Let's start at the very beginning....

17th August 2012

There is a well known film that uses the words "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start"; well that, I suppose, is my philosophy on life at this precise moment. I am a 22 year old French Studies graduate and I am struggling to find a job. I imagine this is the same situation that many people my age are finding themselves in and it is, to say the least, frustrating. Apparently my issue is not my interview technique as I have been told this is very good, but rather my lack of work experience. So after each interview that is unsuccessful I ask myself "how am I supposed to gain any experience when nobody will give me that initial chance?" It is a vicious job circle that we are tangled up in at the moment and who knows when the economy will improve enough that we can start telling undergraduates that their £27,000 of tuition fees will be money well spent when they are guaranteeed to get a job after university?

So with frustration and disappointment in the air, I return to my inital quote, "let's start at the very beginning". As a french student, the career question that you get asked is not so much "what will you do after university?" but rather "are you going to teach or interpret after university?" Far be it from me to "rompre avec les habitudes", I always thought I would become a teacher (my Year Abroad in France would tell me that this was not to be). So after graduation I was stuck; no job prospects due to lack of aforementioned work experience led me to a decision I never even considered before - starting my own business.

Now I know very little about business and the way it works but I was assured that setting up on my own would be a lot easier than I first anticipated. So with some help from a rather clever chap I know who works in web design and seo services, I decided to become "The French Translator" (3 levels of translation, agricultural interpreting and tutoring - see facebook for more details). The business is still in its infancy at the moment but at least I now have a job and I am "something" as opposed to being "unemployed", and I will no longer feel like I am auditioning for a place on The Apprentice by going to an overly pretentious and competitive assessment day for a job I would hate anyway. I am my own boss which is something I really never thought I would be at the age of 22. However, I am not pretending that it will be all fun and games; I know it will be tough at times to find work and that not everyone wants their tourist leaflets translated into French or someone to travel to France with them to talk about sheep, but the main concept in my head at the moment is that I have a job and I will make it work in any way I can. Plus I can actually speak French, which is a help when setting up a business such as this, so surely it can't go too wrong...can it?

Anyway, this blog will keep you abreast of the business development and any work I get. I will make it as interesting as I can (although I am not sure how much I can make instruction manual translations fun...). In the meantime, keep reading this blog and the facebook page.

Right, I'm off to get myself an office chair (getting my priorities right, of course)

À bientôt mes amis!