Are You A Journalist Feeling Lost After Education? Here’s What You Can Do

By the time we reach adulthood, we’ve likely spent hundreds of thousands of hours in the classroom. For so long, the next step is more education. Until, all of a sudden, it isn’t.

Those who go to university — as almost a third of journalists now do — spend the best part of two decades as students, before entering the ‘real world’. Often, this can mean returning home. And, in an industry that’s often framed as hugely competitive, adjusting to what comes next can be difficult, particularly if you’re job hunting.

Adjusting To Moving Home After University

If you moved back home after university (or never left), you’re certainly not alone. The 2021 census recorded that just over half of all people aged 23 and under were living with their parents, as well as approximately 30 per cent of 25–29-year-olds and more than one in 10 30–34-year-olds. With the average cost of private renting in England recorded at £1,276 in February 2024 — up 8.8 per cent from a year earlier — it’s unsurprising.

Yana Trup graduated from the University of Westminster in 2023 with a journalism degree. Apart from taking a few months off after graduating, she’s been job hunting ever since. While Yana has submitted 40 applications so far this year, she often still feels like it’s not enough. But with the time investment required by each application, she’s unsure she could do anymore: “It’s not just sending a CV. It’s, we need a cover letter, and also find a story, and write 500 words of this story. And whilst you’re at it, come up with three other stories that you would pitch.”

Yana Trup (L) and Kathryn Schoon (R) both found transitioning back to life at home difficult after graduating from university.

After university, Yana moved back home, and while she’s grateful for her parent’s support, she says she’s struggled to adapt. “My dad has a chronic illness, so my mum is his full-time carer. When I moved home, I took on a little bit of that,” she says.

Kathryn Schoon graduated from the University of Bristol with a social sciences degree earlier this year and is looking for journalism roles while working full-time as a university department receptionist. Like Yana, Kathryn was grateful to be able to move home, but has found it difficult: “I have a very small bedroom, which means I don’t feel like I have much private space and I live in a part of the city which feels a bit disconnected. It’s not super easy to see a lot of my friends, and it’s hard to get to work.”

Chartered health psychologist Dr Ravi Gill points to Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychological Development to explain these feelings of discomfort. This theory, she says, suggests people face the challenge of “intimacy versus isolation” when leaving education, “where forming deep personal relationships becomes crucial”

“The end of university life can bring a sense of loss — not just of the social life and routines, but also the sense of possibility and freedom that often characterises student life,” Dr Ravi says. She adds that while the transition into university “is often supported by a structured environment and shared experiences”, the outward transition is “more solitary and uncertain”.

While some might dismiss the idea of ‘university blues’ as trivial, Dr Ravi says this “overlooks the significant psychological, emotional, and social challenges many graduates face during this transition period.”

Quinn Rhodes graduated this year from Edinburgh Napier University with a journalism degree. While Scottish degrees are already one year longer than those in England and Wales, he also switched to journalism from Maths and Physics and later took some time out for mental health. It’s now been eight years since Quinn left high school education. “For most of them, I’ve been doing at least part of a year of studying,” he explains.

While Quinn has always “enjoyed the process of learning”, he says in hindsight he tied a lot of his identity to his academic performance at school. Although he’s come a long way in separating self-worth from academic success, Quinn adds: “There have been times when I have mapped that self-worth onto how I’m doing with my writing and journalism career in a way which is not helpful.”

Dr Ravi says the “expectation that graduates should quickly transition into successful careers” can pile on the pressure to immediately have it all figured out. “The gap between these expectations and reality can lead to stress and a sense of inadequacy,” she adds.

Dr Emma Williams, author of Leaving Academia, adds that leaving education can be difficult due to the idea of not being able to return. “Choosing to enter degree education in the first place usually happens in the teenage years where we are defining who we are and what we stand for. This is often the first really big career choice that people make,” she says.

Chartered health psychologist Dr. Ravi Gill (L), and Dr. Emma Williams, author of Leaving Academia (R).

How Many Entry-Level Jobs Are Really Entry-Level Jobs?

But, just how difficult is it to find that first role?

Earlier this year, Ellen Petit graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in Theatre and English. While she knew she wanted a job which involved writing, she didn’t know exactly what. “It was basically just applying for everything and anything that was an entry-level job,” says Ellen. “I also found that on LinkedIn and Indeed, entry-level didn’t always mean entry-level,”

It’s a catch-22 that appears to be increasingly prevalent. In an analysis of more than 3.8 million jobs listed on LinkedIn as ‘entry-level’ between 2017 and 2021, 35 per cent asked for three or more years of experience.

Ellen says although it sounds dramatic, the initial job search was “traumatic and terrible”. She adds: “It was my first time funding myself completely independently. So I had this idea of: ‘I need like 30k a year. But then that meant I was applying to things that obviously I was going to be rejected for.’”

Once Ellen let go of what she thought a graduate job should look like and that it didn’t have to directly relate to her degree, it became easier. She secured a summer internship with a small PR business, which then kept her on. If you’re struggling, Ellen encourages contacting smaller companies, who may be more nurturing than larger businesses. Similarly, data from Journo Resources’ jobs board found that roles in regional journalism, business-to-business publications, and social media and SEO roles had substantially less competition than roles at larger outlets. It also found that roles with ‘reporter’ or ‘intern’ in the title were more likely to have a higher number of applications, even if other jobs had similar job descriptions, but a different title.

Being open to all kinds of roles is one thing — but while short-term paid internships are one thing, unpaid work is something else and continues to reinforce class barriers and problematic industry messaging.

The latest research from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) found that 66 per cent of new entrants to journalism undertook a period of work experience or an internship before starting their first job. Of these, 88 per cent were unpaid, with an average length of three weeks. In the report’s conclusion, it calls for “radical action to improve diversity”, adding that “pathways into journalism must be widened and not based on unpaid metropolitan work experience expectations if we are to be successful in employing talent from underrepresented groups”.

Similarly, this peer-reviewed study published last year in the British Journal of Sociology of Education found that unpaid internships weren’t improving job prospects or leading to higher pay in the creative sector. Based on data from more than 600 creative and communications graduates, the research revealed those who do unpaid internships are more likely to earn £4,000 less in salary than non-interns. The researchers suggested this might be partly due to a weaker bargaining position when accepting their first paid job.

However, things are slightly more nuanced than the ‘never work for free’ argument. After six months of putting all her energy into job applications, Yana realised she wasn’t actually gaining any experience, so decided to volunteer with a community radio station. In an ideal world, Yana says unpaid work wouldn’t have to exist at all, but working at the station for a few hours a week is something she feels better about and has helped her secure an interview for a local BBC radio station.

“I’ve never been paid for anything,” Kathryn adds. “But up to this point, I haven’t really minded, because for me, I just knew without the NCTJ, I needed to build up a portfolio of work.” Now though, Kathryn says: “I really shouldn’t have to feel like my work is still as good as it would be from someone who you’re paying to do it.”

When looking at unpaid opportunities first ask yourself who’s benefitting from your work; will you be gaining valuable experience you can use? Similarly, working for charities and volunteer-led organisations means no one is profiting from your labour. It’s also a conversation you should check back in on regularly.

Dealing With Rejection In The Job Hunt

For Yana, finding balance has been key: “It’s important not to just zero in and have the job hunt be the only thing in your life […] I try to go out and get away from it. I don’t push myself to apply for hundreds and hundreds of things every single day.”

Ellen Petit (L) found the post-university job search difficult; meanwhile, Quinn Rhodes (R) had to learn to separate self-worth from academic success.

It’s also important to acknowledge how individual everybody’s experiences are. A lot of careers advice, particularly in journalism, Quinn says, “relies on a level of time and energy and mental capacity I just know I do not have as a disabled, autistic person.” In light of that, he says he often has to remind himself the system is broken, not him.

Things changed for Ellen when she realised not every job has to be a career: “When you come out of uni, you don’t need to put that expectation on yourself that you’re going to get a really good job and then stay at that job until you retire. You need to try different things and give yourself time to deal with all the new independence.”

Dr Emma suggests setting up ‘informational interviews’, which essentially just means “having a chat with someone who can share their lived experience of an industry”. She recommends utilising LinkedIn for this and asking people who else you should speak to afterwards.

But also, be sure to take a break, resist the doom scrolling, and remember that rejections don’t define you.

Image courtesy of Ugip via Unsplash.