Having Trouble Finding a Job with a Social Science Degree? Here’s What You Can Do
By: Stella Yoh and Lucy Lu
Congratulations, you’ve officially graduated!
After 12 months of battling with insane reading lists, lack of sun, and the intellectual agony of creating your dissertation, you’ve finally survived LSE’s world-class education system.
While this is definitely a moment to celebrate with friends and family, many of you may be thinking… What happens now?
You’re Not Alone
If after months of job searching you are still looking for a stable and meaningful job, don’t feel bad. You’re most definitely NOT alone.
According to our primary research*, many of the graduates in the ID cohort of 2019 are still looking for a meaningful and relevant employment (4–6 months is the standard unemployment period for LSE Masters students). *We’re conducting a survey on the job search status of our peers!
And we all feel the same frustrations:
The uncertainty that the HR may not even take a look at your application, after having spent the whole day tailoring it.
The frustration from seeing “minimum 5 years of experience” as an entry requirement for the jobs you want and are capable of doing.
The fear of immense competition for even the most junior positions; and the sense of inferiority upon seeing your peers getting offers.
The disappointment of seeing your same old spam-filled inbox after refreshing your email every 10 minutes.
The angst upon hearing, “sorry, we don’t sponsor visas,” after acing an interview for your dream job.
And perhaps the most daunting feeling of all, the constant sense self-doubt: Am I even good enough? All I ever wanted was to do something meaningful, but was I wrong all along?
The frustrations are real.
Especially for smart people like you, who survived one of the world’s toughest higher education institutions.
And yet, despite your intellect and hard work, you still struggle (or have struggled) to find the job you want.
So what is really going on? Why is it that it is so damn difficult for smart and hard-working candidates to find a good job?
Future of Work for Social Scientists
We believe that part of this problem is a symptom of a bigger societal issue.
The job market isn’t growing as fast, and the white-collar workforce is becoming hyper-educated. Academic training from a “good” school alone is no longer sufficient for young professionals.
Specialists and STEM majors are hot in demand, while the young generalists are constantly reminded of their lack of experience.
As a result, we live in a world where you need internship experience to get that internship.
In a world like this, what can we young generalists do to become competitive?
Career Re-skilling for Millennials and Gen-Z
Apparently, no one seems to have the right answer. Career advice posts by fifty-somethings, who come from a very different era, are often little applicable to today’s twenty-something job seekers.
This is why we created the RE: Project.
RE: Project is an active platform and re-skilling community for millennial & Gen Z social scientists to gather and discuss the tips and skills for career building.
If the Boomers don’t have the answer, we’ll create our own career tips.
In the short-run, support can be as simple as creating curated real-life, authentic content generated by real people of the millennial generation working the industries. Practitioners with 4–7 years of experience can offer as many insights (or more!) as 50-year-old CEOs and Directors about how to break into the industry.
This way, young job seekers can interact with mentors using social media live (visit our Linkedin page, Instagram coming soon), and blog posts.
We are in process of rolling out a small 1:1 mentorship pilot with the LSE ID department, so stay tuned for this.
User-generated blog posts, interviews, and tips will also be very welcome.
In the long run, the ultimate goal of this platform is to grow into the forefront community for the Future of Work for social sciences.
Interested?
We’re still rolling out our survey!
We’ve had overwhelming responses so far, but we still want more! The survey responses can not only help us understand your needs, but also help us work with LSE for the 1:1 mentoring pilot. Take the survey & share it with your friends! https://survey.sogosurvey.com/r/E5tbHT
If you have a job already, you can still take the survey.
If you haven’t, join our Linkedin community for more content!
