Graduates' Experiences

On this page, you will be able to read graduates talking about their transitioning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. To protect our participants, all the names below are pseudonyms.

If you are a graduate, university staff or employer and would like to share your thoughts with the research team and a wider audience, get in touch with us here.

Belinda | August 2023

A few months ago, the question I was scared to be asked was ‘so, did you get a job?’

I spent many months staying alone at home with nothing to do. I was finished with my classes and was waiting to graduate. I was largely fine—happy even— until someone asked me that question. Again and again, it would pop up from well-meaning people, and I’d have to shrug, awkwardly laugh, and throw a self-deprecating joke about how I was jobless.

I don’t think many people take seriously that people my age do not dream of working. I have very few friends who want a career in the traditional sense. My friend’s goals are to ‘travel the world’, ‘write a book’, ‘make a difference’, or ‘to just live.’ Our expectations have been blunted by a bleak future and a worldwide pandemic. We know that we need a job to survive, to eat, to pay off our debts. But, it’s not the be all and end all.

I have a job now and am glad to say that it suits me. It took a bit of searching and a whole lot of luck. At the end of the day, I wish people gave us some time to grow into ourselves and figure things out. Did I get a job? Yeah, I did. Things will happen in time, as they always do.