I didn't get rejected SHOCK

Sometimes the JobHungryGrad really has to pinch herself. This often occurs when I've received rejection letters from companies I haven't even applied for or been invited to job interviews. This is such a rare occurance that sometimes JobHungryGrad's partner need to get the smelling salts out to revive her before she has the energy to blog about receiving an invite. Seeing as I don't often get job offers (it's the nature of the role of being constantly JobHungry) I rarely register shock at getting a job offer. Let's just say I'm out of practice.

So my initial reaction was this:

How do I celebrate a feeling other than rejection?

I have a job offer. Interesting new concept.

Relief: it's all over now (apart from the need to  apply for extra income part time job

But this is the anger for all the grads out there who are still wasting their wonderful young lives trying to find the elusive job of their dreams. Don't give up. Fierce determination. Pride. And lots of love from JobHungryGrad. 

Why it's important not to isolate yourself

Pret a Manger provides comfortable seats, ample plug sockets and an environment of white noise. At this Pret in Victoria, I'm starting to recognise the people around me. A teacher to my left, who comes to Pret to mark his papers in his free lesson periods. The server who knows what coffee I want in the morning (although the real coffee I want here is 'None Pret, your coffee tastes like grit') and the two girls who have more work coffee breaks than I'm sure their company allows.

It's nowhere near as sociable and friendly as a real workplace, but at least JobHungryGrad doesn't feel isolated and stuck at home.

I think isolation is the most danger that an unemployed graduate looking for work can put themselves in. There is a feeling that its totally possible to disappear from society and that nobody would notice. You, locked alone in your house, in a London suburb, could very easily disappear from the network and no-one would know. Of course, it's not true, but full days of having to converse with your mind, your fingers, and whoever might email you during the working day can leave you with a sense of solitude to the extent that you  start to feel as though you might be auditioning for the leading role in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' seminal tome.

If you're one of these filthy job-hunting scroungers, get to a coffee shop, zone into your work for the week and get on it. Hint number two: dress up. I'm wearing formal clothes because it makes me feel as though I'm 'really' working. Wear a hoody and gym leggings and chances are people won't take you quite as seriously.

Plus, good things come from working in coffee shops looking nice:

• On friday I got asked out on a date by a hot Danish guy 
• I've been given business cards from people after we've got chatting and they've heard my sad and desperate JobHungrySadGrad situation
• I got free coffee in Pret last week. I KNOW. 

Plus be courteous with your table/laptop space, or if you want to annoy telegraph readers, go crazy:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9254698/Wi-fi-lingerers-in-coffee-shops-are-causing-territorial-disputes-academic-research-finds.html

Am I sad and depressed?

Other than a fact that I'm currently house sitting for a friend whose housemates all work for the civil service fast stream, the company I just left, the most depressing thing is that I feel like everything's a little pointless.

That's not to say that I'm sad, depressed or suicidal, it's just you kind of have a little more time on your hands so you start thinking about where it all went wrong/right (if, like me, you're still convinced that leaving your last job was the best thing you could do right now). Here's an example. I was sitting on the bus yesterday at 6pm.

Teenage girl to her grandmother: I had extra art class today but I had to leave early because I needed to go and take my lifeguard exam but then I realised that I had left my swimming costume in the dance studio during rehearsals.

That is exactly what my life was like approximately 5 1/2 years ago. Minus the dance and plus some piano lessons. All the people I've met who are unemployed so far are either moping, don't have any experience because they spent all their time getting drunk at university and doing nothing else, or just aren't applying to anything. I'm in denial, and am calling my new period of unemployment 'freelancing' until the point when I get a new job and I can breathe a sigh of relief that the unstructured days of yesteryear are over. (I actually love it, I just feel guilty that I love it rather than conceding to societal mores and working a 9-5 because I'm not currently getting paid enough to buy milk).

So occasionally you do wonder what the point of it all was. Those of us who have jobs mainly dislike them, some lucky ones love them, and some lucky people who have excellent connections have excellent jobs. Others decide to risk it, change the direction you're pointing in and try to start again.

As my friend Clare's wardrobe says: 'If you're not happy with where your direction is taking you, turn around.'