A young person's story on finding a job

"You have completed work by coming to this interview, so I am paying you for it." - I still have that £20, and as long as I live, I will never spend it.

Finding a job is tough. This is true at every stage of your career. But, of course, as with everything I write about, I have to view it from my perspective.

I am the stereotypical example of a young person's journey into the workforce. I graduated A-levels, went to university, and began searching for a job. I had some work experience and had worked an intermittent weekend job.

I began searching for jobs in my chosen field of politics. However, I heard nothing for many months until one day I heard back from an internship. I was delighted to be able to get some experience, but of course, it was unpaid.

After completing the internship, I began to interview again. In the end, it took about a year of hardcore interviews to find my current job. It was 20 first interviews and 13 second interviews, most of which required travelling down to London.

This period of time was helpful for my confidence. I learned to become rather resilient towards rejection (something that came in use during the General Election). However, the process to me was extremely flawed, and I thought I would share some thoughts on the early stage of careers, in case anyone reading this is responsible for hiring.

The first and most obvious point to me is that unpaid internships are wrong.

I, of course, see the value in work experience, this being a week or two of shadowing to learn about a potential career. But the number of long-term unpaid internships is truly shocking. However, in the UK, they are illegal if the person is performing 'work'.

There is an allowance if it’s part of a higher education course, volunteering at a charity, or is work-shadowing.

But what will happen is a company will advertise the position as a volunteer position and then expect that a potential worker will not say anything. However, most of the time, the position will be illegal, but it isn’t policed at all. According to the definition, the internship I did was illegal.

Unpaid internships are an extreme barrier to social mobility. I was only able to do one because my parents could support me, and I could live with close family friends. If neither of those were true, I wouldn’t have been able to do one. The Sutton Trust (a charity) estimated the average cost of an unpaid internship in London was £1,093.

Of course, the argument is that unpaid internships are just part of finding a job, but from an employee's perspective, they are simply exploitative. An employer will get a productive worker whilst typically only paying lunch expenses when in reality they could probably afford to pay the person.

My second thought on early-stage careers—but also applies to any stage—is around the interviewing process. The extreme length of interviews is well known; for example, I have friends who interviewed for Amazon and Google who both had extremely long interview processes (both at early-stage and senior).

I also have a friend who interviewed for an entry-level position in the US and went through 6 stages, after which she was ghosted by the employer. This, of course, is truly wrong.

But what isn’t talked about as much is the cost of interviews. If a job expects in-person interviews, candidates are required to spend money to travel. This, in my experience, isn’t reimbursed and would be my biggest suggestion to any prospective employers.

My final thought is about feedback. I am no stranger to rejection; when you are applying for jobs, this is the expectation. I am also aware of the number of applicants most jobs get. And that when hiring, it is simply one of the many tasks on the docket; it isn’t your priority at the moment.

However, for a candidate, that one job, especially if it incurs cost, is the biggest thing in their life. Therefore, the kindest thing to do for them is to be prompt. Whether this is a rejection or an acceptance, communication is so valuable.

I will always remember the jobs that called me and provided valuable feedback. This, however, was frankly few and far between.

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I had been looking for quite a while so when my job opened up, I immediately applied. The next day I was contacted for an online interview, which quickly led into a second in-person interview.

The experience was slightly bizarre as my Boss is a unique character whom I will be forever thankful for and someone I would call a mentor and a friend (I did end up living with him for 6 weeks, a story for another time).

But at the end of the interview, we go to leave, and he takes out his wallet and hands me £20. I asked him what is this for? He then proceeded to say:

"You have completed work by coming to this interview, so I am paying you for it." In that moment, I knew I wanted to work for him.

I still have that £20 nearly 3 years later, and as long as I live, I will never spend it.