I’m a first-class Leeds grad, but it took me two years and 120 applications to find a job

In July 2024, Maddy Burton had just graduated from the University of Leeds with a first-class degree in journalism and a slew of work experience under her belt.

After three years of hard work, she was looking forward to finally starting a career in her field of choice.

Instead, she was faced with a disheartening almost two-year search for a graduate job, during which she applied to over 120 posts.

Many of these applications were met with a complete lack of response, while others simply elicited a generic message telling her that due to the number of applicants for the position, the employer was unable to provide feedback on her application.

At one point, Maddy even received a response from an employer explaining that she couldn’t be offered an interview because she was “too far down the pile” of almost 400 applicants for the role. The lack of personalised feedback meant that she was left with no basis on which to improve her applications for future job openings.

While she had completed a placement at an online newspaper, Maddy also found that many “entry level” job listings required at least a year of experience. This, combined with use of AI screening by employers to assess applications, made the job search, in her words, “demoralising, to say the least.”

“I often found myself questioning why I was still selling lottery tickets in Sainsbury’s when I had worked so hard to get a degree,” she wrote in The Times.

Via Maddy Burton/ LinkedIn

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While she has now secured a role in marketing and communications, which she is due to begin in October, the gruelling search that led to this point is a telling example of the struggles that increasing numbers of UK graduates are facing in the current job market.

Maddy is far from alone in her experience. Today’s graduates are facing a far tougher time in securing their first job than the generation before them, with approximately 555,835 undergraduate students graduating in the UK in 2024, compared to 357,560 in the year 2000.

That same year, the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) reported just 17,000 openings for traditional graduate roles. These include entry-level jobs at firms, as well as places on graduate schemes.

As a result, competition for graduate jobs has become fierce, with roughly 140 applicants per role. With these statistics in mind, it’s no wonder that some prospective students are beginning to wonder whether obtaining a university degree is worth it at all.

For those weighing up the benefits of a degree versus the debt it will leave them with after graduation, Maddy had some candid words of advice. 

“Although I value my time there to the highest degree- I made lifelong friends, lived in Canada and gained valuable life experience- it perhaps didn’t improve my future job prospects as much as I’d hoped,” she said.

She added: “I now feel I am stepping into a career two years later than I should be, with a handful of part-time jobs, £60,000 of student debt and 120 rejected job applications to show for it.”