this isnt going to be very well written or coherent but:

look, I'm not trying to be the classic reactionary STEM grad who feels entitled to a high-paid tech position because I stumbled through three years of lectures. I'm not that. I've done a couple of years since graduating in hospitality work and that was generally horrible/couldn't get enough hours to pay rent/got misgendered whenever my bosses were having a bad day. Now that sector is in big trouble too so there aren't any jobs going, even if i could stomach going back into it. And apparently chef's work is a black mark on your CV and a lot of employers will write you off based on that anyway?

people say "networking is more important than qualifications". Well, that's great, but as someone who comes from a working class family, I have no idea how to do that, and never knew it was necessary until after the period I was apparently given the greatest opportunity to do it (university). and now it's like, what, am I just supposed to message people on LinkedIn out of the blue begging for work? with no experience? Where do I even begin with that?

I would love to work on the railways or in local government or something but I don't hear anything back from those roles. My best asset is that I spent 2 years setting up a tenant union in a major city, but apparently that's not good enough to even get an interview for support worker role at a charity that literally supports tenants and homeless people. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Every time I get close to a job, it always ends the same way - interview, feel like I did well, get a call back a couple of days later saying "thanks but somebody else had more experience". My experience was literally on my CV, if it wasn't enough then don't waste my time calling me in to interview!

thanks for reading