{"id":31210,"date":"2025-07-29T06:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T06:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31210\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T06:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T06:36:14","slug":"swansea-university-graduate-applied-for-646-roles-before-getting-a-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31210\/","title":{"rendered":"Swansea University graduate applied for 646 roles before getting a job"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beth Alaw Williams<\/p>\n

BBC News<\/p>\n

Caitlin Morgan describes the emotions of an 18-month job hunting journey after graduating from Swansea University<\/p>\n

After applying for more than 600 jobs, university graduate Caitlin Morgan almost felt like giving up hope of finding employment.<\/p>\n

Just as she was becoming demotivated, the 23-year-old’s persistence was rewarded as she was offered a job as a trainee accountant after her 647th application.<\/p>\n

But after 18 months of job hunting, Caitlin was left wondering if going to university for four years and getting a degree was worth it.<\/p>\n

Latest research from the Institute of Student Employers shows competition for graduate roles is at a “record high” as estimates suggested there were 1.2 million applications for 17,000 graduate vacancies last year.<\/p>\n

Setting herself a target of sending two applications a day, Caitlin was immediately rejected 150 times without feedback and did not hear back from 271 other applications.<\/p>\n

She said: “I put so much effort into my applications and so much time that when I didn’t hear back from them that I just wondered what made my application not worthy of feedback?”<\/p>\n

Caitlin completed a year in industry as part of her finance and accounting degree at Swansea University and hoped it would help her stand out when applying for roles.<\/p>\n

Instead, she has a spreadsheet filled with rejections dating back to September 2023. <\/p>\n

“I worked hard for my degree and had experience so was thinking, was it worth it?<\/p>\n

“There was a period where I was feeling completely demotivated and didn’t believe in going to university or getting degrees.”<\/p>\n

\"Caitlin<\/p>\n

After 18 months of job hunting, Caitlin finally got a job as a trainee accountant in London and will start in September<\/p>\n

Caitlin thinks the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by companies as part of their filtering process could be a reason why she did not get very far in some applications.<\/p>\n

She said initially her CV was not written in a way that could be read by some resume screening programmes where AI is used to read CVs.<\/p>\n

“I was just getting straight rejections whereas after adjusting it, sometimes you’d be invited to an assessment after you’ve applied,” said Caitlin. <\/p>\n

“Had I have known that from the get go, that would’ve helped me with my other applications.”<\/p>\n

She reached the assessment stages for 221 of the roles she applied for and had five final interviews before getting a job.<\/p>\n

Latest data estimates an average of 140 applications were received for each available graduate job in 2024. <\/p>\n

The Institute of Student Employers spoke to 145 companies that hired almost 40,000 new students and the body said applications were the highest for 30 years – a more than 50% rise from 2023.<\/p>\n

The figures showed that for finance roles like the ones Caitlin applied for, an average of 188 applications were submitted for each role.<\/p>\n

Following months of uncertainty after graduating last year, Caitlin has been offered her first degree-level job and will move from her home in Tintern, Monmouthshire, to London to become a trainee accountant in September.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Caitlin was one of about 465,000 students that graduated with a degree from a UK university last year<\/p>\n

“It was exactly what I wanted and is offering all the courses I want to do in finance,” she said. <\/p>\n

“I just wished it would’ve happened a bit quicker.”<\/p>\n

Despite Wales having the lowest proportion of graduates in the UK workforce, the group that represents universities believes the demand for graduate-level skills will grow by 2035.<\/p>\n

“While we recognise that today’s job market presents real challenges for many people, research shows that a degree continues to boost lifetime earnings, career prospects and personal development,” said a Universities Wales spokesperson.<\/p>\n

“University offers a transformative experience that not only benefits individuals but also strengthens our communities and economy.”<\/p>\n

Thousands more students are now preparing to follow in Caitlin’s footsteps this summer.<\/p>\n

Huw Williams is getting ready to start his role as Bangor University Student Union’s Welsh officer for 12 months, before returning to education next year.<\/p>\n

\"Huw<\/p>\n

Huw Williams says some of his friends from Bangor University are “struggling” to find work in the area<\/p>\n

“I think I’ll apply to be on a teachers’ training course in history, a career pathway I’ve always been interested in,” said the 21-year-old.<\/p>\n

While Huw knows what the next year looks like for him, the future is not so clear for fellow Bangor graduate Alaw Simpson.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old is returning home to nearby Anglesey where she hopes to find her first graduate-level job.<\/p>\n

She said: “I want to move on from education and try something different.<\/p>\n

“It is a worry because it can be very difficult to find professional jobs these days.”<\/p>\n

\"Alaw<\/p>\n

As she prepares to graduate, Alaw Simpson has started looking for jobs at home on Anglesey <\/p>\n

Recruitment experts have said many employers now focus on attitude and personal behaviour.<\/p>\n

“Getting your first job post-education is the biggest step because you might not necessarily have a lot of experience,” said James Fortnam of Robert Half Recruitment.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s a lot of noise with employers with a sheer number of applicants for an opportunity, so it’s really difficult for clients to whittle that down.<\/p>\n

“It’s really important applicants tailor their CV to the opportunity.”<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

Many companies use AI to help with recruiting, according to recruitment expert James Fortnam<\/p>\n

Mr Fortnam has said some firms use technology to help assess applicants’ skills.<\/p>\n

“Companies will use software tools to match somebody’s CV to the job,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Because they won’t have had huge volumes of experience, typically a lot of graduates sometimes appear lower on that matching capacity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beth Alaw Williams BBC News Caitlin Morgan describes the emotions of an 18-month job hunting journey after graduating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[45,49,48,124],"class_list":["post-31210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}