Giving Yourself Structure
I sit myself down at my silly little desk, drink a silly little iced coffee and write a silly little newsletter...and it helps
Hello & I hope you’re having a lovely day to anyone reading.
The shift from the constant motivation and stimulation of university life to the stationary reality of both having no job nor any academic work is something most recent graduates have had to adapt to, especially post-pandemic. When these essential aspects of your routine are removed, the lines demarcating ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ time are increasingly blurred, and it becomes important to learn to respect yourself enough to create a space away from your professional responsibilities.
These last two months have taught me my own need for structure and the benefit effective self-governance can have on general mental wellbeing. Time which is devoted exclusively to relaxation and decompressing from the job search is critical in establishing a healthy routine, despite temptation to cut into these spells by working on CVs or cover letters. No person is wholly defined by their employment status; everyone deserves time and space upon which their professional life has no bearing.
Reserving parts of my day like this helps establish a disconnect between myself and my search for a job. Frustration is a natural reaction to employers who, seemingly ubiquitously, refuse to offer essential opportunities to gain experience. The kick in teeth is that often such experience is an essential component in job descriptions, particularly in roles which would land graduates on their desired career path. Even opportunities like internships, fellowships and graduate programmes have become as competitive as full-time jobs, offering an additional stage of disappointment and obstruction to graduates looking to start their careers and not just ‘find work’.
Delimiting a routine for yourself outside of the input of potential employers, in my experience, helps curb tendencies to conflate work with self-worth. Have, for example, a cut off of 5pm which might help mirror your day with one spent in the office, and stop working at this time. Setting yourself small tasks which you can complete every day, such as making sure you read one thing for pleasure, supports a sense of control after sudden exposure to an excess of free time. Self-implemented structure can be a surprisingly effective tonic for dealing with feelings of regression, especially in the face of a stream of impersonal rejection emails.
The detachedness of automated refusals or, in some cases, of a complete lack of response to an application altogether can, paradoxically, feel like direct feedback on you as an applicant. The increasing lack of courtesy some employers demonstrate alienates graduates from the value of themselves and their labour as potential employees (Marx made some points, it seems). Have faith that you will eventually find a job, and that you will be deserving of it. She who would eat the fruit must first climb the tree.
Thanks so much to anyone who took the time to read this. Love to you all.
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For an unexpected but enjoyable take on the relationship between employment and identity, I would recommend Sayaka Murata’s ‘Convenience Store Woman’, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.