Post-Uni Blues

After meeting with some friends whom I've not seen in quite a while, it became clear that many of them seem to have a case of the post-university blues. This isn't a recognised condition but rather, a pattern of behaviour that I've seen amongst friends and new graduates. My friends graduated from their respective institutions with good degrees after three years of study and hard work. They have moved back into the family home while they look for jobs. As we all know, the job market for new graduates is pretty bleak http://ulopportunities.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2011/07/13/what-is-the-graduate-job-market-really-like/. But it is looking up: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12266766.

Independance
This is a difficult time for them because they've had a taste of true independance and living for themselves. They now have to surrender their way of life till they can find a job. And good jobs in the local area are hard to come by. This takes me on to the question of the blues. Like I said, my friends are smart people and went to good universities. They have good degrees and are willing to work. They live at home with their parents and as a result, are clashing with them on matters of the home, which, after living for themselves, they have their own ways of doing chores.

Weak laughs hide the fear
They tell me time and again that they haven't found anything and joke that they'll be working at Matalan or JJB sports. Their laughs are weak and they look around nervously. This is symptomatic of the university blues: A thinly veiled grimace when talking about work and money. This is usually followed by a poor joke about working in a low-paid job to tide things over. This is an obvious manifestation of the fear that comes from finishing study in an uncertain job market.

Groan
Another symptom of the Blues, is the groaning and looking to the sky for answers. It's a difficult time for them and they're crying out for some good luck to get them on their way. They are looking hard for the opportunities and they're not getting a look in.

A Cure?
In the past, there have been many articles written about making yourself more employable and giving you a better chance against the field in terms of bagging that first job.

Master's Madness
The first of these is the often touted "Read a Masters". This will hold off the job market for another year, but at great personal expense as a lot of the funding for such studies has dried up. This will land you in more debt and as the poor labour market looks set to persist for the forseeable future, this postponement won't help. The best plan here is to adapt to the situation and be proactive with job hunting and getting employed.

Art vs. Science
Another trend that I've picked up on is that most of my friends have completed non-vocational courses (English, Business, etc) and as a result, hold art degrees (BA Hons). These degrees are very open ended with regard to jobs and there is no clear link between the course and a workplace function. The ones who read Law are having an equally bad time as over the past few years, students have realised that barristers make a mint and wanted to get involved. This lead to flooding the market with new law graduates, leaving many disappointed people were late to the party. This is where the adaptation comes in, many lawyers have the skills and can retrain as accountants and patent lawyers, dealing with numbers and intellectual property of big business. This can be a very lucrative career choice: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2001_10_05/noDOI.12050084083804997791

As many people who attend university studied art degrees, when they can't get employed in their preferred sector, they go for general admin jobs. As there are many more graduates in the system than there were traditionally, there are many who get 'left behind'. These students get a bum deal and cannot land their first professinal job in the first year after graduation. This means they have to compete for professional jobs with with new cohort of graduates who are one year younger and have learned newer ideas at university. This is particularly a problem for arts students but science students, as far as I can tell, don't have this problem.

Being a scientist means you have a special set of skills in maths and whatever flavour of science you chose to study (biology / biochemistry / chemistry / physics). These are skills that arts students will not have. This means that a large part of the competition for jobs in the workplace is instantly removed. This, hopefully means that there is more scope to land that dream first job readily when one is a holder of a science degree.

However, as the government has seen fit to remove a cap on tuition fees and encourage the price of a degree to soar, there is a shift occurring in the decision making of prospective undergraduates. As fees for many top universities are at £9000 pa + inflation (around 5%), new students are coming to the table with a consideration of value for money. As an art student, one may have at most, 10 hours a week contact time. This brings the price per lecture up to a ridiculous amount. As a science student, a typical week will have at least 25 hours contact time. This is good value for money as there is still private study to be done but there is more coming from the university in terms of lectures and labs. This is an important consideration that students are making and hopefully, this will encourage a new generation of young scientists to bring forth a scientific revolution in this country.

college

Haircut

It's getting to that time when I need another haircut. I woke up this morning and walked into the bathroom to see there, in the mirror, thick tufts of my hair sticking awkwardly out here, there and everywhere. I have particularly unruly hair and it is very hard to tame regardless of whether it's short or long. For me, getting a haircut that looks good is a difficult thing. A lot of what I ask for is thinning of my hair as it gets so thick on the back of my head. This can usually be achieved with a request for a short back and sides with a No2 grade razor. This approach, however, results in me looking like a ten year old boy (Not great when you're of age and at university).

More often than not, each haircut is different and I can ask for the same cut at the same barbers and come out looking different every time. In recent times, I can say I've had maybe two or three haircuts that I truly liked. The rest were more of a maintenance thing and something I needed before my hair smothered me in my sleep.

I've been experimenting with choppy and sweeping fringes but generally keeping the emphasis on a tidy haircut. I don't want to walk out like a monstrosity you see in town centres, hanging round the alternative clothing shops with their scooter / skateboard.

Anyway, rant over. Wish me luck hehe.

Roadworks and Cycling

I've been getting out and about on my bike over the past few weeks since I got back from university and Grimsby seems to be getting a makeover of its roads. The work is being done at night to not disturb traffic during peak times. The result is a nice new roadway that is free from divets and snow / frost damage.

The work to repair snow damage is greatly overdue in many parts of the country and as a result, a simple drive down the road turns into a slalom event with weaving to avoid road-craters becoming ordinary. This is another example of the continued ignorance of government towards the transport infrastructure of the UK. Roads laid down years ago have seen little to no maintenance. That which is seen is usually just a round of patch-and-mend. This is done by two council workers shovelling tarred grit into the holes, maybe patting it down for good measure, only for it to be excavated by the next lorry that drives over it. This lack of proper care for our roads increases the likelihood of collisions as road users are constantly swerving to avoid potholes. A great example of the inability of council leaders to see the problem is more pronounced in York.

A great, ancient city, York is home to around 150,000 people and has some great historic monuments but its roads are awful. The trend in York is to simply pave over the Victorian road cobbles in the older quarters with a couple of inches of tarmac. This makes the road surface smooth and good to drive / ride on but after not very long, the frost comes and attacks the road. The tarmac degrades and is removed by traffic driving over it, exposing the cobbles below. This makes a dangerous situation for cyclists as there's no safe way to ride into a pothole and in narrow city streets, there's little room to compete with motorists for space.

That said, York is an excellent cycling city and it's drivers have a really good appreciation of cyclists. This cannot be said all over the country and I'm glad that the roadworks are being done in Grimsby as the motorists here have a really selfish attitude and occasionally, no insurance, license or tax disc. This goes to show the regional variation and exemplifies the difference between council approaches to the same problem. I hope that this investment in roads continues and ramps up as it'll cut down journey times, increase traffic flow and give budding cyclists a safe surface to ride on. The last point is especially important as many new cyclists are put off by the sight of bumpy, unsafe roads with cycle lanes that are filled with glass and debris from the road.

Househunting Updated

Here's an update on the househunting situation. I've been looking for a houseshare in north London, preferably not too far from University College London campus. I kept to a budget of roughly £400 pcm including bills. I thought that was pretty reasonable considering what I wanted. At the start of my house hunt I didn't have much success; I had trouble finding the right kind of housing to fit my needs ( a lot of what was on offer was up the east end of London and too far to be practical to get to university quickly).

I scoured the housing websites looking for potential digs and just recently I hit upon a goldmine. I visited the website easyroommate.co.uk and they have a huge variety of rooms available for students and young professionals in London. They also had a tool that maps the room vacancies so you can see instantly where the houses are so you can cut out all the places that aren't suitable straight away.

One downside to the website, however is that after not so long the system that it uses to send your emails to landlords blocks off access to those people under the guise of the landlords becoming premium members of the website. To get around this, simply give your email address with the initial interest email to the landlord and you can continue your investigations without the need for the website.

I really liked this website because it allowed you to directly contact the landlord / agent instead of going through a whole heap of middle-men programs. This allowed me to get in contact with a few people and arrange some viewings. It's going to be an interesting Saturday as I'll be roaming around north London viewing the rooms I've lined up and doing some reconnaisance to find the local shops, restaurants, hotels ( for family), etc. I like going to new places and getting to know them. I hope this works out well and I can come back soon with some good news.

Pub Quiz

I'm going to a pub quiz tonight. I've not been to one in a while and I'm really excited. The last time I did a pub quiz as some time late last year and I had a really good time. I love testing my brain and those of my friends to see who can come up with the goods when the most obscure pieces of trivia are needed.

The concept of a pub quiz is simple, answer questions as part of a team, compete with other teams, win prizes. The implementation, however, varies from place to place. Most pub quizzes have some common elements to their structure. One goes along to the quiz night and pays a nominal fee of a few pounds then enters their team name into the contest. Pub quizzes normally come made up of about 3 / 4 + rounds or questions. These are broken up usually by 5 minute breaks so that refreshments may be bought as the quiz goes on. These rounds are ususally on specific topics and some of the more popular ones are:

Picture rounds - you are given a picture of the face / part of face of someone famous
and you need to give that person's name or their character in a particular soap opera.

Sport rounds - testing your knowledge of sport and sportspersons.

music round - this kind of round can be very varied with anything from the name of the song, artist or the next lyric being requested as answers to a short piece of music that is played.

wildcard round - this round usually consists of various random and obscure questions being asked. Rounds like these usually have more points attached to them due to the difficulty of the questions being asked.

Generally, the quizzes operate along these lines with a few of the above types of rounds being used along with others. I once attended a quiz where there was a round of questions solely on bears. The subject was approached from lots of different angles with Paddington Bear, Alaskan bears and even Bear Grylls making an appearance on the question list.

Each quiz is different due to different types of questions being asked each time . The nature of the competition is friendly and you have a great time encouraging your friends to give that disputed answer over a niche area and laughing at long-shot answers. This kind of activity makes for a great, fun evening and any prizes you win are a bonus.

Prizes
Prizes differ but generally don't deviate too much from a set pattern: the winner takes a small pot of cash originating from the money raised by all the quiz team entries. The second place will get a smaller pot of money and the third will get a bottle of wine or a free round. Other variations are the use of cuddly toys and physical items that can be won. If you've never been along to a pub quiz, support your local one by getting a team of mates together and give it a go!

Solar Power

I've just got back from gallavanting around the country and I've noticed that solar energy systems, harnessing the power of the sun to heat water or by converting the light into electricity, are becoming more and more popular.

I was sat on the train for a few hours ( a long, long journey) and I saw that every so often, a battery of photo-voltaic cells or a solar water heater would be mounted on someone's roof. Ironically, as I made my way north, the number and frequency of panels on rooves in residential areas seemed to increase. This was an interesting trend as it's counter-intuitive to think that it's a good idea to put solar energy systems on the roof at higher latitudes. But there they were, glinting in the sun.

This is a good example of how high energy prices are driving a domestic energy generation revolution. There has been a unilateral price increase by energy providers in recent weeks and this will serve to squeeze the pockets of the average Briton even harder than they were in the winter when prices were high and there was a massive need for fuel to rebuff the awful cold. Homeowners (as you need to own your roof to get solar panels installed on it) have been
slowly moving toward and adopting solar technology to power / heat their homes. This works well for two reasons: one - the panels on your roof remove the need to buy electricity / gas to heat water for domestic use, except on the darkest / coldest of days. This means you can have all the hot water you want without needing to worry about that next huge post-winter energy bill as it simply won't arrive. However, this is countered by the cost of installing the system in the first place.

The second point only applies to solar photo-voltaic (electricity generating) panels and it is that the energy that your panels collect which isn't used in the home can be sold back to the national
grid. The money you generate from your redundant energy is sold per kWh (kilo-Watt-hour) at pennies per unit.

This adds up over time and can, whilst cutting your electricity bill to zero, earn your household an extra £2,000 a year depending on the capacity your home can provide.

The standard set-up for an average house is a 3-5kWh system, costing around £10,000. This means that the money that your roof-based power plant provides through electricity generation will help pay off the cost of the system in around 5 years or so. Considering that by having solar panels, you can have essentially free electricity for 25 years (the average life of a system) and the potential to generate an extra income to help you live your life without money worries. The only care that either system requires is that you keep the panels clean to ensure maximum light
capture.