When 22-year-old Emily Chong graduated from University College London last year, she thought the job hunt would be simple. She had a first-class degree in history and a place on the dean’s list, an academic honour awarded to the top 5 per cent of a graduating class. “I was more confident than my peers,” she says.
Since August she estimates she has applied for more than 100 positions across public relations, advertising and communications with no success. “For most of our lives we have been told that working hard and getting good grades will get us to where we want to be,” says Chong. “I realise this isn’t the case.”
Chong’s experience will feel familiar to many new graduates whose prospects are blighted by the harsh reality of today’s jobs market, where global hiring remains 20 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, job switching is at a 10-year low and AI is disrupting how we work, according to a LinkedIn report.