Graduates - how to catch a break!

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Like many young graduates out there, finding a job - when just out of college - is a road filled with turbulence, trial and error. You discover that ‘oh so awful’ catch-22; to get a job you need experience, but how can you get experience when you can’t get a job?!? I think when you’re a marketing graduate, it’s even harder. I was doing interview after interview and getting increasingly frustrated. Then, I came across an unexpected solution…..

While completing my marketing degree I always had a part-time job and got some degree-related experience, but not enough for prospective employers to be swept off their feet and offer me the job of my dreams. Finding a job in what you are qualified for can be a long road. The job search learning curve is steep and with every rejection you just have to stand straight back up and go again. And from where I am working now, I realise that it’s not always down to your interview performance, whether you get the job. I also learned that you’ll never know what success really feels like until you’ve failed a few times. 

After months of applying for permanent jobs to no avail, I was made aware of an internship with a recruitment company called Hays. I’d never considered an internship, I have to admit this wasn’t the road I thought I’d have to go down. Although I knew I didn’t have the experience, I had the passion and drive to succeed and always thought of myself as a fast learner so naively I thought I would be a working women in the world of marketing within a couple of months of finishing my degree. I was wrong. But I really wanted to work in marketing, so I went for the interview and beat off a load of other candidates to get on the internship!

I started in early November in their marketing department in Dublin and was very excited. I was told I would get to work on a wide range of marketing activities including social media, advertising, events and P.R., I was keen to find out if the practice was much different to the theory.

My experience as an intern for the past 6 months has been amazing for the most part, it’s given me the opportunity to grow and learn like never before and invokes a feeling of real worth; a sense of achievement that I’ve mastered something I’ve never done before. My reward is the abundance of new skills I’ve acquired and the increasing confidence in my ability to be the best that I can be.


As I said, amazing for the most part, but there was still a part of me that felt a little lost in the big bad world of business. Through no fault of anyone I work with, when I needed help, I felt like a small kid nagging my parents. In my head I was thinking, all these people have real responsibility so my qualms may seem trivial or time consuming. This is something I soon got over because the point of an internship is that you learn and if you don’t get help and guidance, you won’t learn. Looking back now, I can see it was silly, but it’s natural when you haven’t worked in a corporate office before.



The best advice I could give to anyone embarking on an internship is be bold, be confident and be brave. You may be entering a world where nothing seems familiar but you do find your feet and you learn like you’ve never learnt before. When I was looking for a job, I thought I only wanted to work in social media. But this internship gave me exposure to parts of marketing I’d never considered before and to develop more skills. Most of all, it gave me the confidence to go forth with my skills to look again for a permanent job, due to the lack of current permanent openings in the Hays marketing team.

I am lucky in the fact that I got to work with a great bunch of people that really convey what it means to be a team in everything they do. Their passion for their job has inspired me. I couldn’t be happier that I broke through the ‘oh so awful’ catch-22 and that Hays gave me my opportunity!!! I’ve learnt that it’s not as easy as just walking into your perfect job without experience. Learning what you can and can’t do and most importantly what you’re really interested in, will definitely be a major step in planning the career you want.

And most of all, it helped me get that job I couldn’t get six months ago. In a few weeks I will be a marketing assistant with Wholefoods. So if you ever wanted evidence that internships work, you’re reading it!

Sally Conway