"Not enough experience"

“Not enough experience” That’s what they told me.

I thought I had it all, the confidence, a university degree, living in London and work experience. Let’s not forget the life experience from living away from home. But nothing can really prepare you for a recession when you’re age 18 to 24.

Soon as I left University I came back to London with a student debt. I applied for jobs and after a few months I was contacted for an interview and I was offered a trail in a marketing role for a branding company. After 2 and a half weeks of being told I was good enough for the job by my potential boss I was contacted by the general manager for an interview and was told that because of the recession they can find some one with more experience in the industry whom would have more contacts than just a graduate.

It was a shock to me, I felt that they were wrong to kept me strung along for that long as I believed that my experience was actually worth something. The follow 6 months turned into a cycle of trips to the job centre and applying online, sending my C.V, calling people. This would usually turn out the same outcome, either no response or a letter with the dreaded one-liner “Not enough experience”. I did get 2 interviews but I was told I was one of many candidates.

This took a knock on my confidence as I was applying for even the entry level jobs. The same thing was happening to my friends who were repeating my story. Some eventually settled on taking the odd Christmas job and seeing where they could take it from there.

I was eventually contacted by the JobCentre and told about the Future Jobs Fund (FJF) and was told that this new government scheme would be beneficial to me.

I applied for a Marketing position with Novas Group then just after Christmas I was called in for an interview.

In the interview I was asked what I wanted to get out of working for Novas Scarman, “I told them some credible experience that I could put on my C.V. and the chance to use my skills and knowledge before they slowly slip away”

I have been working for Novas Scarman for a few weeks now, I have been working with small team of 3 members also (FJF) candidates working on the marketing and development of Novas Scarman. I have been given the chance to work solo on some projects.

Victor Ohene 23