The reality of a Graduate – My Version

 

Hi there, welcome to my blog hehe:), hope you are doing well?

I will be talking about my life after university, so let’s get started. I studied Biomedical Science at Oxford Brooks University and in my little head I had my future planned out, oh boy was I wrong. In my head, I was tired of living in Oxford and wanted to move to the big city, London. I went down to London two days after my final exam to find accommodation as I had a week to move out of campus. Although, I had planned this with an old friend of mine so she had done the legwork in search of accommodation as she lives in London. I got to London loved the first place we saw and paid my deposit and one-month rent the same day. Within, three days I was in London with all my belongings, bare in mind I had a part-time job in Oxford which was just a weekend job. I bet you are thinking what the hell is she thinking? why can’t she stay in Oxford till she finds a job in London? Let’s just say I was not thinking.

In my head, I was like okay Fisayo, you are going to apply to at least 10 NHS hospital to be a trainee as a Biomedical Scientist and you should get something within a month. Oh was I wrong? Unfortunately for me, I graduated the same time NHS changed the Law and all my application the reply was NO with no reason but one hospital told me the Law had changed. I was devasted and became depressed and I have been in London for a month now traveling back and forth to Oxford weekend job.

I realized I had two choices, either go back to my mum’s house in Cardiff or find a job in London. I told myself I am not going back so I started looking for jobs everywhere, I mean from Cleaning jobs to hospital jobs. I had experience in cleaning, pharmacy, and healthcare so I stuck to those strengths. I wanted to be the big girl living in the big city but sometimes it doesn’t work out.

I got the cleaning job and healthcare job within a week; I started cleaning an office in the evening and healthcare job in the day but the good thing was I get to pick my hours. I had a Diploma in Health and Social care from college so my wage was about £2 higher than normal rate at that time. Of course, I quit my Oxford weekend job as soon as I got these two jobs lol.

I was still so depressed as this was not the plan or dream I had in becoming the London city girl. I didn’t see myself as a cleaner or a carer, I was still determined to become a biomedical scientist so bad, so I started searching all over the UK. I also focused on my other strength which was the pharmacy. I traveled to so many cities for interviews I can tell you its more than 10 cities, I was very determined. After 11 months, I finally got a job in the NHS and quit my cleaning and healthcare job as the new job came with a better salary.

This was me at the bus stop on my first day to my professional job. As soon as she saw me she said straight away, your feet will hurt by the end of the day and gosh she was right. She showed me around the whole hospital and introduced to a lot of people in different departments. So my advice to you is to always have a pair of flats in your bag on your first day. Fyi, pouting was a thing back then so here I was pouting away hehehe.

Thank you for reading.

Meilifisayo xxx

FYI, if you want to be featured on the series “The reality of a graduate” do send your story to meilifisayo@mail.com 🙂