‘You can do everything right and still lose’ – Aamir, 25
“I’ve been demoralised by the process, just constantly applying, then interviewing. I’ve just been applying to any jobs that I could find. I’d really like to be employed by now. Some companies don’t even give rejection emails … they’re not obligated to reply to the prospective interviewee, but they should be compelled to.”
By Aamir’s estimate, he has applied for more than 1,000 jobs since graduating last year. The 25-year-old has a BA in media and communications and an MA in media studies from two Russell group London universities.
He landed a temporary digital publishing role at a media company, but the contract ended after a few months. Two years later, he is living with his parents in east London, claiming universal credit and looking for work.
“I would like to not be on benefits,” he says. “I would like to have a proper entry-level job in what I studied, but I haven’t been able to get anything. I’m trying.”
Aamir also attends interview coaching through the government’s Restart programme and is completing free Google qualifications to strengthen his CV.
“The universal credit people told me I’d done everything right,” he says. “You can do everything right and still lose.
“I feel like the social contract is broken in Britain. People keep talking about young people not working, but I don’t see anyone asking employers why entry-level opportunities have become so difficult to access.”
Although his focus is on PR and media roles, he has also applied for customer service, retail and receptionist jobs. Recently, he prepared carefully for an interview with a large company that he felt went well, only to spend weeks waiting for an update that never came.
“I just feel really demoralised … I wish they would just give me feedback so it would help for the next interview,” he says.
“I feel like my interviewing skills have improved but it’s still the same. I haven’t found a job yet.
‘Every setback is tricky to pick yourself back up from’ – Alice, 24
“It feels like a generation of talent is being wasted. We are all desperate to work, contribute to society and get on with our lives. Yet so many people have been unable to get jobs, and when they do, it is often things they are wildly overqualified for and has nothing to do with what they studied.”
When Alice, 24, went from her state secondary school to study at the University of Oxford and then on to complete a master’s degree from Cambridge, she never imagined she would end up living at home, unable to secure a job.
After finishing her studies in 2024 she spent six months working in hospitality to fund an Interrail trip around Europe, returning home to Bristol expecting to begin her career.
More than a year later, she is being supported financially by her parents – supplemented by small amounts earned through ad hoc pet-sitting and dog-walking – while applying for long-term work.
Alice has focused on roles in publishing, museums, heritage organisations, the civil service and retail, but is targeting any sector where she thinks she might have a chance, submitting 50 tailored job applications.
She has reached the interview stage five times and keeps track of every role on a spreadsheet. The process itself has become exhausting. “The worst is when you have to upload your CV, then type out your entire work history again, answer detailed questions and write a cover letter. It just becomes completely mind-numbing.”
One employer headhunted her and put her through two interview rounds before admitting it could no longer recruit anyone. She has volunteered at a charity shop for six months but narrowly missed out on two paid roles within the organisation.
She came second in the process to select a deputy manager role at a different shop and then was encouraged to apply for another similar position. However, despite feeling confident about how the interview went, she was again unsuccessful. It was a huge blow.
“I was encouraged to apply; I made relationships with people at the charity, I had the skill set required, and yet I couldn’t get the job. I feel that if I can’t get this job, I can’t get anything.”
Job hunting has taken a toll on her mental health. “There have been occasions where I’ve not been able to sleep. I’ve cried in the middle of the night and just thought: ‘I don’t want to do any of this.’ Every setback is tricky to pick yourself back up from.
“I assumed I’d have a sort of nine-to-five office job,” she adds. “Maybe living away from home in a different city. Nothing exciting, just a fairly nice, normal thing to do. Instead, I just feel really stuck.”
‘Volunteering gives me a reason to get up’ – Liam, 20
“The frustrating thing is employers keep saying you need experience. But if you’ve got no experience, they should give you that. Years ago they’d train you on the job. Now it feels like everyone’s looking for somebody who’s already done it.”
After leaving school at 16, Liam, a 20-year-old from Exeter, completed a level 1 qualification in horticulture, followed by level 2 and level 3 diplomas in land and wildlife management, convinced he was building towards a career in grounds maintenance or landscaping.
Instead, he has spent the past two years trapped in a cycle of applications, rejections, short-lived jobs and disappointments.
“I’ve had interviews, rejections, ghosting, you name it,” he says. “I’ve had jobs where they let me go after a couple of weeks. It’s just soul destroying.”
One employer told him he lacked experience after a trial shift. Another kept him on for just six shifts before saying rising costs meant they could not afford to keep him.
Liam, who is autistic, believes some employers also fail to understand the adaptations that would help him succeed. “Sometimes I worry about telling employers because I think it might put them off,” he says. “I just need things explained clearly and a little bit longer to learn. They need to provide reasonable adjustments.”
He now volunteers two days a week at two different community gardens, planting wildflowers, pruning, cutting grass and helping maintain green spaces while building the experience employers say he lacks.
“Volunteering gives me a reason to get up in the morning. It gets me out of the house, builds my confidence and gives me work experience. Outdoor work is therapeutic. You’re surrounded by nature.”
Since January, Liam has also been attending Connect to Work, a government-backed scheme that helps disabled people and those with health conditions move into employment through personalised job coaching and employer support.
“They’ve really helped my confidence,” he says. “They’re very supportive and I think it’s getting me closer to employment, even if I haven’t got there yet.”
Despite everything, Liam remains determined: “It has taken a toll on my mental health. You go up, you go down, but I keep fighting. I want to be financially independent, and I still believe that one day the right opportunity will come along.”
‘One graduate can do the work of 10 with AI’– Peter, 21
“I got good A-level results and I got a first in my degree, but this hasn’t helped me at all. I’m too young to know what it would have been like a few years ago, but it seems like it was a lot easier then to get work”
When Peter, 21, decided to study computer science at Leicester University, he believed it would give him excellent job prospects. However, the reality has been quite different.
After his course finished in April he initially applied for graduate software engineering jobs in London, figuring it would be easy to commute from his home in Maidstone, Kent, where he lives with his parents.
“Sometimes I would make it to an assessment stage but I have never made it to an interview stage,” says Peter. “With these jobs, I am essentially competing against everyone in the country.
“When I was in primary school, computer science was touted as a high-paying field, desperate for new people. But now that I’ve graduated, it seems that everyone has a computer science degree.”
Peter is also well aware of the devastating impact AI is having on opportunities in the sector. “Why would you employ 10 graduates when you can have one graduate doing the work of 10 with the help of AI. One programmer can do much more than they used to.”
He has applied for more than 50 jobs but cannot afford to move away “to places like Manchester or Edinburgh”. Meanwhile, “there are no graduate-level software engineering jobs locally in Maidstone”.
Peter, who achieved As in maths, physics and computer science, and a B in further maths, believes his lack of any work experience has hampered his search for work.
Yet he remembers at school pupils being “scolded for working too much at part-time jobs when they should have been studying”.
“It seems now that this was actually the correct thing to do,” he says. “I believe that not doing part-time work while I was studying was a huge mistake.”
However, he acknowledges such experience comes at a price: “Imagine if I spent all my time doing part-time work and I got really bad grades, then people would be saying, ‘Oh, you should have studied more.’”
Peter has shifted his focus to look for “entry-level” work at supermarkets and restaurants and has also applied to volunteer at places such as charity shops to build up experience. These applications have been unsuccessful, but he has recently secured two days a week of bar work.
All names have been changed