cracking, it won't even take long to do the first task, it's just writing the article and the fact that it's kind of boring that puts me off.

Grrr.

Fuck you, Vans.

My feet are so sore, I feel I have to blog about it.

Tonight I am going to try and dress as Yoko Ono, but I'll basically just be wearing normal clothes that just happen to be white. I think it's an easy one to get away with considering that she's oriental and I am half......... it was either her or Björk, I don't really like either choice. I was considering Lovefoxxx but I realised that in order to make that good I'd have to go for a gold onesy, and I don't think I really have the body to pull that off.
It should be good tonight though and at the very least, I'll get a nice photograph of Moon and I in accompanying costumes, he's going as John Lennon, without a wig or beard and with his normal (ginger) hair...

I hope my feet get better, to try and make sure they do, I'm going to spend the rest of the day reading those magazines...
It feels so lame.
I've just been given a second brief for the studio as well, a fashion shoot - I have to email a fashion designer and state claim over one of her collections, we don't have to find a model this time though, which I am really thankful for, hopefully certain people will pull their weight this time round.

Chomp.

In order to avoid doing any project work for the rest of the weekend, today's project was cooking. I'm quite proud of myself and in any case, right at this second there isn't much of a point doing any more of my RDB until I have done my shoot, tomorrow.
So I made Jamie Oliver's Steak, Guiness and Cheese pie - which I'm putting up there as one of my great culinary successes.

And I made some 'Cheeseburger Cupcakes' that I found on FoundShit.com. I got the recipe from here, they're pretty simple, but I don't actually really want to eat them now...

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I experimented with my flash-cord today to see if I can change the lighting effects for tomorrows shoot with Andy, as I don't really want to lug lots of studio lights home when the only reason I'm doing it at home is because the studio is booked solidly for the next week. I think I could make it look ok, I may take out a tripod.

Giggle Water.

http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins/slang-pg.htm

These are my favourites of what I took before we went out.
I really did enjoy last night, even though my only real memory is having Cantonese spoken to me by a black guy...

© Ruth Johnston

I haven't really done any work today, or most of this week for all that matter, I have some back issues of Vice that I need to look over, and an incredibly pointless and unproductive day of Uni ahead of me tomorrow. I've been quite lazy this week but the looming boredom of tomorrow doesn't really help anything.

This Is It.

Part of me wishes that Michael Jackson hadn't died. I'm glad he's not the freakshow in this that he was made out to be in his later years through nearly every kind of media.
I like that he smiles at the end, I do not see any other 50 year old entertainers that can still sing and dance as well as he could. It actually is a tragedy.

I have done nearly nothing productive today, all I want to do is listen to Michael Jackson and open new tabs on Google Chrome - it's all pretending.
Tomorrow I have to leave the house and hope that the University is open, although a friend on my course has got me some backup hooks if the art shop isn't open. Fingers crossed for all of tomorrow, it has to be more productive than today,
God knows what I'm going to do when I actually nothing to do, rather than one (seriously tiny) thing to put off. I've stocked up on films to watch, but that's it, then again, it's technically only a week when everyone else will be busy and be all 'no fun today'.

Harrods.

So, yesterday my Gran took my sister and I to Harrods.
I'm not sure whether it was because it's Christmas time, but it really was magical. If that doesn't sound lame, it has everything. I didn't even realise. We had a nice afternoon tea there, which was pricey but worth it. It was such a nice afternoon, I came back feeling really Christmassy.
These are the photos I took, being a tourist attraction, no one minded me getting my camera out, it was nice to not be looked upon as suspicious.

For some reason, which I didn't catch, the theme for Harrod's 70th anniversary was the Wizard of Oz.
Too cute :)




I wanted one, just to have, but I guess Harrod's can keep it for £40.









Probably quite a novel gift for your dog, but when it comes down to it, almost entirely pointless.







© Ruth Johnston 2009 More photos here.

I couldn't sleep last night for all the worrying I did about all the work I've yet to do. I have to finish off reading for the Issues in Contemporary Media essay and have worked out that if I'm doing a book for Documentary Practices it needs to be sent to the printers before the New Year in order for me to get it before the deadline. I could make one, but I think for this project a standard photobook is more apt, and a bit more sleek. Plus I'm not very good at that kind of thing - that is actually what I'm going to put in my RDB. So I'm going to have to select my final images even though I haven't taken them all yet.
I've selected around 100 images, which probably needs to be narrowed down to 30-40 for the book. Shouldn't be too hard but I don't know if they're all good enough. I guess it means the RDB work won't be as strenuous though, what with the actual final piece being done.
STRESS.STRESS.STRESS.
On the plus side, at least I've done the Case Studies for Project Management (the exhibition project) - as well as completing all my development notes - I've only got a bit of research that needs typing up and I probably won't worry about that until a couple of days before the hand in...

Bring on the two days off Christmas Eve & Day bring. ♥
It also snowed yesterday, but only for a bit.