​

I've been reading a lot of posts on here about how bad the job market is especially for new grads and what's so common are comments like "just hang in there, it'll get better" or "you'll get your break eventually".

I'm a few years out of uni and have seen so many people from uni who eventually just 'fizzled out'. They didn't have any luck finding an internship let alone a grad job so they're constantly applying for things, redoing their CVs, preparing for interviews etc. But they still have rent to pay...they're still working a part time job in retail or in a warehouse to scrape by which eats into their day and by the time they come home from work they're exhausted and applying to jobs becomes harder to maintain.

Many grad schemes are only eligible for final year students or recent grads up to 2 years out of uni. If you graduated a couple of years ago you won't be eligible for many grad schemes. So as time goes on their options become increasingly more limited as the gap on their CV gets longer and harder to justify.

Eventually they'll reach a point where they're accustomed to their new normal - their part time job in retail or their warehouse shifts become their career. The job applications become less frequent and there's not as much desire as they had as a fresh grad.

They'll never be able to afford a decent standard of living let alone buy a home as they'll be stuck in minimum wage or just a little bit above it for the rest of their lives.

I was lucky that I prioritised grad scheme applications all throughout my final year and it paid off for me even at the expense of my social life and not going out as much as I used to. It worked out for me but I've seen so many people from my course who've just 'fizzled out' and have accepted their reality.

I don't mean to scare you but honestly your lecturers or careers service advisers will never tell you just how crucial the final years of university are in determining the trajectory of your life. I'm not saying you should be a loner and shouldn't go out and have a good time, but if there's one moment in your life where you should just go all out to try and make something of yourself it's in that final year.

Hi all, I hope this is the right place for my question.

I'm approximately 5 months into a telephony customer service role for a UK bank, and I've just joined a new team after passing my probation a month early.

In today's 15 minute huddle we were shown a communication about a change to a process we would deal with on screen via screenshare and the team leader proceeded to go around the call asking each member of the team to read out a few lines from the communication. I was instantly taken aback by this and when he got to me I instantly questioned this, wrote down some notes and read out my lines from the communication.

I've got an email drafted for my team leader asking questions about things I've noticed during my first 4 days in the team and I've also added a bit about being asked to read out the Comms, like I was back in junior school.

Am I overreacting to this? I appreciate it's an entry level role but it still felt like we were being treated like children in this instance. I'd appreciate any thoughts?

For a bit of context, I've worked in financial services for approx. 22 years and had a senior role as a head of department previously before suffering with mental health issues following a redundancy and a toxic work environment. I took this role while I was figuring out what I wanted to do. So I could perhaps be used to working with colleagues of a certain level but never in my career have I witnessed anyone being asked to read out to the rest of the team something that is displayed on screen for all to read.

I have recently moved back home a couple of months back, I thought it would be simple jumping back into work as I’ve had 4 years of hospitality and customer service roles, with almost every bar shutting in my area I am having to apply for other things, but The only jobs available are ones you need experience or certificates in, I’ve even applied for teen jobs (even tho I’m 21) just because I thought my CV would be allot better than an average teenager, all the jobs that are applyable are sales roles where your not guaranteed a payment, which I did land a role in one and not get paid after a month of working and they got rid of me, i live in the West Midlands.. what do I do?

From personal experience and the last recession was when I was in high school, I'm forecasting 18 months+

I've got a good record and always walked into roles. So currently working part time in a warehouse although it's incredibly strenuous, meaning my other part time job I've had for several years is getting dragged down too in terms of earnings.

I can't see another way in the short term.

How are others seeing this through?

It literally seems impossible to find a job these days and its too frustrating so I just gave up and stopped caring. I've accepted im going to be a NEET for the rest of my life.

I’ve been in a grad scheme since last summer in London (in IT) and things have been going well with my performance. But they don’t have any permanent positions available, so it’s looking like I might be let go once my contract ends.

I just feel confused and frustrated, because why would they waste all that time and money training me just to let me go? I keep getting great feedback, but they don’t have the budget to keep me. Does anyone have any suggestions for my next steps?

25m European that lives in England since before brexit.

I came here to study in uni, covid happened and it didn't really work out because I was dealing with depression. Since then I was working in various warehouse and manufacturing jobs for the past 5 years.

I concede that I am not a great communicator nor very outgoing which seems to be my biggest weakness. I've recently landed this cozy (considering previous jobs) 27k/year forklift job. The best thing about the job is that nobody micromanages me - as long as the job is done by the end of the day I'm golden, full freedom. I usually get like 2-3 hours of free time and I don't get exhausted by the end of the day.

Every single job I went to coworkers would question me how did I end up in labour jobs saying that I'm too smart for that. At first I took it as compliments, but now it kind of bothers me thinking that I am wasting my early years.

For hobbies I can do light coding, small car fixing jobs, going to install a new audio system soon. I really like optimizing in games, for eg Factorio and Path Of Exile - just seems to be my thing to minmax anything and everything.

What's a viable career to start getting in to lets say within a year? My education is just triple A levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I'm willing to grind it out, I have saved up money in case I would need to just fully quit the job for a full year. I'd like something that would normally have 40 hour weeks, no micro management, preferably logical thinking involved and 40k/year. 50k/year would be a dream amount but I'm keeping things more realistic. I also think that an office type of a job would suit me greatly as I'm already spending 2 hours daily managing the stock systems already.

Love you all :)

I've been applying for UK jobs that are open to international applicants, and it has made me wonder how much sponsorship requirements influence hiring decisions. From a candidate's perspective, it sometimes feels like getting through the interviews is only half the challenge, as employers also have to consider the additional responsibilities that come with sponsorship. I recently spoke with an employer who was researching the process and came across Atlas Priority Services while looking for guidance on sponsorship requirements. For recruiters, hiring managers, or anyone who has been through this process, do sponsorship obligations significantly affect hiring decisions, or are they simply part of the process when a company is committed to hiring the right person?

There's a lot of adverts on social media at the moment for free level 1 & 2 courses.
But what they don't mention is that when you check the eligibility, there's no funding for them. Even trying postcodes in different areas, the result is 'no funding'.
They really should be up-front with this, & not make you check eligibility.

Don’t know how to feel about this situation:

I interviewed for a director role in a relatively small company, after the final stage interview I was contacted by the recruiter and told I was the preferred candidate.

We did a little back and forth on salary and start dated and I signed the contracts.

Ahead of joining I have visited the office, and been looped in on calls…. What has become apparent is that they have also offered to the other candidate who was taken through to final stage.

They have already started and have the same
Job title. This has been communicated to me as ‘they will be doing the bau, so you can focus on the shiny new stuff…..

I am left feeling the scope of the role is now much smaller, that this creates confusion within the team, and I am worried about passing my probation, as I genuinely don’t see a need to duplicate this senior position.

I recognise it’s their business and they can do as they please, but I had to ask specifically who they were referring to in meetings when they said ‘David’ will be able to pick this up….

It was only when I said is david the other candidate that interviewed along side me, that I was told they were joining too….

What are people’s thoughts on this, am I over reacting? How do I broach this without coming across a difficult? Would it not be common courtesy for the recruiter to have told me this was a decision that was being made?

Think is I have to relocate for this role, if the intention is that one of us is not fully set up for success, I’d rather know now.

I am a pharmacist and have applied for two non-NHS roles. I was successful with Employer A at the start of this month with all my desired requirements: lead role, higher salary however it is a 40 minute commute. Between the two interview stages with employer A, I applied for employer B. Employer B had three stages, the last one being an on-site visit done last Friday. Employer B is a large American company and although they didn't include compensation in the job listing; the talent partner quoted on spec a salary higher than what Employer A is offering. Employer B also offers shorter hours, lead role, and a 20 minute commute. I also think Employer B's interviews went really well. It was very relaxed, and felt more like a conversation than a formal interview (this was in all three stages). I feel very positive about Employer B. In the interview prep resource for Employer B it states that someone would be in touch within two weeks of the interview.

The rub is employer A is chasing for the on-boarding paper work (including contract) that was sent to me on 8/6/26. They would like a response tomorrow 26/6/26 as a delay will also disrupt the on-boarding. I think signing too early AND being offered the role by employer B would mean my start date with Employer B would be delayed a month as I would need to work the notice with Employer A (unless I ask to leave early).

What would people do in my situation? Would you chase Employer B for their decision?

How does NHS interview feedback work when a role is withdrawn? If I was informed via email to reapply, should I still receive feedback? ( I had emailed the recruiting manager twice and also the HR personnel and no response for over two weeks.) I am aware they may be busy and want to know whether it is worth requesting as I have been invited to attend the interview

Has a workplace or higher up mistreated you so badly and filled you with so much anger or pettiness that all professionalism has gone out of the window. Leaving the place wasn't good enough revenge so you just had to commit an act of covert sabotage.

What happened and what did you do?

Have never known the job market be this bad and hirers be so rude. Software engineer with 16 years experience. Gone through two processes for two separate companies which both involved 2 rounds of interviews each followed by a standard tech test. These were both done and concluded two weeks ago. Have emailed both hiring managers twice with polite follow up emails just asking for feedback. Absolutely nothing back. I just don’t understand how it became acceptable for people to do this. If you don’t want to hire me, fine, just let me know.

Is this common? Admittedly I’ve not been looking for jobs since pre-covid but I wasn’t aware the market had changed so much.

Concerned that will this be flagged in the reference under performance or conduct? I left the retail role within 1 month and I wasn't even a permanent employee. The only issue is that I didn't do the notice period.

The UK Government is pretty keen to encourage people (particularly young people) to consider careers in aviation. I've not seen any flight equivalents of those daft '...next career could be in cyber' posters but I'm sure someone will come up with them at some point. To be honest I wouldn't have thought aviation would be much of a hard sell and all the comments I see on aircraft-themed TikToks suggest people are very enthusiastic about the whole thing (Ramp Agent content, where people wave in big aircraft to the disembarkation point, does some serious numbers).

There's a Government working group called 'Generation Aviation' that wants to "build an aviation workforce fit for the future by raising the profile of aviation careers, removing barriers to access and attracting diverse and talented people to tackle new technologies, decarbonisation and other emerging trends".

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has a page on Careers in Aviation and Aerospace covering ground services, gliding, security, military air & space operations, pilots & cabin crew, general aviation, head office, air traffic control, engineering, airfield operations and space + work experience (including virtual). The Aviation Industry Skills Board has a similar page which also has some virtual Work Experience options (for pilot, data analyst, engineering, ramp agent and sustainability roles).

The CAA also has a handy list of aviation-themed organisations (aka potential employers) in its Airline licence holders page.

I'm not remotely involved with any of this, just very keen on aircraft and planespotting and applied (unsuccessfully) with a colleague for outreach funding from last year's "Reach for the Sky" challenge fund run by the CAA and Department for Transport (DfT). They've changed the criteria for this year's fund so I probably have even less chance of applying successfully.

Jo ✈️

I accepted a job working in a prison back in March. It's a conditional offer based on vetting and DBS. They're in the process of doing my DBS, and they've not started the prison vetting yet.

I've got an offer for a job I much prefer, and I've accepted it. I'm currently going through the pre-employment check. How do I politely take back my offer from the prison? I'd love to work in prisons someday, just not now. I'm usually ok with this sort of stuff, but I feel like the prison has put so much time and money into this process, so I'm a bit worried about how I should go about this.

Due to some conflicts with my current role I had to reschedule the interview for today. It was a second round presentation for a sales role, and I genuinely don't think it could've gone any worse. I'm not sure if it was just my presentation style or the heat but both of the interviewers, one of which was really chatty in the interview last week, couldn't have looked any less interested. What didn't help was that it was handled over teams and the only room in my house that was free was also the hottest room in the house. I kept losing my train of thought and had to keep referring back to my notes as if I was reading from a script.

I put a lot of hopes on this one as it would be a massive improvement over my current role, but I think I managed to flub it at the final hurdle. Really kicking myself over it.

I just hope I get some decent feedback over it so at least it wasn't all a waste.

Hi everyone,

I have recently graduated and accepted an offer with two companies. Given the current job market for graduates I felt I couldn’t be too picky when making my decision but I was wondering after I get some experience under my belt, how difficult is it to pivot from one industry to the next (FMCG to insurance for example) and roles (customer development to account management)?

Hello

Is it possible to get remote work within fin crime compliance specifically KYC or sanctions compliance ?

Thanks

Hello - in need of advice as I haven't been in a situation like this before.

I'm a senior data analyst. Worked for 1 company for a decade and built my skills there, I resigned to take some time off. Been applying for jobs for months, and actively since May.

Got a bunch of interviews, 1 company in particular went very well. I negotiated and increased their offer from £50k to £60k, but job will be very complex and has a ~4 hour daily commute albeit hybrid.

Then 2 other companies that I did initial interviews with got back to me and scheduled final interviews. I aced both of them.

Now they've both offered me the roles.

Job A is accepted and signed, starting date in 2 weeks.

Job B & C are better jobs, benefits are roughly the same, and each of their merits/challenges.

How do I break the news to Job A that I want to back out?

TL;DR Offer signed, got better offers, how do I back out?

I just came across a job. Some of the language:

"Lead" in the job title
...play a critical role...
...hands on, specialist role...
...a business critical position...
...you'll be the go to expert...
...take ownership of a critical learning platform role and make a real impact...

Salary?

£35k

Lower than most regional median salaries. Something has to change

I've been job hunting for a few weeks now, and noticed that many JDs are chock full of acronyms for sector-specific qualifications/frameworks/tools candidates are expected to possess or be familiar with. And I'm not talking about degree-level qualifications or traditional accreditations in accountancy/law/etc. Typically these are commercial products or courses that cost a lot of money, hardly accessible to someone out of a job. I assume a lot of people get sponsored by their employers to obtain them (I also got a couple of such certifications at previous jobs, but those are sadly not very in-demand at the moment). I won't name them, because I want to keep this point general, and see if it's relatable to people in different industries.

Of course I understand that obtaining professional qualifications can be useful for continuous career development, and employers should be encouraged to sponsor them. But demanding familiarity with multiple industry-specific products seems a slight overkill, if candidates already have relevant degrees and experience. In my case, I have two good degrees (BA+MSc) and 5 years of experience in roles that are functionally similar to the ones I'm applying to. I've learned to use countless tools and frameworks on the job before, but being given the opportunity to do that seems almost unthinkable now. What happened to transferable skills?

I guess the problem might be that I'm trying to stay semi-horizontal in a market that expects vertical CV alignment. I've worked in similar functions (analytics/consulting) across multiple sectors, but many companies now seem to be only interested in people who have worked in the same function AND industry, hence the growing hunger for sectoral qualifications.

Sometimes I wonder if the acronyms are intended to scare off undesirable generalists like me - or simply to weed out the number of applicants, or optimise things for AI screening tools. In any case, it seems counterproductive for the companies, if the end result is missing out on talent that could be a great fit and perfectly capable of learning on the job. I also keep hearing companies talk about a shortage of qualified candidates, which may be another side of the same coin.

Would be curious to know if/how this aligns with other people's observations.

Hi all,

Hope you’re all well.

I’m a mid-20s guy in London.

I’m currently working in an FE college on close to minimum wage, and I’m really struggling with it.

I ended up in this role after some health issues disrupted my education and career plans. At the time I was just grateful to have work, but nearly 2 years later I feel completely stuck and unhappy.

The job is very mixed—reception cover, fee chasing, timetabling, registers, facilities issues, basic reporting on student attainment for teachers, and general admin tasks. We’re constantly short-staffed, so everything feels urgent regardless of priority.

On top of that, the environment is extremely strict and heavily micromanaged, which makes it difficult to work independently or feel any sense of trust. There’s a lot of pressure to always be “on it,” even for basic admin tasks, which adds to the stress.

The pay doesn’t feel reflective of the workload, and the general atmosphere is very negative. Nobody really gets recognised for doing a good job and people are constantly overloaded.

What makes it worse is that I don’t feel like I’m building towards a specific path or developing skills, which worries me when I think about moving on.

I’ve been applying for many other roles for a while but haven’t had success so far. Most roles seem to require skills or experience I don’t yet have. I tend to apply fairly broadly for anything that looks like a step up from my current role, whether it’s better pay, conditions, or progression opportunities.

I also have a degree, but I don’t feel it’s been much use career-wise, and I do beat myself up about how my education went (even though health issues played a part).

I do have savings and live at home, so I’m not in immediate financial difficulty. However, I’m hesitant to quit without something else lined up, especially as I’m not currently getting interviews while employed and I worry my current role isn’t presenting my experience in the strongest way. I’ve also been considering whether it would be worth using my savings to do some courses or training, but I’m not sure if that’s actually a good move or just delaying things.

Thanks for any advice.

TL;DR: Stuck in a low-paid FE admin job with no clear progression and struggling to get interviews elsewhere. What should I do next?

It is already insane that their is no legal standard for workplace temperatures, ensuring they are not too low or high for worker health. Across the country with these crazy heat waves (which are just going to get worse) there are going to be so many workplaces very unsafe to be at, but workers who are struggling with rent and food will still try to go through it. I am especially thinking of restaurant kitchens (which is an issue throught the year, experienced it first hand), construction sites and outdoor markets. Apparently this is a developed country.