The (possibly never-ending) Job-hunt

Phew. I was feeling too grumpy to do a blog post today, but I looked at some photos of really adorable kittens and that cheered me up. No, really. Who can stay miserable when faced with the super-adorableness of kittens?

Anyway. Today I was going to tell you about my job-hunting process. Perhaps you'll be interested. And if you're not, well, tough. It's my blog, and this whole job-hunt thing is what's taking up roughly 90% of my thoughts at the minute...

I'm currently in the last couple of weeks as an undergraduate student at university. I'm in my final year, and am just finishing off the last couple of pieces of coursework. When term ends on 8th April, that's it, I'm finished. Lots of my friends have exams after the Easter break, but my course wasn't structured that way so I'll be all finished and ready to graduate in July (fingers crossed). I'm hoping to come out with a 2:1 at the end, but one of my classes this term is really tough so I'm not sure how I'll do in that one. Hopefully my marks over the rest of the year will make up for it, and hopefully I won't have any complete disasters.

Being so close to finishing my degree is an exciting time, but also completely terrifying. I'm looking for a job in publishing - ideally as an agent's assistant - but there aren't that many jobs out there. By which I mean I can't afford to be too picky. I spent last summer doing work placements in the industry - a six week placement at a literary agency in London, and four weeks at an Oxford-based publishing company. Before that I'd spent a week at another literary agency, a placement that I got through the careers centre at university.

So I feel like I've got a decent knowledge of the industry. This summer I've lined up a bunch of placements between April and July. If I'm honest, I can't really afford to do them all. They're unpaid, for starters, but also there's only so much you can learn in a two or three week placement. I'm very keen to find something permanent, and as it is I'm waiting to hear back from a number of places - a couple of literary agencies, and then some entry-level positions at some publishing houses.

I find it's the waiting that's harder than anything. Waiting to hear back from employers, and waiting for jobs to come up. Publishing isn't a big industry, and there are lots of people trying to make their way in it. I feel like I've got a good C.V (or resume, if you're American...), and I feel pretty optimistic about my chances on a couple of these applications. But the lack of certainty is doing my head in, and I'm going round and round in little circles of worry that would put my worrier-housemate to shame.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have some better news to share with you as my job-hunt continues. Of course, it'll probably be much more exciting for me than it will be for you, but I always like reading about other people's success stories. Hopefully soon I'll have one of my own. Hopefully.