Jumping off a cliff: The post-graduation experience
An informal cross study of recent SOAS graduates paints a telling picture of what one can expect from post-graduation life.
There are just a few months left until I graduate — the culmination of four years at SOAS. When I think about the post-university, post-staying out late, post-waking up late black hole, I am filled with dread. Talking to my friends who have recently graduated has not eased this despair. Why is it that so many graduates are left floundering once they have received their diploma? How many go on to do something that they really enjoy? And is doing a master’s just a way to postpone the inevitable spiral into post-university inertia?
In search of answers, I decided to do a highly informal cross study of my friends, whose graduation photos graced my Facebook this past July, to see what they are up to now, how they feel, and what graduation meant to them.
At first, the trajectories of my friends took me by surprise. Quite a few had decided to stay at SOAS and pursue a master’s degree. It’s possible that I make friends easily with people who have a hard time moving on, but the tendency of many SOAS grads to stay put speaks to a reluctancy to stray from the familiar bubble that we call home. I too have noticed that, the closer I get to graduating, the more appealing seamlessly slipping into a master’s at SOAS seems. Browsing the SOAS postgraduate courses has become one of my most common procrastination habits during late nights in the library.
“It definitely feels like a weird transitional period,” Maeve, who is pursuing an MA in Religion and Global Politics after finishing her BA in Study of Religions, remarked. “It doesn’t feel like just another year at SOAS, though it does feel as though I’ve never left in that typical SOAS way.”
While remaining at SOAS for years is a well-known stereotype — one of my Arabic professors, Bruce, is infamous for never having left the university after finishing his BA in Arabic in the early sixties — many have a good reason to stay. For Maeve, continuing her studies at SOAS was her “only option.”
With no other UK institution which would allow her to pursue her regional research interests, Maeve decided to stay. Many others are in the same position, their interests too regionally specific to be pursued elsewhere. If presented with a financially and academically viable second option, others are also wary of leaving the home comforts of SOAS.
“After three years you’re very much used to the ‘SOAS approach’,” commented Maeve. “That critical lens was something I really felt I would miss elsewhere.” It goes without saying that SOAS, in both the classroom and the JCR, is its own world — a bubble, which, for many, is difficult to leave.
Luke, who finished a BA in Social Anthropology and then went on to do an MA in Research Methods at SOAS, tells a similar story. “The main reason for staying at SOAS was specifically the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. My own research and interests correspond with many academics at the school, thus it seemed advantageous to stay.”
Although he faced the bureaucratic and timetabling issues typical to SOAS, he feels happy with his choice. Luke describes an interesting difference between his BA and his MA: the master’s students themselves. “Unlike the BA course, in the MA, the department is filled with students who are studying because of jobs, or career aspirations, or interests. Their specific needs and passions intertwine to create discussions which are varied and practical.”
“There was life after SOAS, and it was actually quite alright.”
How does this compare with the experiences of those who go on to other universities to pursue their master’s? Will, who is now working on an MA in Newspaper Journalism at City University, spoke of a certain separation from the university which he didn’t experience while at SOAS: “I’m not really at my new university for the university life. I’m here for a specific skill; I didn’t go to any freshers’ events, and I probably won’t meet anybody who isn’t on my course. All of that is fine. But the insight into other universities is rather fascinating, and I’m glad I went to SOAS for my undergraduate.”
Jordana, who went on to do her MA in Theatre Criticism and Dramaturgy at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, got lucky. She told me that Central is very much like SOAS. “The change seems minimal,” she said. “I am glad to be in such a pleasing, accepting, open environment, which has made the transition seem completely effortless.”
She affirmed my wariness towards leaving academia. “If I expected to be equipped and ready for the big bad world out there by the time I left the cosy comfort of SOAS’ like minded community, I was sorely mistaken.”
“So I’ve retreated into the safety of analysing theatre in great detail until I have to crawl back out again,” Jordana concluded. It seems likely my degree in Arabic may leave me similarly ill equipped, so perhaps I too will default to the easy language of academia.
As for those who left academia, I see a lot of my friends splitting their time between part time minimum wage jobs in order to get by while doing unpaid internships in their field of interest. Alice described doing unpaid internships as “a sort of university, where you do acquire a certain type of education at the expense of putting in your labour and time.” Locked out of paying jobs in their field of interest because of ‘lack of experience,’ grads like Alice nonetheless experience a kind of privilege in that they have the ability to ‘attend’ these universities in miniature. For many recent graduates, unpaid internships are impossible when trying to survive in London.
I spoke to another friend, Olivia, who found a 9–5 job as a PA for a property developer whose focus is areas of proven housing need. She told me, “I feel good about working for him because the end goal is something that I can get on board with, even if the day-to-day tasks are just simple things like booking meetings and creating presentations.”
Talking to her I found myself looking forward to graduating and finding something else to do. It seemed as though, able to leave work at work, she had more time for herself than before. Although it may go against our expectations and hopes for the future, perhaps 9–5 jobs like these are the ones which truly allow us to thrive in the post-grad years.
“Graduating has allowed me to take stock of where I am and what I want. Although I loved my degree, whilst I was studying I found it difficult to think about anything other than my next assignment and how my exams might go,” Olivia elaborated. “Since graduating I’ve found that my headspace is a lot clearer and I’m calmer in general because my long-term plans can start to come together without interruption from immediate study pressures.”
We quickly forget about our international colleagues who do not have the option of staying inside the UK once they finish their studies. I spoke to Nihan, who left London to move to her home country, Turkey, and now works at a newspaper in Istanbul. She spoke of how SOAS was home to her, and how her time here was a formative influence, with activism on campus having taught her more than classes. Nihan initially didn’t want to leave London. Although she still misses it, she says that now she has realised that “there are more opportunities and things I could learn outside of London.”
One friend summed up the experience beautifully when she told me that “graduating felt like jumping off a cliff into the ocean: I stood at the top of the cliff for a while staring into an endless opaque water, but when I jumped and landed, it was suddenly much clearer.”
She continued: “I think not having anything concrete is really hard. Not having any singular support network or work base to keep you afloat is tough and riddled with anxiety, but it’s certainly not as bad as I thought it would be. At times it is really exciting to be doing something completely new outside of academia.”
“The scariest bit was over and the anticipation had been much worse than the thing itself; there was life after SOAS, and it was actually quite alright.”
Photos courtesy of Veronica Mrvcic.
