The job market

I was a little thrown off today when my classmates started talking about applying for jobs. Like, now. For October 2007. Apparently it's the high season for sending in your 'CV' to the different companies, who will collect a few resumes, and then start narrowing down and will perhaps decide by Easter who they want to hire. The CVs themselves are two-pages, not one, and include a summary of extra-curricular activities. Supposing you get an offer, you will, I kid you not, most likely receive 'a golden hello', which is just a signing bonus but has a most amusing name, which vary in amount but a good one for my fellow graduates would be about 4000 pounds. We were told during our program induction that the graduates are in demand and everyone who wants one should be able to get a job rather easily. We'll see how it goes. I might also add that they will expect to receive approximately 5 to 6 weeks of paid vacation every year, in addition to 8 bank holidays.

Now, something that I find strange. Southampton is considered within commuting range of London. It is an 80-minute train-ride, plus however long it takes you to get from Waterloo to your place of work. That seems like a bit much, but apparently the combination of higher wages in London and lower cost of living down here makes it at least somewhat worthwhile. I might add that Bournemouth is considered too far for said daily commute, but all the major cities (aka, the cities that have relatively direction routes to London) along the south coast that are east of here are all commuting cities. And much like many people in the US, many people here seem to dig the idea of working in London 'just for a year or two', of course most Americans would probably at least live within Greater London. All in all, it's just kind of something I have a tough time getting a firm understanding of. I might also add that if you work for Transport for London one of the perks is free travel on all London transit, which could add up.