Zcly Wen

I posted a while back about my employment woes. I had hoped that by now I would have some positive news to report, but things seem to be getting worse not better

It has been a lean Christmas, I had a great time with my family but not being able to buy nice presents for them was a bit of a kicker, and I was not able to do much with my friends.

I stayed in on new years eve which was a bit boring. My friends offered to pay for me to go out with them but I did not like to take their money.

On new years day I had a mooch online and started reading up on the various debt solutions that are available. I contacted one site for some personal debt advice after reading that it may be possible to write off some of my debts or even declare myself bankrupt!

Unfortunately bankruptcy would not clear my student debts (which are the greater part of what I owe) and I hope to buy a house in a couple of years if I can find work, so did not really want to get into anything that would have an adverse effect on my credit rating.

As it stands I can manage, I have been making balance transfers to keep my interest down on my credit cards and keeping up with the minimum payments. This works really nicely as I only pay 3% per anum (which is the transfer fee). The only risk is that if I miss a payment I go onto the eye watering 28% APR, so, I have to make sure those bills are paid promptly!

The other think I have learned is to cut up the credit cards as soon as the balance is transferred to make sure I do not take on any more debt.

As for the student loans, the idea of writing them off through Bankruptcy was an amusing thought, and to be honest, I would have done it if I could have, I do not have any assets they could take anyway, and the amount I owe on those loans would be worth the pain of a poor credit rating, but I guess the government thought of that little scheme!

I dont have to pay anything back against those until I am working anyway, so its no big deal.

I just hope I find a job soon.

Since leaving university I’ve been completely unable to find any suitable work whatsoever. Having spent the last three years working hard on my degree, this is a very bitter bill to swallow.

The simply are not as graduate job or graduate training schemes on offer in sufficient numbers, and although I have a good degree in engineering, companies just are not recruiting at the moment.

It seems to me that I have a choice to make, either I take a job as a pizza delivery boy or I leave the country. I don’t really want to go and work abroad, I quite like it here and I don’t want to leave my family right now. I always had in my mind that would like to go travelling at some points but I wanted to go on my own terms, not feel that I was being forced to buy a poor economic situation.

I guess it’s going to have to bite the bullet is no point in staying here wishing my days away and applying for endless positions that I am just not suitable for all know that the competition is just going to be too tough for.

Perhaps if I can get some good work experience abroad, and perhaps improve my foreign language skills at the same time I will stand a better chance of finding the kind of role I want on my return.

I have not made up my mind one way or the other at the moment, but the way things are going it really looks like I’m going to be going away for awhile.